[Applause]
I began saying the Denbo with my master
sotnik tang nearly 16 years ago
practicing every day of every summer
non-stop the danbo was a traditional
Vietnamese instrument long associated
with street musicians and beggars it
does use a clever plucking technique
that uses what physicists called
harmonics by placing the bass my pinky
at different harmonic nodes I can divide
the wavelength of the string and two
halves thirds fourths etc each of those
creates a distinct pitch then with a
flexible rod I can move that pitch up
and down
mastery of the danbo however is not so
much about these technical skills it’s
about Vietnamese cultural memory for me
it’s about remembering what my
grandparents played there a favorite
guilin operas it’s about cheesy ChaCha’s
and venes karaoke bars they’re pretty
good it’s about nostalgic ballads sung
by desperate Vietnamese refugees that
said if playing the Denbo was meant to
be a reflection of Who I am then there’s
a little something missing because
where’s the snoop and Dre all right
where’s Tupac where’s Prince where’s
beyoncé queen bee all right well all the
music that has been important to me
growing up as a child in the United
States and North Carolina and also all
the music that I hear on the radio today
all right all these all these songs and
all this music is equally definitive of
Who I am
just like the Vietnamese music is so
that’s how so gook my moniker and
YouTube channel was born both as a way
to pay respects to Vietnamese cultural
memory and also as a way to stretch the
limits of genre and style as a metaphor
for the messiness of social identity so
tonight I like to present with you two
new songs that literally just produced
like last week but they’re based on on
some Vietnamese tunes that are quite old
the first is Lola which is a song from
the hot Jo tradition which is a northern
Vietnamese opera tradition the second is
a rendition of
lequel chai which is a song sung by
fishermen in south vietnam whenever they
went out to nets
they wanted to have a rhythm for their
netting so this is what they played so
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
Thank You sis nay Thank You TEDx in the pleasure
I began saying the Denbo with my master
sotnik tang nearly 16 years ago
practicing every day of every summer
non-stop the danbo was a traditional
Vietnamese instrument long associated
with street musicians and beggars it
does use a clever plucking technique
that uses what physicists called
harmonics by placing the bass my pinky
at different harmonic nodes I can divide
the wavelength of the string and two
halves thirds fourths etc each of those
creates a distinct pitch then with a
flexible rod I can move that pitch up
and down
mastery of the danbo however is not so
much about these technical skills it’s
about Vietnamese cultural memory for me
it’s about remembering what my
grandparents played there a favorite
guilin operas it’s about cheesy ChaCha’s
and venes karaoke bars they’re pretty
good it’s about nostalgic ballads sung
by desperate Vietnamese refugees that
said if playing the Denbo was meant to
be a reflection of Who I am then there’s
a little something missing because
where’s the snoop and Dre all right
where’s Tupac where’s Prince where’s
beyoncé queen bee all right well all the
music that has been important to me
growing up as a child in the United
States and North Carolina and also all
the music that I hear on the radio today
all right all these all these songs and
all this music is equally definitive of
Who I am
just like the Vietnamese music is so
that’s how so gook my moniker and
YouTube channel was born both as a way
to pay respects to Vietnamese cultural
memory and also as a way to stretch the
limits of genre and style as a metaphor
for the messiness of social identity so
tonight I like to present with you two
new songs that literally just produced
like last week but they’re based on on
some Vietnamese tunes that are quite old
the first is Lola which is a song from
the hot Jo tradition which is a northern
Vietnamese opera tradition the second is
a rendition of
lequel chai which is a song sung by
fishermen in south vietnam whenever they
went out to nets
they wanted to have a rhythm for their
netting so this is what they played so
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
Thank You sis nay Thank You TEDx in the pleasure
Please follow and like us: