On Wednesday we began our look at music with a discussion on the different components of music.  Rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, and texture were all mentioned, with timbre being the one that I was least familiar with.  Timbre, from what I understood in class, helps determine how many instruments are playing by identifying the characteristic sound that each instrument produces. Although I had heard of the other terms before, I never knew exact what they were, how to identify them, or their importance to music.  Listening to different songs being played, and discussing these different components and the roles they played in each, turned out to be the best way to change that.  Overtone was also something we discussed during Wednesday’s seminar and was a bit harder for me to comprehend.  However, after an example was produced through the use of a piano, it became much clearer.  Later in the class we were given sheet music, which I found to be very confusing considering I never learned to play an instrument and never had any interest in singing.  I was a bit disappointed because I expected to do more with the sheet music and hoped I would finally get to learn how to read it.  Instead, we went over some basic concepts that I feel I would have been able to figure out on my own.  On the other hand, what I really enjoyed about Wednesday’s class was our introduction to opera.  I thought looking at La Traviata after watching a film version of it was very interesting.  The comparison helped me appreciate opera and see how much more emotion there can be in an opera compared to a film or show.