Comments on: Discussion

By: Kiley Mahoney

Kiley Mahoney — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 02:55:33 +0000

My name is Kiley Mahoney and I am a Penn student currently enrolled in Arab Choir. I am incredibly impressed by this website and how easy it made it for someone like me, with only a Western musical background, to learn a song like Nassam ‘alayana al-hawa, that really captures the unique beauty of Arabic music. My favorite part of the website, and the feature that I found most useful in learning the song, was the ability the user has to isolate the strings, percussion, or vocals of the song in learning mode. Furthermore, I liked how the same formatting of the music is used in the ‘play and sing’ mode because it is one that the user has already become familiar with through the ‘learn’ feature which makes for a very easy transition. As someone who can find themselves intimidated by technology, I was worried at first that I would find the website too confusing and would have to just watch a youtube video of the song and lyrics. I was completely surprised to find that this was not the case and can’t imagine how else I would have completed my recording of this song without the website. Overall, it felt very similar in ways to the way we had learned new songs in our traditional class setting because it took everything one step at a time, making sure that you have every component of the song down–rhythm, lyrics, diction– rather than rushing to a complete performance.

By: Bridget O'Leary

Bridget O'Leary — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 01:36:07 +0000

As a person without any musical background I found this website extremely helpful in completing my assignment. With all the features available like listening to the pronunciation of the lyrics and the music that went with it my experience learning the song was quick and easy. I would definitely recommend this to anyone trying to learn Arabic music becuase there are so many tools to help you learn even if you do not know anything about music or the language. With that being said, my process of learning the song consisted of listening to it to get a general idea of how it went, then I listened to the dictation and the instruments that went with it, after enough practice I was belting out the song on my own. Overall, I had a great experience and look forward to learning more songs in the future!

By: Valentina Rodriguez

Valentina Rodriguez — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:19:42 +0000

While I was not able to use this educational tool, the lyrics sheet and the youtube video were helpful in learning the song with alot (ALOT) of repetition. Overall enjoyed learning the music on my own!

By: Onyi Iwuchukwu

Onyi Iwuchukwu — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:17:38 +0000

I am a student at the University of Pennsylvania currently in the Arabic Choir class. I used this site to learn the song Nassam Alayna. I was really worried about learning the pronunciations to the words in the song but this website made it easier to learn them. The breakdown of the words into syllables and the ability to rewind helped me to take my own notes and pronounce the words. Listening to the song with diction only and then the vocals was very helpful to learning the song as well.

By: Lorenzo Castellanos

Lorenzo Castellanos — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:08:57 +0000

I am a Penn student currently enrolled in Arabic Ensemble’s choir. I have always been interested in Arab culture and language, so I was decently surprised when I discovered I could learn more about it through music. I never thought I would be able to pronounciate, even less sing, in Arabic without having a professor go through it with me. This tool made it extremely easy not only to get the pronunciation right, but also to discern words and be able to compare them in English. This platform is helpful for music professionals as well as for newbies such as me. I will definitely continue to use it in the future!

By: Jamila Abouelenin

Jamila Abouelenin — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 20:54:06 +0000

I am a Penn student currently enrolled in Arabic Ensemble’s choir. As an Egyptian, this class was very interesting and educational! Arabic is my mother language and I take it for granted. This class has helped me greatly apprieciate both my language and my culture. Through my exposure to these very influential yet almost forgotten songs, I have come to see my identity as an Arab in a new light. Concerning this website, the “About the Song” section has significantly helped me in gaining a new more profound understanding of the music and the significance of this music.

By: Yasmine Sheikh Amin

Yasmine Sheikh Amin — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 20:45:24 +0000

I am a student in Professor Khuri’s Arabic Choir Class at the University of Pennsylvania. I found the tools on this website very useful in helping me learn the song Nassam Alayna. I don’t have much knowledge regarding how to read sheet music, but I did previously have some exposure to Arabic music while growing up. I was familiar with Nassam Alayna prior to the class, but I could have never imagined myself singing it properly, hitting most of the notes and such. This website helped me learn the song given my limited knowledge about sheet music. Through the many tools available especially those that allow you to add and take away certain elements while learning the song, I was able to separate the various layers of percussion, vocals, and diction, which helped me better learn it. I usually have trouble keeping up with the pace and rhythm but I found that singing along with the backing track as it moves along helps me stay focused and aware while I was moving between sections both when I was learning, rehearsing and recording myself.

By: Sabina London

Sabina London — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 20:17:41 +0000

I am student in Music 007 at UPenn. The educational tools were very very helpful in learning this song. I very much enjoyed this experience of learning the song. It was easy to follow along the music even without much of a musical background and help me get the right diction.

By: Merobi Degefa

Merobi Degefa — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 19:46:59 +0000

I’m a student of Hannah Khuri’s Arabic choir class at the University of Pennsylvania. I used the online tool to learn “Nassam ‘Alayna Al-Hawa”. I found the tool very useful. I found the ability to select for diction especially helpful as I don’t speak Arabic. Since, I don’t have practice singing and have a hard time staying on beat the moving cursor really helped me stay on track. I’m excited to use this tool in the future to learn more songs and enjoy doing it too.

By: Sebastian Ochoa

Sebastian Ochoa — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 19:44:21 +0000

I am a student at the University of Pennsylvania taking Professor Hanna Khuri’s Arabic Choir class (MUSC 007-016). For this assignment, I was initially scared to use this tool because I had never taken a music class before or taken an Arabic class. Hence, I thought that it would be very difficult for me to learn this song by myself. I found this tool to be very helpful because it helped you with all the aspects of the song: dictation, vocals, percussion, etc. It definitely helped me learn the song and accelerated the learning process. Singing along the music helped me improve my dictation. This is a tool I would recommend for people who want learn songs in a fast way and perfection them. This was a positive experience and in some sort of way it resembled an in-person class.

The Arabic Choir class not only introduced me to a different genre of music, but it also showed me the aspects of a different culture. It was nice to learn about the Arabs and appreciate their music. This was a fun and engaging class from which I learned a lot.