Strays Dave
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Posts posted by Strays Dave
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I watched an interview with Alan Parsons on YouTube a couple of years back. Parsons quoted Glynn Johns as saying "the Beatles made an album and Phil Spector puked on it" . I tend to agree. I used to think "Let It Be" was the only bad/stinky album the Beatles made. Then I picked up "Let It Be Naked" and I loved it. I used to hate "The Long and Winding Road" with the gushy strings, but like the "Naked" version. Some very inventive bass playing by Paul on the song. I think Phil Spector did some great things circa 1960, but he seems to have been a "wall of sound" one trick pony - just an observation.
Also FWIW, George Harrison grew into being accomplished over the course of the Beatles years in the studio. In "Here There and Everywhere" Geoff Emerick said that in the early Beatles recording sessions (the early days) George H. was sometimes unable to play some of his guitar parts competently at full speed. They would record George at half speed (and an octave lower) to get around this problem. Harrison grew musically over the Beatles years. When they recorded "Something" , Harrison played his guitar live in the studio along with the orchestra. This was risky economically because if George messed up the whole orchestra was "on the clock". Harrison pulled it off.
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This was mentioned in the thread about a new kind of reviewer. I've written 4 songs recently (with a collaborator for lyrics). Now I want to record them. Maybe do some experimenting with vocal harmonies and such. But I'll only be recording audio with microphones, no MIDI keys or prerecorded loops. When I look for introductory videos on YouTube, they're often about something like making beats with an artificial gizmo. I may like to try making a percussion part and duplicating it. So I want introductory audio recording and some rudimentary editing.
Are there any recommendations ? Thanks in advance.
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Keith Jarrett in an interview once said that his improvisations were "spontaneous composition" - a play on "spontaneous combustion".
One of my favorite observations about improvising and composing was from Stravinsky in "Poetics of Music" (taken from lectures at Harvard University circa 1940). He said that a composer improvises aimlessly the way an animal grubs (digs in the dirt) about. He said they (the animal and the composer) were yielding to a compulsion to seek things out.
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I read an article someplace about playing for oldsters in assisted living facilities. The article used the term "reminiscence therapy" - a fancy term for hearing music that is familiar to the listener, from times past. I'm currently playing 3 times per month at ALF's. One gig is instrumental (a Kawaii grand piano that needs tuning), the other gig is vocals and piano. I sometimes see someone's lips moving as they quietly sing along. Things like "Stardust" are consistently well received. BTW, I learned Stardust from YouTube listening to Nat King Cole's recording.
My other 2 regular gigs are in a restaurant with a bar. I play with a guitar player (fat bodied jazz style guitar played thru an amp). I play an acoustic upright with no amplification. It's the guitar player's gig, so I have to play his collection of cover songs (his versions are often not "correct" and following his chord charts is critical). This restaurant/bar gets a lot of families with a young child or two. When the guitar player notices the children, he'll often call a song from a Disney movie or a song by Pink ("What About Us"). Playing to the children is excellent for the tip jar BTW. The "Game of Thrones" theme goes over well too as does the "Frozen" theme.
If I were playing all original music, these gigs would've disappeared long ago. Over the last 4 years (since I retired from the world of a day job) I've developed my left hand as a sort of bass player - with some moving left hand lines. My biggest concern as someone playing "covers" (I don't really like the term) is creating rhythmic momentum (a.k.a. a "groove") which receives a pleasant response from the listeners.
I've been working on some compositions/songs (with lyrics) and hope to record them at some point. I will have to learn how to jump thru the copyright hoops, which seems to be fairly user friendly. Last thought, someone started a thread about covers using Joe Cocker as an illustration. I saw Joe Cocker on Austin City Limits some years back. In a short interview after his performance, he was asked about doing "covers". Joe said he preferred the term "interpretations". I think I do too.
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I always say that cannabis (weed) doesn't make a person more creative. It just makes a person more enthusiastic about being creative. I'm retired 3 years now. I confine my weed consumption generally to a 3 hour period, mostly starting early to mid-afternoon. I often use the "high" when I'm writing music. I'm currently playing 4 Friday evening gigs nights each month (2 nights solo, the other two as a duo). I don't perform high, but only because I'd have to drive to the gigs that way.
Besides the negative impact on one's coordination, alcohol makes me sluggish after that initial lift. Then there's that hangover problem with over consumption. I never have a hangover with weed. I often say that alcohol is way way overrated.
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Regarding playing original music, most people, generally speaking, like to hear things familiar. I'd be more inclined to insert them (original songs) here and there in my sets.
Regarding aging, I'm going to state the obvious stuff you've probably heard. Exercise regularly and eat a mostly plant based diet. Aging is inevitable but you can contribute efforts to minimize the effects.
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One interesting part of this article is arguing that while the chords or lyrics are protected, the solos may...or may not...be.
Well, it's really hard to say that I haven't stolen most of my solo licks from somebody, at least the good ones! Especially on guitar.
I learned to play guitar from the early Led Zep albums...then the early Rush Albums....Then the early Kansas albums. So basically 90% of my guitar playing is Page, Lifeson and Livgren. Fortunately I've made nary a penny so no one is coming after me, but seriously, how many different licks in the pentatonic scale are there? (And those three guys I mentioned never drifted very far away from the pentatonic forms in their first 3-4 albums...at least on guitar)
To my ears, current pop music has such a shortage of musical ideas, listeners' ears (musical minds) become dumbed down. Minor additions to an arrangement become major musical content - in the minds of lawyers.
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I'm going to throw a guess out. Ron Carter. Another workhorse session dude.
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I have a YouTube channel. It's for demonstration purposes, for potential gigs. I play piano and sing, so my videos are simply that. I have a Sony HDR-MV1 which was designed for musicians' music videos. Unfortunately Sony seems to have discontinued production.
I don't have many views of my videos, but for a potential gig, they are tangible evidence of one's skills.
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Practice with a metronome and develop the ability to sing any scale tone based off the root.
Rather than this specific ability, I would tell a young musician to "develop your ears". Can you hear root movement in a song? Can you hear a I vi ii V ? A ii V I ? Developing one's melodic and harmonic perceptions are important skills, especially when getting into more sophisticated music (someone mentioned "Satin Doll").
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Tee's quote:
"In one video he affirms that jazz was all about the dance; saying Bird played in a dance hall, Bud, Monk etc.
The dance aspect is lost
The Blues aspect is lost
and the be bop too".
Tee, you reminded me of a quote by Ezra Pound which I will share: "Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance. Poetry begins to atrophy when it departs too far from music".
I recently heard a jazz piano student say that she went to a workshop led by BHarris in NYC. This was maybe a couple of weeks ago. She said that Barry was scheduled to appear in London the following week IIRC. Being around 90 years old, I think he's living a musician's dream. Bopping till he drops hopefully.
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I have maybe about 400 albums from back when I was playing them and they were "current" technology. I'm looking at buying a turntable and moving my stereo to my living room (it's in a room in the back of the house currently).
I've been reading and pondering the Sony hi-res turntable linked below. The price was $600 and has been dropping. I'm wondering if some other companies will venture into high resolution. So I'm waiting, pondering and reading. But I like the idea of ripping UP instead of down to mp3's. Time will tell.
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-PSHX500-Res-Turntable-Black/dp/B01D8RWMGQ
"Don�t Let Me Down", Rhodes part
in The Keyboard Corner
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This link from the Beatles Bible says that John watched Paul playing the piano part and learned it and played on the recording. Also says Paul may have been miffed because John did all his own vocal parts.
https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/come-together/2/
(page 1)
https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/come-together/