American Experimenters

– youtube sources
– its a compare contrast essay
– try to answers these questions
John Cage re-imagined the piano as a one-person percussion instrument. Choose an instrument that you find interesting (the human voice can count), and find 2-3 examples of musicians pushing the technical possibilities of that instrument beyond traditional limits. Describe the things they do? How do these new techniques expand into new areas of sound? Are these techniques just “gimmicks” or are they truly expressive? Please supply links to video or audio recordings of the pieces/songs you find.

-I uploaded my outline, try to use as much as you can

Julia Anne McBride

12-02-2020

Music Appreciation

Mark Benson

American Experimenters

1. Introduction
2. Artist

• Prince
• Brent Mason
• Sharon Isbin

1. Instrument

• Guitar

1. Genres

• Prince- pop/rock
• Brent Mason- country
• Sharon Isbin- classical

1. Thesis:

Some of the American’s most famous guitar are similar and very different in the way they perform, the guitar they use, and how each one of the contributed differently in their decade.

1. Summary of Prince:
2. Known for his most famous songs: “1999”, “Purple Rain”, and “when Doves Cry”.
3. Knows how to play lots of different kinds of instruments because of his father and his mother.
4. Died in 2016 from opioid overdoes.

• Summary of Brent Mason

1. Discovered by other country artist Chet Akins
2. Learned how to play the guitar by ear at age 5
3. Recorded songs with many different famous country artists, including, George Straight and Alan Jackson.
4. Summary of Sharon Isbin:
5. Has won 6 Grammys
6. Has appeared has a soloist for over 200 orchestras
7. Knows many different types of classical music
8. Compare Prince and Brent Mason
9. Both very goof guitarist
10. Have played with many famous people in their certain genres
11. Both have many albums published
12. Compare Prince and Sharon Isbin:
13. Both very good guitarist
14. Both know how to play lots of different kinds of instruments
15. Both have traveled the world multiple times.

• Compare Brent Mason and Sharon Isbin:

1. Both very good guitarist
2. Both have played very astonishing solos during performances
3. Both learned how to play guitar at a young age

• Contrast Prince and Brent Mason

1. Prince is a pop/rock guitarist while Brent is a country guitarist.
2. Brent knows how to play many different types of guitars while Prince knows how to play many different kinds of instruments.
3. Contrast Prince and Sharon Isbin:
4. Prince-pop/rock while Sharon is a classical guitarist.
5. Prince has had more albums published
6. Prince is dead and Sharon is still alive and publishing music
7. Contrast Brent Mason and Sharon Isbin:
8. Brent Mason is a country guitarist while Sharon is a classical guitarist.
9. Sharon has more Grammys, performances, and albums.
10. Sharon got lessons as a child while Brent learned to play by ear.
11. Conclusion:

The way that each artist performs, shoes how they want to put an effect on the world. Comparing and Contrasting the 3 very different artist showed that they all have much in common that you would think, but still have many differences.