Although we think of it as just one thing, college is a different experience for everyone who goes.
On the one hand, there’s the basic difference between going to a full four-year college and going to community college. On the other hand, there’s a more basic difference between going to college for something like math or science and going to college for an artistic degree like music.
Though every academic discipline has its own unique challenges to face, those who study music, for example, may have some more spontaneous lessons with their own unique feel.
As it turns out, one viral video captured the feel of these spontaneous days so perfectly.
The video in question was uploaded to Sophie Fatu’s YouTube channel.
For those who don’t know, Fatu is a six-year-old singer who posts plenty of videos on her channel. Still, Fatu’s mom Victoria is also featured in many of the videos—including the most popular video on the whole channel!
That’s because Victoria is actually a music professor herself at West Virginia State University. As it turns out, someone in the classroom was filming the lesson that day.
The lesson Victoria was trying to teach her class was about deceptive cadence.
For anyone who doesn’t study music, the concept may sound a bit unusual.
Essentially, a deceptive cadence is a kind of interrupted cadence or pattern in music that leaves a feeling of emotion “hanging,” or somewhat unresolved at the end.
As the video goes on, Victoria shows a demonstration of the idea on a piano to the rest of the class. Still, they’re all definitely resistant to it. “Ok, but this doesn’t happen in music,” one student says. “When will we ever use this?” another asks.
At the end of it, Victoria insists that all kinds of musicians use this idea—even pop music.
After all of this, everyone says that they need an example from modern pop to understand it better.
Next, someone in class shouts out Justin Bieber’s name as a potential example—and Victoria says yes, Bieber uses this! She first demonstrates it on the piano by playing a little snippet of “Love Yourself.” At this point, the class is starting to get it. After that, the class challenges her to perform the whole thing! One of the students gets up in front with an acoustic guitar.
After a moment, it’s clear that they’re going to do the whole song!
Needless to say, Victoria’s voice is incredible—and all the other music students join in by beatboxing and drumming as well!
By the time they hit the chorus, Victoria’s voice is soaring and everyone in the room is getting into it! By the time they hit the main lyrics of the song, everyone in the classroom is harmonizing to it as well. Although we’ve probably all been in a few music classes before, few of them turn out like this one does!
Needless to say, this video has been hugely popular on YouTube with more than 20 million views!
Although music can be a complex topic to learn about in depth, this video shows how good teachers can make it accessible.
Even if you took piano lessons as a child and then stopped, there’s a good chance you still love music—even if you don’t have a huge conceptual understanding of it.
Beyond that, almost everyone likes a good pop song. If you’re looking to learn at least one musical concept and want an awesome performance along with it, this is the right video to check out.
Congratulations to Victoria Fatu on her awesome impromptu performance! Watch the full video below:
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