Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum July Piano Bar

I haven't been in the piano bar at all this year (sorry) and what do I do ... I start the July piano bar early (in a convention that was prominent last time I was here). Cheeky, I know.

I've hardly touched my piano all year ... and I'm serious ... wouldn't add up to more than a handful of hours. There's two reasons for that a) I'd hit a plateau in skill and b) I've been focussed on guitar to meet my goal of getting back into a band/live playing.

But on Sunday while the family went off to watch Jurassic World, I sat down and played this song - Ooh La La - an obscure 1960s number - and recorded it too because a friend had said he wanted to hear me do it. It's just a thumper rhythmically but I do like the tune.

https://app.box.com/s/yruhk1jt0cpn3nsfplq2di1q7c1s20g1

Great to see you back at the bar, Newman, and as usual, your singing and solid accompaniment is stellar! Glad you've been playing guitar with the intention of getting back with a band for live music.

Glen

Thanks, Glen

I don't know if i should post this ...as
this is only a practice ; I feel it takes quite more than a few weeks to get this to form- beyond my skill,but it is written in the same key and has very similar chord progressions to "Lullaby of the bells " which I did in Dec.
So, I thought it appropriate to try.
It is a whopper for me- to get it to tempo and articulated. but sooner or later it'll happen.
So this is the first 2 pages, the last will be in a couple weeks and the tempo lulls hopefully gone.

S. Rachmaninoff Romance op8. n2. from Tempo Primo on Vimeo.

Thought I'd stop off in the piano bar here for a moment to play an oldie.

IT HAD TO BE YOU

enjoyed all the pieces thanks for sharing.

here is my contribution to the bar this month

a little bach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3_Imc9ijdc&feature=youtu.be

Impressive playing and quite a piano room and piano...

thank you, the piano is new to me and its been great thus far.

Piano_primo_1 - I have no idea what the original piece is but keep at it.
Elssa - still got the hands vamping I see.
Sor - Your left hand technique is impressive.

Thanks Newman, for the motivator

Romance opus 8 no 2 the piece is, I think a classic, but aside from that , as I practice and am becoming better with it - it reminds me of a dramatic piece one would’ve of heard from a “passion yet sometimes ridiculous movies” in the 50’s, or in a Piano lounge.
( well…. maybe a version of this in a lounge) .
But , I like the 50’s decade of US piano lounge music that played emotions with heavy drama.
So I’m trying my best to get it to there to form


hmmm I think I just saw Lana Turner walk by..….

Thanks, But thats because I cheat, Im left handed

Did you learn this piece by watching the player piano? How long did it take on this piece?

I've been trying to get my Passepied back into shape and post a video but I keep flubbing. I may post for August bar or should I entertain you with a flubby Passepied for July ?

To flub is human. You are in good company. Flub away!!!

haha yes. That is why I like this crew in here. I will post one later tonite.

actually this was one of the pieces I learned completely from jane's website. she has a youtube site that has many videos that she plays at slow speed so you can see exactly whats going on. On some of the faster pieces its hard to tell whats going on with the player piano especially in a piece where the hand cross all the time like this one.. so I use her site to see which notes are being played, Im indebted to her as Im sure many are...

This piece took me about a week to learn its not a lot of notes so its easy to learn,however to be able to play it well... thats another story , i dont currently play it much and it requires the utmost amount of concentration to play well, I would not dare try to play this for anyone at the moment, for this vid it took me nearly 20 to 30 tries to get through it at speed with little or no mistakes. I need to practice it 40 or 50 more times to polish it up more. but I rather spend the time learning something new which has become a real dilemma for me..

if I dont practice all the old pieces I have learned, slowly they start to diminish and go away... is this the same for everyone or is it because I cant read and commit everything to memory? the most frustrating time for me is when Im trying to learn a new piece because most of my attention and effort goes to learning the new piece it leaves very little time to practice the older ones

this is a piece i started two days ago (so its not good yet) I love the melody but I have not decided if I want to learn the harder middle section of this piece but time will tell (I probably will, I said the same thing when I started op9 no1 and ended up learning the whole thing) I would imagine it would take another week to learn the rest of the slow parts I will look at the hard part in the middle to see if I can tackle it later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgQHE2P5cZE

Debussy/Chopin, will be checking back for your Passepied!!!

Newman, that song does bring back the 50s/60s, for sure. Your comping is rock solid and your singing right on. Well done!

Primo, that seems like a very ambitious undertaking - not a lot of single note melodies - lots of moving chords. You're doing well. Here's hoping you stick with it and post the rest later.

Elssa, that's always been a fav of mine. Excellent intro and fills. Like that ending, too, with your surprise guest appearance.

Sor, that was beautiful! I really enjoyed it. Your hands seem very relaxed, but never miss a beat or a note. Well done. BTW, re your question, I think we all have the problem that we learn a piece and lose it over time if we don't practice it often.


My piece this month is Blue Rondo A La Turk, by Dave Brubeck.

In the 50s and 60s, at the height of the Cold War, there was an attempt to ease tensions between the USA and USSR by sponsoring cultural exchanges such as musical performances*. During one of the exchange events, when Dave Brubeck was playing in Turkey, he became fascinated by Turkish rhythms, jammed a bit with some local musicians, and later composed this fascinating piece that combines American jazz blues with Turkish rhythms (9/8, with the 9 being played as 2+2+2+3 three times, then 3+3+3). This is my very humble imitation, simplified to the point of being an embarrassment, and without the blues part. (Translation: I bit off more than I could chew with this difficult piece, but chose to continue with it and record as much of it as I was able to muddle through!)

*I myself was privileged to attend a performance by Mstislav Rostropovich in the 1960s. At that time he was the considered to be the world's greatest cellist. Saw him much later, too, when he was thought by many to be the world's greatest conductor!


Blue Rondo a la Turk

Ed

I love Blue Rondo a la Turk! Great work at it. I'd love to play even a simplified version one day.