Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum April Piano Bar Is Definitely Open

Due to technical difficulties the piano bar is cancelled definitely open this month .... April Fool's not withstanding.

So, go ahead and post stuff like this:

The Fool on the Hill

P.S. Happy April Fool's Day
P.P.S. Apologies for the vocals ... it's really just outside my range.

Haha, good one! Enjoyed your submission too - nice job!

Elaine

ANDY Perfect opening to the "cancelled" April Piano Bar! I loved it! Great playing and I thought your vocals were splendid!

P.S. My first try at opening your submission on Box.net wouldn't load, so naturally I thought that was the April Fool.

Then I guess I won't submit the song below, which is probably a good thing since this was a first recording to test the final? arrangement of a new song that grew out of an improv. I've learned that a few measures in the LH that sounded good to me live sound a little hesitant, plus my touch needs some further refinement.

Ehyrnme

St,
Nice groove. I enjoyed your youtube channel as well.

Andy,
I like that arrangement. Perhaps you could take it down a few half steps?

Here's one from me for April. It's called Solar, it's a Miles Davis tune. A good one for jams.
[video:youtube]oReHFqkwX3M[/video]

Nice vocal effort Andy - and excellent accompaniment - knotty may be right though - a lower key would make this much easier for you.

JF

SwayingTree - Lovely piece very nicely played - your touch sounded great to me!

JF

Knotty, very nice. My dad wishes I'd learn to play jazz. Just never clicked for me.

Andy Platt - I really enjoyed your performance. I much prefer vocal performances of Beatles tunes to instrumentals. Your voice has real personality - do I detect an accent? Nice job on the accompaniment as well.

Swaying Tree - I think you are entirely too hard on yourself. This is a very interesting piece - I love the big sound of your piano. I'm glad you decided to submit this.

Andy, you sing pretty good, my friend!! Playing was good too! (April-fool or not)

Swayingtree, a great piece!! (I love your piano too... it sounds familiar:-)!!

Knotty, that was very nice! I enjoyed it!

Take care!

Rick

Like Swaying Tree I was not totally happy with this after I listened to it, but I'm going to post it anyway flaws and all. I couldn't resist breaking out the scat voice on my Roland for the improv instrumental break.

BillM, that was just so fun to listen to! Thanks for sharing!

Bill, that was really cool.

SwayingTree - "Ehyrnme" is beautiful, and beautifully played! Sounded perfect to me.

Knotty - "Solar" I could listen to you guys all day! Very smooth in-the-groove playing. Great recording, too. And really nice video.

Bill - Oh yeah! That is so cool! Loved the "scat" in the middle - I'm still smiling...and tappin' my foot.

Andy,

Bravo! What a great way to start off an April Piano bar. I thought your vocal was very effective up to a few bars after the piano solo, then you started to lose control of it a little. I've done the same thing myself when I tried singing and accompanying myself and I know what an accomplishment it is to maintain a song this vocally challenging for as long as you did and I really enjoyed listening to that and to the piano solos/interludes in between. I thought they were also effective and true to spirit of the song. I think I must have listened to it four times and was singing along at least 2x. Your courage and inspiration has motivated me to attempt it again myself on a pop song. Don't know I'll have it ready next month or the following, but I know I'm up for the challenge partly thanks to you.


Knotty,

Very smooth and professional-sounding as always!


Swayingtree,

I was so impressed with your playing this, I looked up your posts in the "Tell us About yourself thread" and visited your Youtube channel. I thought you did an amazing job on Smile by ear, but it wasn't clear from your post whether Ehyrnme grew out of your own improv and was your own arrangement or the composer's. Either way, you played it beautifully... was just wondering...??

Bill,

Any imperfections (and your imperfections probably come across to most people here as "I wish I could play that imperfectly's) were far outweighed by the originality and expressiveness of your interpretation. This was yet another case of "I thought I'd heard this song played and sung every way to Sunday but I never heard it quite like this" experiences. Even so I was listening and doing something else when I heard the scat and suddenly came to attention and then rushed over to my computer, thinking, "Can he do that?". When I saw it was your piano, it didn't detract from my delight, since it took the same originality evident in the rest of the song to think of putting it there.

Everyone,

I straightened out the problem I had with my camera gear and finally got a video of my arrangement of Are You Lonesome Tonight. I did it at a faster tempo than the recording I posted in the March Piano Bar (the new one came in about 50 seconds shorter). I'm not sure I like it as well, though, because I think I played the slower one with more expression, but some family members seem to prefer it faster so you be the judge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G61rF7F__Cw

Andy - love this track, haven't heard it in a while. I'm always impressed when someone doubles up on the concentration and skill required to sing AND play at the same time. Cool piano solo, nice April Fool's too

SwayingTree - hey another original in the bar! Really liked this, it had a direction and seemed to be telling a story. What does the title mean? A quick Google search doesn't define it!

Knotty - always a good sign when you look down and realise your foot has been tapping away involuntarily for who knows how long! The band sound really tight together, you all gel together really well.

Bill - As always a highlight of the bar for me each month. I actually misread your short description and missed out the key words 'on my Roland' as I was expecting YOU to break out with the scat voice at some point!
Not to worry though, I'm sure from your own perspective you'll find things to improve like we all do with our own work but from our perspective, the audience, it just sounded darn good.

StarrKeys - hey, congratulations on your original arrangement. It was creative and captured the original nicely, well done. Also great idea about trying to get something done once a month, it really helps to have a short term goal to work towards so all the best with that

Starr Keys - I went back and listened to your March version again after I listened to this one and although I like them both I think I like the March version better. I think this beautiful melody needs to breath and the slower tempo seems more wistful and romantic to me.

As an aside, after listening to your recordings I went out to walk my dog. I always listen to my iPod on random shuffle while walking the dog and oddly enough Elvis's version of Are You Lonesome Tonight came up. Since there are over 5,000 songs on my iPod I'd say the odds were something like 1 in 5,000 that this would happen.

StarKeys,
very pretty piece. I like those octaves.

So a busy start to this month, nice!

My offering this month is a Greg Maroney track called Breathe and is something that I started work on last year and have worked on and off and on again for some time and it has kicked my butt every step of the way but I love the tune so I didn't mind too much



His own live performance is on YouTube too and he makes his C7 roar with the bass notes, very cool stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo5qj_duICs