You Hee Yeol's Sketchbook (2009)

Explore all sorts of music deeply w/a genuine, affable host harmonious w/new&veteran artists alike

Are there no comments and reviews because it's so well-known or the opposite, I wonder?

In case someone comes around here and the latter is the case (they don't know anything about this program), well, I'm truly underqualified to review it as I have NOT been watching this decade long piece of music history unfold and have perhaps seen far fewer episodes than others who have thrown their rating up their, even! I can't honestly even SAY how many I've seen because as a show that isn't linear and doesn't require starting at any given point, I arrived the same way as the majority of non-Koreans and maybe younger Koreans alike: I liked a musician/song, looked it up on YT where this show has a prominent presence (yay! I like supporting the shows the legal way so I heart networks when they DO put shows up there!), and a clip from this show happened to be the absolute best OF that song online by a WIDE margin. I loved the interview style, so I then went to the full episode, loved it (the subtitles have been excellent for episodes in the last 5 years or so, at least what I've caught), and periodically go back and watch more. Once in a while when something pops up in my feed the times I AM over on that part of the web, if I have some extra time or am doing light work and want something that doesn't require CONSTANT focus like most dramas I enjoy, well, what better than some music I can watch or just as easily skip past without anyone's feelings being hurt if I'm not feeling like hearing whatever is on (ie if I want to ease my stress, high energy stuff might not be it)?

Since music transcends language yet incorporates it very often, it's wonderful that I can tune in or out exactly as much as I wish-I can just hear the voice like a bird or I can listen to the words for their poetry and the story within them. While my Korean vocab is pretty good apart from some dialects tripping me up, lyrics are a WHOLE other ball game since the structure that took me so long to wrap my brain around gets reshuffled so my subjects and objects are all mysterious in songs and poetry because they are fitting things into rhymes and rhythms. Anyway, you don't need to know the language to enjoy the songs, BUT boy it's nice to have the translations for when something gets into your head/heart!

So why THIS music program over all the rest? Hmm, well, the host and the VARIETY are my reasons-I'm not young, so I don't know anything about bands, biases, fandom names, etc beyond Bigbang and two or three others quite vaguely. I do like, for the reason millions (hundreds of millions) do, an inexplicable reason, like Bigbang a lot-G Dragon looks like the friend-family "we're godparents of each other's youngsters" 'soul twin,' so seeing him on screen makes me sentimental for reasons unrelated to him entirely, but it turns out I dig his lyrical style, rapping (and to a lesser extent singing-he's better at the former), and of course catchy endearing dancing... but all the new ones? Lord, if they aren't in a Kdrama, I don't know them AT ALL. If they ARE in a Kdrama, I still don't know them AS a band member unless an aficionado informs me or they just can't act especially well yet despite the adoration in comments! The only exception might be Kang Daniel because he was memorable as a "Dangerous Beyond the Blankets" member, one of maybe 3 Korean 'reality?' shows I have watched start to finish. All to say... this isn't going to be Kpop boy and girl groups unlimited. They only have a few artists on each time and they give them ample time to shine and interact. THAT is its real difference. It's a bit more intimate, deeper, has a less crazy-loud audience (fans are there, for sure, but they aren't wailing and ruining the music too often though occasionally a young lady does, inevitably, melt down, lol!), and just feels WARM. Other shows to me feel like another exhausting performance they are anxious to get through and go home from. They seem to genuinely be really happy on this show, all of them, even the ones who seem prickly and frustrated on other shows from what I've seen here and there.

If you are at all interested in exploring Korean music, this is a brilliant show. If you don't know a thing about any of them, PERFECT. The mega idols and the small new indy duets with only 3 songs are truly treated as equals and you wouldn't know the veterans from the newcomers on here. THAT takes brilliance. The host is ideal for the role-he's sensitive to both music and the creators of it and has a finely tuned ear, so to speak, so as he listens he catches bits of improvisation to songs in the show, he and his team research to know an ample amount about the songs and performers, and of course he knows the instruments and music structure themselves so he starts off at an advantage. Still, somehow, he is not arrogant (in any eps I've watched), is incredibly approachable and affectionate towards his guests in how he speaks, and you can tell he genuinely admires their work, craft, etc. "It takes one to know one." I have heard mentions of the host's PAST experience but have no knowledge of him as a musician beyond his occasional impromptu seeming times playing along WITH guests (possibly very well-rehearsed though they've perfected making it look natural if so!). He's quite a sensitive player with a lot of style and ability to mesh with all sorts, it turns out, and match THEM not the other way around.

Simply put, this host is CREATING HARMONY in every sense-note to note, instrument to instrument, human to human. He's just in tune with the world's more sensitive beings and can create an atmosphere that makes guests WANT to harmonize with him, open up and just have a friendly talk like they've been friends since childhood and are now watching their kids grow up together. Whether the guest is a spritely giggly youngster who gets shy easily or a laid back easygoing middle aged peer, all of them quickly have this "we get you and you get us" sort of instant connection that kind of makes me miss when I was a musician. It was heaven and hell all in one. My hands and head (instrumentalist) said hell sometimes, but hitting the sweet perfect notes that fluttered like a bird sometimes, sounded an alert, or sounded haunting and haunted alike... when the mood and the tone and the general feel of the musician are all aligned, it's brilliant. It seems like his stage has some sort of magical effect that makes people much more able to do it than other places. Maybe it's all because of him or maybe there's someone backstage who is the real maestro, but it's freaking beautiful to see.

If I wasn't so dang addicted to kdramas or could follow the lyrics in their unusual patterns ie if my fluency could go beyond understanding NORMAL conversation and could venture into the land of unique to me symbolic word combinations and Kerouac-like rambling styles, I'd probably watch all 500+ episodes, but alas, when I have to say no to some 24 hours a week of Kdramas I'd love to be watching (and I only do primetime so that's 12 shows I can't see that I'd like to give a try!)... music from a faraway land takes the back burner because I DO know my actors and actresses and I DO have mild addictions to THEIR craft which just happens to be theatrical, not musical (though for some it is both, of course).

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