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Jaylene Garcia-Abrego Learning Typical Mariachi Songs {1048} Valley High School 2017

Table of Contents: The Goal…………………………………………….2 Selection of Sources……………………………….3 Application of Information………………………….4 Achieving the Goal………………………………….5 Reflection on Learning……………………………...6 Bibliography………………………………………….7

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The Goal: I’ve always been proud of my culture. I was able to see my sister perform in a Mariachi while she was in high school. I decided that I would join the Mariachi group at whatever school I attended. I have been thinking since freshman year what would my personal project would be about. Around March 2016, I decided that I would start a Corrido duo-a genre of Mexican musicbut I would need to find a Guitar player that is up for performing this genre of music in front of many people and I would learn the songs on the Accordion. I began to save money in order to buy the $600 accordion. In September of sophomore year, I came to the conclusion that I won’t be able to save up money by the desired time I had planned out. I decided to change my project to something a lot more affordable and cooler. I am currently in Intermediate Mariachi playing the violin and I choose to do my project on something Mariachi related. My new project was to learn 2 popular songs on the Violin and be able to perform it. I chose to learn 2 songs by Mariachi Vargas de Tenochtitlan, La Negra and El Cascabel. These songs are considered advanced songs due to the speed and difficulty of learning the songs. I plan to learn these songs and be able to perform it as a whole Mariachi which would include me on the violin, my friend on the guitar, a person on the Mariachi group who plays the guitarron and another person who plays the trumpet.

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Selection of Sources: The beginning of my project was quite difficult since I couldn’t exactly research how do to the entire project especially since it’s a musical project. A couple of weeks after getting the sheet music for both songs and being confused as to how the song is played, I would go on YouTube and look at tutorials published by a man named Taylor Fuentes, on how to play the songs. The more I played the songs and saw not only how Taylor would play the songs but I would see how random Mariachis on YouTube would perform them. I began to be more curious as to why they would wear the Charro outfits, where Mariachi started, why it became so popular in Mexico, and why female Mariachis are so rarely heard of. I needed to find a place where I can constantly view audio recordings of La Negra and Jarabe Tapatio so I would use YouTube every time I would practice the songs.

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Application of Sources: As I was starting my project, I came to the generalization that I would have little research due to my project being mostly independent and musical. Using the information I researched, I was able to be able to put it into my project. With the source of the video by Taylor Fuentes, I was able to play La Negra. Although at this certain point in time I am struggling a little bit with learning the harder parts of La Negra but I feel as if I will be able to get it done by Personal Project night. I was able to incorporate the history of mariachi music into my project by knowing that the violin, guitar and trumpet are European instruments and were brought to Mexico by the Spanish. Mexicans later made the vihuela and guitarron and were used in mariachis. I was also able to understand why charros were in mariachis and how the outfits were originally used. For as long as I could remember, I always wondered why mariachis would use gritos in their songs. I was able to understand why they did it and how to do a traditional grito. When I was confused as to what exact position my finger should go in, I would look up the different finger placing my fingers should go on the violin. Sometimes in La Negra and in Jarabe Tapatio, you would need to go down to 2nd position on the E string which means the notes would be higher. I was also curious as to why there is only 3 popular mariachi all-female groups around. I found out that the women in Flor de Toloache would have men whistle at them when they got on stage and didn’t

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see them as mariachis until they heard them play. It is very hard for all-female mariachis to become mainstream and heard on the radio. Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea is the only all-female mariachi to have been nominated and win a Grammy.

Achieving the Goal: Using the information i researched, I was able to be able to put it into my project. Since I still have time to work on my project, I would say there is still time to be able to get the songs down before Personal Project Night. So far I believe it is a success yet a failure at the same time. I believe it is a success because at this point in time I am very close to learning La Negra and close to memorizing the song. I consider this also a failure due to me giving up on El Cascabel and changing it to Jarabe Tapatio. I do believe that I will have both songs down by the time we need to present our projects.

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Reflection of Learning: Reflecting back on this project, I believe it will help me embrace my culture even more. I can now be able to perform these 2 songs with the mariachi group at any party I attend. From this project I was able to understand that playing the violin at fast speeds was not as easy as I thought. When I was deciding what songs to do I would look at mariachi performances and assume the song was easily playable. Experienced mariachis could make any song look easy to play. Jarabe Tapatio I believe is the same difficulty as La Negra due to the many slurs and the notes going from low to high rapidly.

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Bibliography: Alfaro, Lyanne. "How an All-Woman Mariachi Band is Owning the Genre." NBCNews.com. N  BCUniversal News Group, 23 May 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.

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Como Tocar Violín "El Son De La Negra" Pt. 1. Perf. Taylor Fuentes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUcyKy53C0w Taylor Fuentes, 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2016.

Como Tocar Violín "El Son De La Negra" Pt. 2. Perf. Taylor Fuentes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmg6k-Vcw7Q Taylor Fuentes, 9 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2016.

"Entry on the word mariachi from The Latino Encyclopedia." Entry on the word mariachi from The Latino Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2017. ELTUCO25. YouTube. YouTube, 23 July 2008. Web. 13 Mar. 2017. . "History Of The Mariachi". Mariachi.org.  N.p., 2017. Web. 13 Mar. 2017. "Mariachi Facts." Mariachi Facts . Interesting facts about Mariachi Musicians. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2017. PlanetEarthSound. YouTube. YouTube, 14 Sept. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUN9sX86ZwA Salinas, Brenda. "In Mariachi Music, A Distinctive Yell Speaks To The Soul." NPR. NPR, 23 Aug. 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2017. "Violin Online - Fingerboard Chart". Violinonline.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.

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