Shamanzarek

L. A. Dreamer - Charlie. They had several songs that got FM airplay in the late 70s but you never hear them anymore. Julian Colbeck on keys. The drummer is coincidentally named Steve Gadd. Johnny Hold Back - Charlie.

Here is the live version of "Oh What a Night" from the 70s presumably with the original band members who recorded it. It begins with a close-up of the piano so you can see it being played in C. On my keyboard I use a split and layer setup which includes a synth sound for the solo and automatically transposes so there is no chance of forgetting to hit the button again. They use an ARP Pro Soloist here but I hear two oscillators on the original recording though the ARP is single oscillator.

A band I play with did "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" in the original key of F last week. Yesterday I was notified they are doing it in Eb tonight. This wasn't too difficult to transpose but I will probably have to simplify it a bit. The one song I hate doing is "Oh What a Night". This song is played in C in live versions but on the recording it was apparently sped up so it appears to be in C# which is an inconvenient key for a keyboard based song like this. Two bands I play this song with insist on doing it in C#. In this case I use the transpose button.

One of the best I saw was The Guess Who in 1969 when they were four members and Randy Bachman was still in the band. They started off doing a jazz-style jam that segued into the first song. They would return to the jam after nearly every song so there was very little time in the show when they weren't playing. At this time they were playing deeper cuts than in later years. Along with the latest two hits "These Eyes" and "Laughing" they did things like "Friends of Mine", "When You Touch Me", "We're Coming to Dinner", and "The Key". One of the worst I saw was The Black Keys at Madison Square Garden. The booming low end was so overwhelming and much of the time it was just two guys on stage with no bass player so it had to be coming from the drums. Luckily I was in a suite so I could get out of the main room and not have to endure this show. The Arctic Monkeys opened and their sound was fine.

I have tried Hanon with Piano students for years. I was never been to get any of them to do more than the first three exercises before they got bored with it. I had one student that already had the Czerny book and she liked doing those exercises. When I was in college my teacher had me use the Hanon Piano book and the Organ book which added bass pedal exercises. I didn't do much with either book. Playing Bach was enough exercise for me and wasn't boring.

Non-sprung Wheel for Mod to be able to leave Mod amount set where desired. Sprung Wheel or Oberheim Lever/Roland Stick for Pitch works for me. Older Rolands had a Stick and Mod Button or combined Mod with the Pitch stick. Never liked this because Mod amount couldn't be controlled and had to be preset with a slider. At least Roland had Mod delay which most other synths makers didn't think of. Korg used a Joystick which could control Pitch and Mod simultaneously but was sprung on both X and Y axis.

I tried to order the Nord triple pedal and gig bag from Thomann because the price was much lower and nothing electronic to worry about but they wouldn't ship those items to the States let alone a Stage 3.

The 2020 documentary Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man was being shown on HDNet last night. There were plenty of appearances by members of The Stones, Allmans, and many others.

From various reports I've seen over the years you are more likely to get soaked for customs/duties if UPS handles the shipping. Many people have said DHL is much better at getting merchandise through customs often with no additional charges.

The best sounding spring reverb I ever had was in a Hammond L122. It was so deep and lush. I also had a Hammond M102 that had a separate amp and speaker channel for the reverb but didn't sound near as good as the L122. Currently I have a Fender Twin 65 RI that has a great spring reverb. Also have a Vox AC15 RI with very good spring reverb. The previous owner installed a premium aftermarket reverb unit in that.

DW collaborating with a Japanese company goes back many years. In 1977 Drum Workshop and Hoshino Gakki (Tama) jointly purchased the assets of Camco Drums. DW got Camco's inventory and manufacturing equipment while Hoshino got the Camco brand name, blueprints and engineering rights. DW adopted the Camco round lug design which they continue to use. I first found out about Chesbro Music when I played in Idaho Falls, ID in 1985. Here was this huge music store out in the middle of nowhere. I found out later that they had partnered with Hoshino Gakki in 1973 to distribute Tama Drums and Ibanez guitars in the USA and were also the biggest US distributor of sheet music. Chesbro ended the association with Hoshino Gakki in 2009. Chesbro Music is now 111 years old and has been female operated since 1953.

I first saw Three Dog Night in 1969 opening for Steppenwolf in Salem, OR. I had heard a few of their songs on the radio and "Try a Little Tenderness" seemed to be getting the most play. They really stole the show and made Steppenwolf look like a garage band. They were immediately booked for a return date as headliners. Several years ago I got to open for them at a show in Connecticut. Corey Wells and Jimmy Greenspoon were still with us and the band was great and maybe better in some ways than in their heyday. All the members were very personable and hung out with us backstage.

