[Maple Leaf Rag played by Scott Joplin himself]

The description I read of Joplin’s playing as ‘childlike and unsophisticated ‘ came from Eubie Blake.

[Is there a term for this, like maybe "diatonic harmony"?]

I’ve never had a clear map of this in my head, but let me try to lay out a few thoughts that hopefully add to the conversation.
 

Chord Progressions are not necessarily Harmonic Progressions.

 

 The concept of Chords is at most a thousand years old.

 

 The concept of Harmonic Progressions of Chords is much newer, probably started in the Renaissance, 500 years ago.

 

Melody, rhythm go back hundreds of thousands of years. Massively predating harmony of any kind. 
 

There are for example European music traditions that predate harmony. Think Irish fiddle tunes. If you buy a book of old Irish fiddle tunes, there’s no harmony, no chords. And when you listen to modern players adding chords to those songs the chords always suit the melody, but don’t necessarily create a classical European harmonic progression.

 

Probably the same with African music tradition as exemplified by the blues. Melodies originally created without harmony, chords or chord harmonic progressions. With chords added later, but not creating standard harmonic progressions.

 

My take is that in the US popular songs with traditional European harmonic progressions had their heyday in the first half of the 20th century, following a large wave of European immigration to the US. We call this The Great American Songbook. But starting in the 1950s the dogs stopped eating the dog food. People started to listen to other new and exotic music traditions including ‘blues’ and ‘folk music’ that used chords, but didn’t have them in strong harmonic progressions.

 

So we can debate what key Sweet Home Alabama is in. Or have to closely listen to an old James Taylor song because the chords choices are not necessarily locked into the circle of fifths. Or debate the theory necessary for a blues scale to be played over a I7/IV7/V7 chord pattern.

[RIP Tina Turner]

A vocal force of nature…

 

[Nopia MIDI chord generator controller based on tonal harmonic theory...well, this seems different]

I’d like to hear this play Mustang Sally in a cover band.

 

Otherwise it’s No, PIA.

[Harmonious Mustard]

Mean Mr. Mustard.

 

His sister Pam.

 

And their Quaker Mother, Harmonious.

[Super Locrian]

The discussion about (what I think as) the Altered Scale has led me to think of it as the ‘gateway ‘ chord for half-step side slipping. 

Here’s how I get there.

 

1st, reimagine the altered scale as a major scale one half step below the root of your dominant chord, but with the root of that new scale raised a half step to be the same note as the root of your dominant.

 

For example a C7 (dominant) altered has a B natural major scale played above it, but the B natural note is always raised by a half step to C natural. Confusing? Yes. But it basically opens the creative door to play a scale a half step down from the dominant 7th. 
 

And then of course you could think of it being a melodic minor a half step above the dominant as we started the discussion. 
 

As usual when I finally write out some new grand insight it reads like a medieval treatise on angels and pin heads.

[Google makes its text-to-music AI public]

I’m going to throw my wooden clog into that dark satanic executable and stop this insanity!

[Apple announces Logic Pro for iPad]

This dates me, but…

 

I remember how frustrated and angry I was when MSDOS turned into Windows. I already knew how to do everything I wanted!

 

Come on, just pull up a command line and type…

[The Great MPN Leslie Simulation Roundup]

Can I suggest a mono recording be created for those sims that have that ability. Many of us are concerned with live sound and stereo is not always possible.

[Daisy Chain (passive and powered) Monitors]

“Split” the output is not very specific. You need to run the passive speakers from the active output on the powered mixer. The self-powered speakers need to be run from a separate output at “line level” from the mixer. 

[Apple announces Logic Pro for iPad]

No purchase. It’s a subscription.

[Super Locrian]

Just us old folks here. No place for a melodic minor.

[Hammond Novachord]

What pops out at me is the tremulants. Sounds like an attempt to electronically emulate theatre pipe organs , in a similar way the A, B, and Cs were emulating church pipe organs.

 

Maybe this opens a door to why Hammond was so rejecting of the Leslie speaker. Perhaps Hammond had put so much effort into his own tremulant effect that he couldn’t acknowledge a superior solution. 

