Folk Song Practice

Dahin and I are practicing the dongyo "San dokkaebi (Mountain goblin)" for participation in a song competition to be aired on KBS Chuseok day (Chuseok is kind of like thanksgiving; a harvest festival) in September.  We tape this coming Sunday! When KBS called, I decided to do it because 1) Dahin wanted to do it and 2) It's a 'multicultural family' event and I am doing research currently on the concept of 'multicultural' and how that is performed musically in Korea.  So, two birds, one stone.  Get to spend some quality time with Dahin and get some research done.  We're doing ok.  I'm working on sounding more "Korean" or at least like I know what I am doing singing a Korean folksong.  Dahin is working on putting more energy behind her voice.  In just a few days, we've both improved a bit, but have a lot of room for growth. One of our dept.'s graduate students is working with us on it.  We decided to do Korean children's folk song (dongyo) because it is a traditional Korean holiday, I teach in a dept of Korean music, and it is short and relatively simple. They said we could not do pop songs, and right now Dahin's singing style is very pop songish.  I wanted to do a song she could confidently perform without having to do too many vocal tricks.  My hope is that I will NOT be playing the changgo the day of the filming.  Jack will request that they have a changgo player performing--it's just a regular part of that song to have a bit of percussion interspersed with the singing.   Preparing this song and doing it well has been way harder than I thought--props to the intricacies of Korean folk song.   The lyrics are kind of like this (sloppy English translation):

On one moonlit night, I was walking a long a steep mountain path
When I saw a dokkaebi with a horn on his head, holding a club, eryuwa dung dung

(percussion break)

I was so surprised!  Absolutely, without a doubt, it was a san dokkaebi
Oh my gosh, what to do?  I just closed both my eyes tight, eryuwa dung dung

(percussion break)

Chorus (do twice):
Will that mountain dokkaebi try and catch me?!?  My heart is beating so loud!
Oh, just walk!!  Help me!!!

I ran away so fast if I were an animal I would have left my tail behind!

(percussion break)

Eryuwa dung dung is a vocable, kind of like 'hey-ya'  or 'yeah yeah'  that keeps the melody and rhythm going. Oh--they did construction on my office this summer and have yet to fix the wallpaper.  So, it really looks a mess at the moment.  Enjoy the amateur performance!