My Grandmother, Aunt, and older Cousin on my Mother's side of the family were all excellent musician's. When my Aunt and Uncle retired in 1962 they got a trailer and travelled around the country. We got their Piano and I started lessons at age 11 continuing with Piano and Organ through high school. My teacher and her husband were also violinists. He had taught Spade Cooley who appeared in movies and own TV show but his life sadly didn't end well.

The PX5S have been in production since at least 2013 and the price was recently increased. Casio should still be able to supply new parts or warranty repair for these.

Founding Renaissance pianist John Hawken lives here in NJ. He was also a founding member of The Nashville Teens as well as a member of Spooky Tooth and The Strawbs. Interesting guy to hang out with.

Justin Hayward had his drummer Gordon Marshall learn to play flute for a tour in 1998. Of course the pay is probably better than what most of us get.

I used to shop at the Paramus Sam Ash quite frequently in the 90s when I lived closer. The keyboard department manager at the time Bobby Colonna was a great guy and always gave me great deals. The first time I met him I was trying out a Kurzweil PC88 and he asked me to put on headphones. After a few minutes he offered me a deal I couldn't turn down. Later on I moved closer to the Edison, NJ store and went in there one day and there was Bobby. Last I knew he was managing the Carle Place, NY store. I also live fairly close to the Springfield, NJ store on Route 22 and there is GC right by it.

That part of New Jersey has had what is known as Blue Laws for many years. It requires stores that sell "non-essential" merchandise to be closed on Sundays. A big reason for the Blue Laws is to reduce heavy traffic on Route 4 and Route 17 in the Bergen County area for one day a week allowing nearby residents to have a somewhat better quality of life. I doubt if this had much effect on the Paramus Sam Ash as they have survived there under Blue Laws for many years. I don't know about other states but NJ also requires auto dealerships to close on Sunday statewide.

I remember seeing a lounge act in Oregon about 1971. When a brass part was needed the keyboard played a Lowrey organ with one hand and trumpet with the other. The drummer also played trumpet with one hand and could still do enough drums part to carry the song. This band was the New Dawn. They made a really terrible album, or so we thought at the time, and in the 90s an Italian label picked it up and put it out as great undiscovered garage rock.

Someone is coming to buy my M-102A tomorrow. I sold my C-3 and Leslie 122 earlier this year so I will be Hammond-less for the first time in many years. An impending move to another state is forcing me to sell a lot of gear.

That is probably an M-162 which is a rare variant of the M-100 series. It was the institutional model which features a locking fold down cover. I believe The Animals used one of these on the Ed Sullivan show when they performed "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Shake" around 1965.

I'm sure Kurzweil has improved KB3 over the years. My first experience was with the PC2/X. When I first used it with the band the factory KB3 sounds were so thin and weak that they were unusable. Before returning the keyboard I tried some tweaking and was able to beef up the KB3 sounds to where they were usable. The Percussion was plinky and sounded nothing like a real Hammond. I had a friend at the time who also had a PC2 and told me he never used KB3 because it sounded so bad. I told him what to do to fix the sounds. Due to KB3 and a Classic Keys ROM issue I never bought another Kurzweil though I'm sure they are much better now.

There are some horn parts I like playing on keys. One band I play with does "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". That one I really like and I switch between Vibes and Strings as well. One of my keyboards has a raunchy Sax sound that I layer with Glockenspiel for the recurring theme in "Born to Run". That Sax sound also works pretty well for the Sax solo. We also do "Sweet Caroline" for which I use a French Horn layered with other Brass which is effective. Another band I play with picks songs with heavy horn parts that don't work so well for me and to me doesn't make much sense for them to do without real horns. They do "Jump Jive and Wail" which is a great song but I can't do justice to the horn parts on keys. They also do "Tenth Avenue Freeze out" which has a heavy horn section and prominent piano. I just play the piano part which carries the song all the way through. Nobody has said anything to me about leaving out the horns yet.

Our next door neighbor just had a Generac home standby generator installed today. These run on natural gas or propane and kick in automatically when power goes down. We rarely have power outages here so I don't know why he felt the need to spend the $6K or so that these cost.

Dewey Bunnell is the undisputed master of the Major Seventh chord and stream of consciousness lyrics. He may have been the first to coin Purple Rain. America has another song for all the lonely people in the world thinkin' that life has passed them by. Written by Dan Peek as a response to "Eleanor Rigby". Produced by George Martin as was "Tin Man"