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Here is my 12-year old Estonia 190 (#6046) "singing" one of Jerome Kern's great hits: "All the Things You Are" from his 1939 musical Very Warm for May

All the Things You Are (Box)

All the Things You Are (SoundCloud)

Regards,

I love it. Is this a published arrangement?

John:

This is my own arrangement. I'm so glad that you like it, although, with all extemporaneous arrangements, it varies each time I play it. Not too much in the way of right-hand arpeggios? I wonder if they are not a little overdone?

Regards,

I'm having some issues with my Box.com account. Does access to this file provide access to all my files, or is it limited to this one file. I have tried to set up my Box.com account so that only individual files can be accessed with the link. It seems, however, that, in spite of my set-up, all files are accessible. If so, I'll delete that link and go with SoundCloud only.

Thanks for your response(s).

Regards,

Seems to be a unique link to a specific file (which sounds nice, btw).

Not overdone at all. You could compete with Dan Coates. He has a book published by Alfred. You might check with the Alfred company and see what's involved in getting the underlying rights, and what you could make on the side....

Well done Bruce.

This reminds me of a great BruceD story.

The 190 is his second Estonia grand. He bought it here at Cunningham, but when he traded from a Yamaha upright to his first Estonia we left him in a room full of grand pianos so he could explore and get to know them on his own.

So after playing for quite some time he reappeared in the doorway to our main office, seemed to look off into the distance with a wistful look in his eyes and remarked, " I am in love, and her name is Estonia."

The rest, as they say, is history.

(I hope you didn't mind my sharing that story Bruce.)

My favorite tune played beautifully on my favorite piano. You made my day a little brighter.

Loved it. You kept the melody foremost, something many that like to improvise extra stuff fail to do. However, the extra long runs seemed superfluous, and actually, for me, were a bit of a distraction from the mood that is created by the piece.

Hey, "extra long runs" prepare you for the good things to come again later in piece...

Here's some of my own runs on another Estonia...

[sorry for the occasional "unpleasant overtones"- piano had just arrived a few days before..... ..]



Norbert

So, Norbert, my playing was just a prep for "good things to come" was it?

Bruce:

Your playing was beautiful - I couldn't do any of this!

Now back to those 'extra long runs' Tuneless was talking about...

Norbert

Nice work, Bruce and Norbert.

Any harsh overtones on my L190 always come from the same source... me.

Hi Rich!

Jim

Bruce, musically you're where I want to be. How did you get there? TIA for any advice....

John:

If you're talking about my "style" of playing popular music, I have never had any specific training in that genre, nor have I had any training in theory, harmony or keyboard harmony. My only training has been in classical piano where, as you know, you play what's on the page and only what's on the page - if you can. I do know how to read chord symbols; therefore I can play from lead sheets where I have to fill in both the accompaniment and the style of the accompaniment. It's a process that evolved from very simple chords to those that include slightly more complex harmonies: chords which contain, where appropriate, 6ths flatted or augmented fifths, ninths. I've envied those, however, who really understand more complex harmonies and chord progressions. I guess I simply play - and play simply - what I hope sounds good.

"Musically" I have always wanted to be able to sing well, but I can hardly hold a tune if there is a listener within earshot, so perhaps I'm directing that aspect of my musical frustration into my playing of popular music where I pick tunes that I love and with lyrics that have meaning.

To all who have responded: thank you for your comments, although the original purpose of this thread was simply to illustrate the sound of my Estonia. When transferred to a CD from original .wav format files, and played through a good stereo system, the quality of the sound made from a Zoom H4 on a tripod above the rim near the treble end of the piano was positively and pleasantly surprising.

Regards,

What a coincidence - I've been playing All the Things You Are lately, after hearing it for the first time late last year when my piano teacher got me to learn it. He's a jazz freak but I can't stand jazz, so to help become familiar with the song, I went looking for piano performances of it which were non-jazz, which had an actual tempo (not 10bpm either), and which stuck to the melody without descending into random art. It was painful and I could have done with more results like your version!
I enjoy playing the song too loudly and with a bit of a rock beat, because I'm a philistine. =)

Speaking of coincidences, here's my kid playing the same song, also on a 12-year-old Estonia (technically it was 11 years old when he made the recording last year, but it's 12 now!)

Definitely a jazzed-up version. Note the one Youtube comment is "I wanna have such a nice piano."

Nice playing!
Like Bruce's above, I enjoyed it!

Norbert

How did I miss this thread? I'm very interested in Estonia pianos.

Very nice playing, Bruce, and I liked Rich's story of how you found your piano.

:o))

Sir Lurksalot, how does your son play like that? What are the headphones for? Is he listening to a metronome?

He seems to have a great understanding of jazz!