Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum ABF Holiday Performances, (really nice holiday music from our members)

GrrMike2 - lovely indeed; have yourself a merry christmas too

Serge88 - I prefer the second one too; nice playing.

Thanks for sharing...

Started this song just this week...so cut me some slack...there's a few fat finger moves and the quality isn't so great, recorded it on an Olympus DS30

Let It Snow

Starts with rt block chords and melody in both hands...bridge needs more work...

Here's my contribution to the holiday recital.

This one is for Kawaigirl, I'd promised her a Christmas song today and this was what I was able to improvise and record this evening:

I\'ll Be Home for Christmas

The main emphasis of this piece is experimentation with texturally dense chord patterns. Let me know what you think.

Have been very busy lately, but hope to find time soon to listen and comment on everyone's submissions. Happy holidays, hope you like it, KG!

Monster, I like you arrangement very much - the syncopation adds a nice new twist to it. Very upbeat.

Van, I say your "experimentation" is a great sucess! It sounds sumptuous, flows beautifully, and has nice phrasing. I'd say it's one of my favorites of your playing so far.

Van,

I liked that one a lot, particularly the left hand....sounded like an exta phrase found it's way in there near the start, but not certain about that.

Good work!

Monster, nice swingy piece. I wanted to get up to dance

Van, that was a very nice improvisation. The piece flowed together very nicely. Well done!

Hope I'm not too late to the party, I've been very busy this season. Here are two contributions:

O Tannenbaun:

http://www.box.net/shared/exez5uhoz1

Pretty Paper:

http://www.box.net/shared/q2oziq5exk

Monster, that recording quality is better than I had expected to hear from a cheap voice recorder. I enjoyed your version of this classic. A bit on the short side, though . . .

Van, you certainly succeeded in making a dense arrangement. You also did a good job for the most part in bringing out the melody above the accompaniment. That is not easily accomplished with so dense an arrangement. I think I would prefer a bit faster tempo, but that is just my personal taste, and it would probably necessitate paring down the accompaniment somewhat. Good job.

Funky_Fred, you're never too late. Hey, I recognize that arrangement of Oh Tannenbaum. Nice job. Pretty Paper is one we really don;t hear that often. It's an under appreciated piece, I think. Nice job. It sounds like you may have added a bit to the sheet music, or were you playing by ear. Now where is my Willie Nelson Christmas CD? Yes, I really do have that album somewhere, El Niño (his newer Christmas album), as well. My wife loves Willie Nelson, and I must admit that as a youngster he was one of my favorites.

Funky_fred, very nice job on both. I haven't heard Pretty Paper before, but I like it very much.

Thanks for the kind remarks...workin' on lengthing it abit and shoring up the bridge.

FFred liked the chord changes in Pretty Paper.

Van nice job, enjoyed it.

KG GreenSleeves...another nice performance...

...thanks everyone, I appreciate the feedback.


SH - Loved all your pieces, Hunky. Greensleeves is always a favorite and you did it very well, definitely Greensleeves but distinctly SH, enjoyed the melody improv.

Peyton - Very pretty and from the heart. I'm envious of your voice, whenever I try to sing I sound like I have a head cold.

Matthijs - A little too experimental for my taste but I'm happy to see you still pushing the envelope. I think that stereo effect was a bit too strong, I listened to this with earphones initially and got a slight headache Other than that really liked your voicing and phrasing, very sophisticated/understated.

Tim - One of my favorites, Balladeer, such a nice lovely sound, mellow and effortless. A fine sketch of the song, just the absolute minimum of details needed to bring out the its beauty, you're a true artist. I very much enjoyed listening to your Silent Night as well, Tim; beautiful sophisticated voicing, again lovely and understated, classy performance.

C7 - What a lovely performance, Greg, you sounded totally relaxed and confident here, wonderful touch, very pleasing to listen to.

Mak - A nice performance. You should push yourself to try the harder version, you sound ready for it.

Monster M&H - I enjoyed all three of your pieces, I think It Must have been the Mistletoe is my favorite, what a rich sophisticated sound, really nice playing, you really could make a living playing bars (this is supposed to be a compliment ).

epf - Very nice, epf, enjoyed your phrasing. Was this an improvisation or from sheetmusic?

Elssa - What a lush confident performance, and with strings no less. Enjoyed listening to it.

Serge88 - You're brave to go video. Good performance and very interesting perspective on White Xmas. Enjoyed your Silent Night as well. Well played.

Mark - Beautiful performance. I've always loved greensleeves and you played it wonderfully here, a very stately performance (but too short!).

kawaigirl - One of my favorites. Have always loved this song and this version is excellent. Your playing is very beautiful, KG. You made the piano sound like a lute, an unvarnished arrangement that shows how beautiful this simple theme was, is and always will be.

I played it better at home - Very pretty arrangement...I can listen to this song in all its variations forever and not get tire of it. A lovely confident performance (you definitely need to change your name to something like "I Rock" ).

rustyfingers - Wow, what a pretty piece and so very well played. A lovely performance, rusty, you kept that tempo very well on a rather lengthy performance. Well played!

gaffster - a fun piece, and very evocative of what the holiday should be, too short though! Very much enjoyed your Holy Night piece as well, sure sounded like you had fun playing that one.

rocky - Big smile. It doesn't get more christmasy than this Thoroughly enjoyed your piece, straight and to the point.

Rosanna - Loved your performance of that Welsh piece, Rosanna. I think this is the first I've heard it and you've certainly made it sing; what a pretty piece but much too short! Very well played, I enjoyed listening to it.

Lee - I always enjoy your playing, and from the looks of it, I'm not the only one. Well done, looked like you had that crowd well in hand.

Dennis - Lovely performances on both pieces, Dennis. Definitely sing-alongable in that first piece. I liked those bent notes, slight touch of the blues, just enough to add interest without turning melancholy. A very interesting take on greensleeves; reminds me of Tim Hardin on piano (and that's a big compliment if you knew how much I like Tim's music)...this one is definitely melancholic, sounded like what the piano player would play at the end of the day when everyone have left and they're turning down the lights; a lovely performance, one of my favorites.

GRRMIKE2 - A gentle performance and to the point. Very nicely played. I enjoyed listening to it.

Debussy20 - OK Matt, you've totally ruined my image of you Looked like you had fun. Rock on dude!

Van - uhh, what Dennis said...

FunkyFred - Very well played on both pieces, I enjoyed listening to them, especially the second (more sophisticated voicing that you carried off very well). A confident relaxing performance. Well played!


....so are we up for a red-mistletoe award?

Umm...a little of both. I used sheet music for the basic melody, and then improvised the left hand, some of the notes in the right hand, and the phrasing/timing was from my own feel for the song.

Ed

Hello Everyone,

Here is my contribution to the Holiday Performance Bar. It is an improvised version of Silent Night. In case the arrangement sounds familiar the inspiration behind this improvisation was Mark Almond's Piano for Life DVD series where he has a similar arrangement. Anyway FWIW it is my attempt to further my development into the realm of improvisation.

http://www.box.net/shared/dxmio4n9n5

I posted my audio recording earlier this month, but here is the same recording paired with video clips I made of my holiday traditions. Consider it my video Christmas card to ABF.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Video Christmas Card

Very cute. I liked the drunken horsey!

Merry Christmas to you too.

From Suzanne (formerly known as Piano Rocks now Musictuary)

Musictuary, nice job on Silent Night. I like what you did with it.

Suzanne, your Silent Night was very nice.

GRRMIKE2, That Xmas video gave me lots of chuckles. Now I want to know who really drank that "martini"?

I love it ! I'm still laughing.