Paul Elwood

I thought today was an interesting class period. Paul was a pretty good speaker. I really enjoyed listening to his music; it almost reminded me of like African or Indian music, the kind where the snake slithers up through the top of the basket and the musician is usually playing a flute. Even though it was a banjo, the beginning of the music before he started to sing and all reminded me of that. But other than that, he talked about many famous composers; some that he knew, some he was able to trace back to, and others just in general. It sounds like he has been all over the world; Moscow, Russia, many different states in the U.S., and he will be going to Africa sometime soon too. He has been composing for about 30 years or a little more. He had a very good activity to try to teach us a little bit more about composing and how to come about it and have an open mind. He knew a lot about what he was talking about and is a very good banjo player.