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I tried to resist kicking it off early ... but it's the last day of October in my time zone (and I'm at home with the flu).

I've been thinking for a while about Elssa's prompting me to develop my arpeggio playing but couldn't think of anything to try it with ... until now.

I can't help falling in love with you


I couldn't find the ideal key for me to sing and play it in and had to settle with F so I'm not that pleased with it vocally.

Another nice job, Newman. This song is an old favorite, and I enjoyed your version. Your arps sound great.

Very touching. This version is exclusive for this forum. Thanks Newman.

That was really fantastic, Newman! Very sensitively played as it sounded like you were listening very carefully to the music as you sang. Good music and a wonderful performance.

Glen

Its Autumn here. It rained for two days and the whether turned cold. I improvised this Autumn Leaf in F.

https://www.box.com/s/e2skf40aw6jzlt7e1yu8

I've been off the grid for a while. Not much playing or posting time. Sigh. Here are a couple of "smooth jazz" experiments that I did a couple of years ago. The first one is Pure Imagination - yes, the Willy Wonka theme song. In this one the piano is used more as the melody instrument and the horns for soloing. Pretty simple, piano-wise. I was going for the true CD 101 flavor of smooth jazz.

The Theme from M*A*S*H (aka Suicide is Painless) is more of a hybrid smooth jazz and swing number. As I recall, this song is a lot harder than it seems because it has a bizarre one bar time change right in the middle of each verse.

Pure Imagination

Theme from M*A*S*H

November off to a flying (early) start, interesting contributions so far.

Newman, it's funny you did that Elvis classic, I've been practising it now and then. I really enjoyed your version, we seem to have a similar taste for music.

The Hal Leonard version I have has some tricky chords and chord changes in the bridge (like a river flows...), so if you could send me a chord chart - you have my email - I'd appreciate it. At least I'd have an alternative. My version is in F major.

Weiyan, you're improving. Kenjazz, those jazz pieces were great, just wondering, do you play the saxophone as well? Or trumpet, I'm not so familiar with those, can't always tell the difference.

Thanks!

No, just piano and guitar. Those are my virtual sidemen from band-in-a-box. I don't advertise their names anymore because the etiquette is to avoid mentions, lest people think that they are playing live with you.

you guys ever go through your old videos on YouTube? I just went through a few of mine.. ewww.. I think they're horrible lol. I'm surprise anybody listens to them haha. I decided to redo one of my old videos. The Mickey Mouse March.. Apparently, in my old version, I didn't even play the last page because it was too hard for me at that time but not no more! I guess it is safe to say, I've improved a little bit in the last 2 years :P

New Version



Old Version if you are interested....it was 2 years ago I put this one up.. I remember putting it up in the piano bar too I think ..ahh I remember that ol' upright piano..

Newman - I can't help falling in love with you
Amazing is all I can say… You have a great and very pure and smooth voice! Your recording quality is excellent too. Thanks for sharing!! What a great start of the bar this is!!!

Weiyan - Autumn
Great piece and it is great that you can improvise like that!

KenJazz - Pure Imagination
Ah… this is great Ken.!!Your tunes have a great warmth to it the way to arrange and play things. It is a true please to listen to your pieces. I always forget that I am not listening to the radio… How long time does it take you pull something like this together? Are these not real persons playing??? I am not familiar with Band In A Box but I assume it is a software that you control via MIDI, or?

KenJazz - M*A*S*H theme
Nostalgia… What a great TV series that was and your performance/arrangement here is equally great. The TV version (original?) is faster but I like it how you slowed down it here too. Great job!!

Ladypayne - Mickey Mouse March Piano
Great performance in both versions! It is great to see this type of comparison. Sometimes it is hard to notice progress but youtube makes this easy.Thanks for sharing!

Here is my video of the month; Yann Tiersen - Coma. This a short piece from the 2003 German movie Good Bye Lenin.

[video:youtube]I5GC0nrqA6k[/video]

Weiyan~ Very excellent improvisation. I wish you'd have composed a slightly longer rendition. Good work.

Kenjazz~ Pure imagination was very nicely done as was the theme from MASH. I just don't have a very long attention span for the smooth jazz genre. You certainly have a wide range of styles and music you play, which is simply fantastic. Your playing is so good.

ladypayne~ you certainly have improved a great deal in the last two years. Isn't it great to read music you used to play only to find out how much more comfortable you are playing it again after all this time's gone by? Excellent!

Amaruk~ Very well done. I don't know who Yann Tiersen is, but it is clear you very much appreciate his music and express it marvelously.

Glen

Weiyan, nice job on your improv. Really fun.

kenjazz, these two pieces are like listening to a professional performance. Excellent and very enjoyable.

ladypayne, the improvement since the first version is striking. Keep up the great work. Has it seriously been two years already? Time's fun when your having flies.

Amaruk, what a nice video. I haven't heard this one before. It is very nice.

Kenjazz: Like your music.

Ladypayne: It seems the newer version is rather self confident. The older version with acoustic piano is rather warm. Hope you could playing acoustic again.

Amaruk: I can feel your passion.

Inlanding: Thank you for your encouragement. Not yet know how to compose yet. Still need to learn.

Ken Jazz - After hearing the Mash TV theme more than once too often it was refreshing to hear your version and I enjoyed it. (I couldn’t pick the time change bar though – where is it?)
Weiyan – An interesting piece – you could almost add a drone ( a long sustained underlying note) to it which would add it its meditative nature
Ladypayne - Yes much improved. The greater confidence shows.
Amaruk – That’s nicely done. Yann Tierson’s music is really growing on me. I’m going to have to learn how to play Coma.

And thanks all for the compliments.

LOL! I know what you mean. Some of these experiments are just to see what people will actually listen to. My Brother-in-law who is an incredible jazz and roots blues professional flute player went through a smooth jazz phase for a while because it was the only thing that was commercially viable. Some of it sounded really good, and it was nice mood music, but he hated it. I haven't done the smooth jazz thing since these, but I've definitely had some people indicate that Pure Imagination was the only song that they thought was listenable of the ones I've tried.

Amaruk - These are actually real players, not MIDI. I no longer advertise their names, because the etiquette is to avoid mentioning them lest someone gets the mistaken idea that they are playing live with you in a studio. Since these were done a while ago, I may have mentioned their names in the accompanying blog post(s). The software that chooses the right solo elements for the arrangement is quite amazing!

Newman - Good ear! MASH is in 4/4, but right before the part that serves as the bridge, there is a measure of 2/4 instead. I went back and looked at my arrangement and found that I blew it off and made the whole thing 4/4 so that it would work better as a jazz tune.

Tx-Dennis and Weiyan - Thank you for the thoughtful comments!

Amaruk - Coma is such a fitting melody for the theme from the movie. I wish this were longer. When is this played- when she emerges from the coma?

Ladypayne - It is great to see such side-by-side progress. The new one really sounds good!

Weiyan - I thought this was supposed to be Autumn Leaves at first, and was confused. When I figured out it was a completely different improv, I went back and listened again and really enjoyed what you did with it.

Newman - Beautiful. Did you record this on one track or two? If you did this on one track with the arpeggios and singing all at the same time, it was quite a feat. Either way it sounded really special.

Thanks for the compliment. Recorded on one track - on my new Zoom H1. (Well, I've had it a few weeks now).