jerrythek Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Hi Elmer: You may be right about Phineas and Sunny, as regards to turning into a simpler chord loop, but understand that I'm not talking about fancy extended harmony and voicings, I'm just talking about the second half of the tune going from F to Bb7. That breaks up the vamp-style of the tune nicely, and it's the original, and always-played way. Gaga I just don't Geget. Jerry Lady Gaga and Phineas... I don"t believe these artists are actively continuing their education in piano playing - certainly not in jazz harmony. It isn"t the focus of their interest or what they produce as professional performers. It"s nice they know and like the standards - but I"m not surprised at rudimentary chord choices and voicings that come from the sheet music chord symbols or tabs. I get that, to a point. I'm not expecting fancy voicings and extensions and colorful harmony, just the basic chords. But Sunny? Any search is going to bring up the right chords, be it sheet music, chord charts etc. Like the attached. As for Gaga, she IMHO made a choice, its not down to her abilities. She has been exposed to plenty of Broadway stuff, her duets with Tony Bennett were quite sophisticated and she handled them great (albeit as a vocalist only). I saw her play at Sting's 60th birthday event and she was great. She has plenty of range, even if again, she's not going to play super-fancy harmony/voicing etc. So I wonder if it just comes down to that they felt they wanted to be informal, they didn't work very hard to work up the tunes, or maybe they thought it doesn't matter, it's the vocals and their presence that counts. And that's probably right for the majority of viewers and their fans. Anyway, it's just my old man jazzer rant for the day, I guess. Jerry I don't know, Jerry. You may be right. But I still think that jazz, jazz piano, is a thing all in and of itself. Some people get bit by the bug and its all they can think about for the rest of their lives. And other people hear that sound and hear "foreign language" or "my dad's (or grand dad's) music". There's tons of people in the middle. If phineas does study and enjoy jazz music, or even extended harmony - then maybe he made a conscious decision not to play it the way it would be played - but to simplify or pop-ify for Billy's audience - their ears are more accustomed to locking into a four chord loop. I can't tell you how many youtube videos are up right now with songs, not difficult songs, where the "wrong" chords are used, or a simplified harmonization is chosen. Most I think are simply because they don't know any better, don't hear any different. But again, maybe you're right. Maybe they choose not to present it in the expected way. Hard to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz+ Posted April 21, 2020 Share Posted April 21, 2020 Popstar pianos go out of tune too. You can't really get a tuning during the shut-in. Gaga had surprisingly nice piano chops, but I didn't care for her style (taste) on "Smile". She had an incredibly impressive mic and mic stand (I've never seen such an expensive-looking stand) and great reverb and EQ. I felt Sir Paul could have benefited from more EQ, and some Reverb. I thought Elton got off to a rocky start, but he had me grinning and tapping my toes once he got into the first Chorus till the end. Quote Harry Likas was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book." Find 700 of Harry’s piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and jazz piano tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xKnuckles Posted April 21, 2020 Author Share Posted April 21, 2020 With regard to the out of tune pianos: I am surprised they did not get them tuned especially for this event. I think it would not have involved breaking lockdown rules: After all, all piano tuners are Key Workers.... Quote "Turn your fingers into a dust rag and keep them keys clean!" Bluzeyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles Posted April 21, 2020 Share Posted April 21, 2020 We had a two hour version on BBC TV on Sunday night. It did not feature many of the USA based artists just Lady Gaga, J Lo and Stevie Wonder. It included many UK artists. Standard was pretty dire with many of the young ones not anywhere in tune. Elton, terrible McCartney, the less said the better The Stones, class even given the poor way it was put together. Class act Charlie Watts, super cool guy always was always will be. Quote Col Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outkaster Posted April 21, 2020 Share Posted April 21, 2020 If this is how performances are going to be for the next few months I have to change the channel. I can't stand this streaming shit. I get the intent and everything but it's so pretentious. Quote "Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello" noblevibes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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