 

[Does anyone have the lightweight K & M Keyboard Stand 18880?]

When setting up, once everything is together, from the players position lightly kick each of the two legs outward. Just a little bit of movement of the feet will tighten up any side to side play.

[Pick up the pieces on B3.]

In the Phil Collins Big Band version George Duke on grand piano provides a master class on integrating funk, gospel and jazz. Because of the video, you can see and hear how he interacts with each soloist. This is gold.

 

BTW, the gospel riffs he’s doing remind me a lot of Herb Alpert’s funky 70s song Rise.

[Caption This Pic]

Let me introduce The Electric Palm Shaver!

[Pick up the pieces on B3.]

Here’s what I played in a top 40s band while the song was on the charts:

 

LH: the picked guitar line

RH: double (and harmony) the sax line

 

Leave everyone else in the band to do what comes naturally.

[Pink Floyd "Breathe" - making sense of chord progression]

Here’s what I hear…

 

A section is in E Dorian. Two sharps. Could easily cadence on a D tonic if it wanted to. I hear the e minor to A7 as coming more from English folk music than blues. This was a common progression in Neil Young, James Taylor type songs in the late 60s.

 

B section is G Major. One sharp, and slightly surprising because our ears would expect a C#, not the C natural. (A ‘modern’ take on major with a dominant 7 +9 (D7+9) as well as a bVII back door.) The mnemonic is that it’s a walk-down from 4 to 1, but with the minor ii being replaced by the major bVII. The walk-down is another common folk chord progression. So instead of C, bm, am, G, we have C, bm, F, G. Then followed by the dominant 7+9 of G. 
 

Turnaround back to e minor via a D# diminished.

 

Damn, when I re-read this, it looks like gobbledygook!

[Personal Improvement...]

A couple of hints on moving some of your list forward…

 

1. If you move yourself halfway towards your keyboard speaker, you will hear your keys 6dB louder, while remaining the same level to everyone else.

 

2. Regarding playing too much, there is some value in ‘playing tired’. I don’t mean ‘old and tired’, but rather  ‘I’ve played a lot today’ tired. I just rewatched the documentary on the Wrecking Crew. One new thing I understood was that they were always playing tired. No wonder they never overplayed. I know that I play much less but tastier after I’ve played out my first wind.Maybe put in more tough, fast tunes in the first set. Let the band shake out it’s sillies.

[I need a new bench]

And you might want to think about seat belts…

 

[Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time]

Milagro Beanfield War

 

[Yamaha YC Operating system update Ver. 1.3]

It’s a stage keyboard. 
 

Just my humble opinion, but as soon as a drummer kicks in at almost any volume level, all the beautiful stereo field, resonance and reverb on a digital piano becomes background noise that impedes the audience’s ability to hear what you’re playing. I turn them all off. 

[Yamaha YC Operating system update Ver. 1.3]

I don’t think so. The updater file doesn’t run within the File menu, it’s a separate process that doesn’t ask you what you want to load, it just overlays everything.

[Yamaha YC Operating system update Ver. 1.3]

50 minutes ago, Dave Number Four said:

Will the upgrade wipe out my saved live sets? Obviously I can save them to a thumb drive and then reload, just trying to plan when I'll have time to try the OS upgrade (like not right before a gig!) Thx.

This is easy. Follow the readme instructions. You backup all your current live sets onto a usb dongle. Then you load the full update file into your YC. Then you reload your live sets back to the YC. Your keys now have all the new stuff but with your hard-won patches.

 

I recommend spending a few minutes to run through the new factory live sets before you overwrite them. You might find something of interest.

[Yamaha YC Operating system update Ver. 1.3]

Thanks for the heads up! Just installed the update. Re: the ‘Steinway’, it’s got some value to me.
 

It’s kind of a plain vanilla sound. Doesn’t scream out ‘character’. But, it doesn’t have that high frequency attack that all the Yamaha samples have. And this is refreshing. 
 

I fooled around by maxing the Tone setting (boosts the highs) and added a few dBs of warm EQ around 150Hz. This is a playable patch for a neutral piano sound.