Piano Players Arise!

HiDesertHal

HiDesertHal

Senior Member
Location
Southern California's High Mojave Desert
Hey...what's your Piano Style...Rachmaninoff or Jerry Lee Lewis?

My Parlor Grand likes it when I play those great songs from the Great American Musical Theater, from composers such as Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others.

I'm talking about those great melodies from shows such as Oklahoma, South Pacific, Carousel, Showboat, The Sound of Music, The King and I, and a few others.

Since I don't read music, I've committed many wonderful songs to memory, along with harmonic accompaniment from the chords.

This means I can only play in the keys of C and F.

HiDesertHal
 

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I've played everything from "Chopsticks" to Ferde Grofe to Boogie Woogie.

Mostly on our Marshall & Wendell baby grand which sat in our living room when I was growing up.

Parents tried TWICE to give me lessons but never got to speedread the music; so I played mostly by ear.

Now; No more piano; It went to my kids.
 
I've gone from a real piano to a touch sensitive keyboard. I like the keyboard.

I picked up reading music on my own, but in some ways it's a curse. Sheet music you can buy is mostly too simple, because simple sells to a wider audience. I can't seem to modify, or else don't have the patience. Never learned music theory. Also pieces I memorize seem to disappear from memory too soon to put in the effort. Ha!

As far as music, I like things that are a bit challenging to play but also easy listening. The latest one is Stairway to Heaven, arranged by Dan Coates. I tried to transcribe a nice arrangement of A Walk in the Black Forest, from watching this video in slow motion, but can't get the left hand down. Plus I'd have to add to it, because the performer has hooked two systems together to provide extra accompaniment. One of the most fun for me to play is Nola, by Felix Arndt. It's just about my upper limit, even playing it slower than most.
 
Hey Butterfly,

You are so right!

Cole Porter was urbane, sophisticated, and witty in his lyrics, which he wrote for his songs.

My favorite is "Begin the Beguine", which has some great lyrics. I love playing that classic on my Pianoforte!

I'll include an excerpt:

"I'm with you once more, under the stars,
And down by the shore an orchestra's playing,
And even the palms seem to be swaying,
When they begin the Beguine!"

HiDesertHal
 

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Hey Nancy,

That video of "A Walk In The Black Forest" shows the pianist playing "cheater" chords with his thumb for the bass.

This is a computerized shortcut to voicing the full chord, which always requires 3 or 4 fingers of the left hand on the keyboard.

You'll note when he modulated from the key of D to Eb...he moved his thumb up 1/2 step! He's a talented player, though.

"Nola" would require a slower approach for me too!

What helped me learn to play by ear is having a good vocabulary of Chords, which help in hitting the right notes in the melody...they sort of "suck you in" to the melodic line.

In fact, I'll go through a piece I'm learning by using the chords as my guide to the melody.

Sometimes when visitors hear me playing, I'll be playing no melody at all...just a chord progression, and they'll ask "What was that song? It sounds nice!"

I'll just tell them the truth...it was no song at all...just a string of Chords!

HiDesertHal
 
Hey Butterfly,

It seems that you are very compatible to me regarding musical tastes!

I think Cole Porter is the most sophisticated, witty, and urbane American composer we ever had. He wrote the music AND the lyrics, too!

George Gershwin is another of my favorite American theatre composers, but his brother Ira wrote the lyrics. His "Rhapsody in Blue" is timeless!

Dig this line from Cole Porter's "I get a kick out of you":

"I get no kick from Cocaine,
I'm sure that if
I took even one whiff
It would bore me terrifically too,
But I get a kick out of you!"

I happen to be currently polishing my piano version of "Begin the Beguine".

Yours Musically,
HAL
 
"You go to my head and you linger like a haunting refrain and I find you spinning around my brain
Like the kicker in a julep.............or two. You go to my head like a sip of burgundy brew and I find you
la la la etc.
 
Hey Falcon,

That's a great recall of that old standard "You Go To My Head"!

That line goes ".....like a sip of sparkling burgundy brew, etc"

You seem to like the old standards, like Butterfly and myself!

We should have a conference, including Butterfly, Nancy, Lara, and Shalimar, and bring back all those Evergreens that we like!

HDH
 
Well I like REAL music.

The crap you hear anymore is just noise! Thumpa, thumpa, thumpa......and much too loud!

The navy can't even find good sonar operators anymore; their hearing is shot.
 
Falcon said:
I liked to try difficult things. I finally mastered "The Flight of the Bumble bee" and

of course, the subsequent "Bumble Boogie.

But I prefer Ferde Grofe's "On the Trail" and The Hall of the Mountain King.

Remember, "On the Trail" was the theme song for Phillip Morris cigarettes.?
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Falcon, I learned the first two Bumble B songs, too. :) Tried to learn all the parts of The Nutcracker Suite, and I believe it was The Arabian Dance, that did me in---the timing.:p I gave up the piano for years after that song. (Also happened to be near the time I left home, and the piano couldn't come with me. :()
 
HiDesertHal said:
Hey Butterfly,

You are so right!

Cole Porter was urbane, sophisticated, and witty in his lyrics, which he wrote for his songs.

My favorite is "Begin the Beguine", which has some great lyrics. I love playing that classic on my Pianoforte!

I'll include an excerpt:

"I'm with you once more, under the stars,
And down by the shore an orchestra's playing,
And even the palms seem to be swaying,
When they begin the Beguine!"

HiDesertHal
Click to expand...

Beguine the Beguine is one of my favorites, too. Others are So in Love (from Kiss me Kate, I think) and In the Still of the Night. Actually I love almost everything he ever wrote.
 
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