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Dear Members, Recently I asked on our teacher's forum."Should we play classical piano as the composer intended?" This is how I was taught classical piano in the 1960's by two teachers who both had Master's in Music Ed and piano their instrument. I got back 30 pages and loved and appreciated every word. I am now returning to classical piano after many years away so I wanted to know their opinions and suggestions... If any of you want some info on this let me know. I printed every word. Sandy B

Floyd Cramer style piano... Does anyone play this style and could help me understand the theory of his style please? Sandy B

Sorry I meant to post this elsewhere senior moment I guess. Sandy B

I play piano and many others instruments. I have
played with everybody from Dizzy Gillespie to
Donald Byrd and the Blackbirds. All by ear and sight.
Check out my site www.music-for-the-soul.com
I have a natural sense of pulse and I try to find
the right notes. I call it the Mother tone. I have an unorthodox style of playing the piano.
I grew up hearing and watching old Nicklelodeons
and trying to play 4 handed parts. I produce
BIO-SONIC cd's that help the balance the hemi-spheres of the brain. Playing the piano by ear is
harder than with your fingers

I had a look at the site - highly entertaining -thankyou. I guess it is my stupidity, but I couldn't find any music to listen to - please help me. As a former biologist (Cambridge University.. the scientific equivalent of Dizzy Gillespie, I guess), I would be particularly interested in listening to music "tuned to DNA resonance"..

To 193866,

quote;-Floyd Cramer style piano... Does anyone play this style and could help me understand the theory of his style please? Sandy B

Please could you help me hear his style I may have heard it but cannot remember.

Kind regards,

Alan (swingal)

Alan - if you have access to youtube - search on his name and you will find several clips - in fact even easier - here is a link for you..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM2OJZn5Kkw
I think this is very distinctive of his style.
If you have any problem with the link, let me know
regards
tom

PS- I just noticed we seem to have crossed threads here:)
Tom

HI, I AM RAJOO FROM INDIA.THIS FORUM IS REALY VERY INFORMATIVE TO ME. I AM ALSO INTERESTED IN BUYING A PAIR OF CM 30 CUBE MONITOR SPEAKER OF ROLAND FOR MY DP FP-5 OF ROLAND.I WOULD APRECIATE ANY COMMENTS/SUGGESTION REGARDING THIS UPGRADE.MY QUESTION IS WHAT IS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POWERED SPEAKER OR STUDIO MONITOR OR REGULAR KEYBOARD SPEAKER? I WANT FOR MY PERSONAL PRACTICE PURPOSE AND FOR ROOM AREA APPX.225 SQ.FT. CM 30 CUBE IS 30 WATT POWER. WEATHER IT IS SUFFICIENT FOR MY ROOM AREA?I WILL GO FOR PAIR FOR STEREO.OR ANY R MONITOR? CM-30 HERE IN INDI AVAILABLE @US$350/- FOR PAIR.PL HELP ME AS I DONT HAVE CHOICE TO COMPARE WITH ANY OTHER SPEAKER.PL YR ADVICE AND SUGGESTION WILL HELP ME IN MY SELECTION. THANK U ALL IN ADVANCE AND PL NOTE I DONT KNOW ENGLISH WELL SO PL DO NOT MIND MY LANGUAGE.

HI I AM RAJOO FROM INDIA. I AM SORRY IT IS WRONGLY POSTED MY POST SO PL EXCUSE ME

Hi swingal

I'd love to be totally pure like you...absolute pitch is something I definitely don't have .

But, I'm still in the process of learning how to play by ear (nearly 4 years now).

For the first year or so I used lead sheets to help me a lot...but, they seemed to hamper my progress and much of what I memorized back then is lost in the mist of time.

I rarely look at a lead sheet nowadays and haven't done for the past few years. There is still much for me to learn and many, many songs I still cannot figure out for the life of me that I dearly want to (grrr!).

But, I seem to be still making steady progress day by day with my "by ear playing", I have to say that I have good days and I have bad days but, I can literally play hundreds of songs now by ear and I dearly love it and as a result I seem to get more addicted to this darned "piano thang" by the day .

However, I still have this nagging inner obsession to play jazzier and in a more cocktail/lounge style (than I do presently) and this is one area where it seems to me you need a huge knowledge of scales mixed in with a whole heap of really complicated stuff (that I don't have).

I just wanted to ask you... can you pick up the jazzy sounds say that Doug McKenzie plays on his youtube videos (man I love the way that guy plays) and copy that without knowing the theory?

Take a look at "Laura" for instance:-

Doug McKenzie playing Laura in a way me soooo likey {{click}}

Where he explains everything that he does as he goes along (all of which goes woooosh completely over my head! ). Can you just pick what he plays there out in an instant and play it similarily to him or is that too tricky?


regards


Lee

hello Lee,

You have picked a 'good' one here. Laura is very difficult to copy. I start on Eb and follow on from there. The theme is far from easy and this is why Doug McKenzie gives the help on the chords. Like you,they mean nothing to me either.

This song is full of what I think are minor key variations. It baffles many singers too. I have played along with an Erroll Garner recording of it which is OK for the general theme learning. Remarkably,he is not using one of his abstract keys this time!

I do not get too interested about playing this song. As it is very hard to play straight,let alone with jazz style added.

Yes, I find playing along a very good way to practice and it sharpens up the natural subconscious brain functions, as that is how I play.

Laura, is not often jazzed up, I can see why. It is more of a romantic ballad perhaps?

Regards,

Alan (swingal)

ktom.

Thanks for your help. I have registered with youtube and when time allows which is a rare commodity in my muddled retirement will visit it more deeply.

I like Floyd Cramer too and his recordings are nice simple jazz with a good swing style.

Alan

Hi Alan

Sorry it wasn't meant to sound like a test or anything

And maybe Laura was a bad example

All I wanted to know was are your ears good enough to create those jazzy chords without the theory.

The reason I was asking is because I have noticed that after learning to play by ear my ear is getting keener but, nowhere near keen enough to recreate the sounds Doug makes without having to learn the theory (learning theory is my major sticking point as I can't read music and is probably never going to happen to be honest)

And I suppose I was hoping that with all your years of playing that you could recreate those sounds not knowing the theory behind it

I'm guessing from what you say that you can do a pretty good job of it...which I think is rather kool if you can ...so maybe there's hope for me getting there someday without having to knuckle down and learn the theory?

Hope you get the recording thing sorted out soon cause I for one am bursting to hear you play and you'd be amazed how much can be picked up by questioning what you did and where if we get to listen to you play .


Lee

When you speak of creating those "jazzy chords", if you're like me, first you hear them (usually by listening to someone else playing them) - and they grab you in a certain way - I said to myself "Wow! That was Fantastic! What was that?" At the time I didn't know what it was - or what to call it - I just knew that I liked it - I wanted to hear more. I wanted to be able to play like that. As I listened more, I started trying to recreate those sounds - learning to recognize the sounds. Learning what to do to a chord to reproduce the sounds - how to voice the chords - what voices to add, what to leave out. Its at this point you begin to understand them - the theory part. It helps you organize your knowledge and your preferences. Then you start to learn to associate sounds with names - a m7b5 chord has a distinct sound - different from a m7b9 - totally different from a m7+9, which is totally different from a 7+5 chord - and on it goes. Its an evolutionary sort of thing. Enjoy the ride.

I was thinking of starting a style of music teaching which emphasizes the study of theory, technique, and improvisation rather than sight-reading and memorization of repertoire.

Perhaps a new breed of musicians could come of this.

pianojazz...its a pity that you don't live next door


thanks guys


Lee

Yeah, you don't need to able to read to understand theory, but examples are most easily given in sheet music notation. Now that webcams are so common, maybe we could make our own collection of lessons and put them on YouTube.

Dear Reaper978, The style 0f piano teaching you are considering has my vote. Most pianist go the tradional route, I did, to study the classics, etc. Some people do not want to study that many years. I know a piano pro who can play in all 12 keys , on command, he knows all advanced music theory. I studied with him for 6 months to learn gospel style piano... for my own fun. He cannot read a note of music. He made enough money as a full time performer that he paid for his beautiful home ,in full, in 7 years... on the Baptist Gospel Circuit, playing piano. Many piano talents to be developed who do not need classical training. Your idea has a market for certain... Sandy B

The best jazz teacher I ever had taught me a very specific jazz progression that helped immensely. It's the old ii-V-I but with a couple of twists so that its ii9-V13-IMaj7. Play the ii in first inversion, play the V as a 13th chord as 7,3,6 (or 7,9,3,6) and the I as a Maj9 in first inversion.

Key of C: dm9, G13, CMaj9

If you use the above inversions (with right hand),it should feel very comfortable to the hand with minimal movement - no jumping around with the chords. I still practice this progression in several keys and use it in a lot of songs.