Old No7 Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 1 hour ago, marino said: ...a girl approached me between tunes, saying, "hi, today is my birthday, could you play the song for me?" Now, this particular girl was exceptionally cute... so I played "Happy Birthday" surrounding it with octave runs, jazzy arpeggios, suspensions, diminished chords series, in the hope of impressing her. After I had finished with a crashing cadenza, she came back to the piano, saying - of course - "wow, that piece was great, who wrote it? And when are you going to play "Happy Birthday"? My friends are waiting with the champagne bottle..." I guess misunderstood several life facts that night. Fixed that quote for ya.... You probably went home alone too! 😉 Old No7 Quote Yamaha MODX6 * Hammond SK Pro 73 * Roland Fantom-08 * Crumar Mojo Pedals * Mackie Thump 12As * Tascam DP-24SD * JBL 305 MkIIs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mauriziodececco Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 On a similar vein, an improvisation over different styles on Happy Birthday by Jean Louis Valero, a French film movie composer that i had the luck to meet a (long) while ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAL86qkBvzQ Quote Nord Wave 2, Nord Electro 6D 61,, Rameau upright, Hammond Pro44H Melodica. Too many Arturia, NI and AAS plugins http://www.barbogio.org/ https://barbogio.bandcamp.com/follow_me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamPro Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 Silly story - when I played with the Soul-Dance band, they played often enough so requests for Happy Birthday were common. It quickly became apparent to me that the band was not able to play a creditable version of Happy Birthday. So I created a chart. My goals were pretty straight-forward and I thought completely achievable: 1) agree in advance on a song key; 2) get folks in the band to understand the song is in 3/4 time, and to stop counting it in as if it were played in 4/4; 3) practice it a couple of times as a group before trying it in public again. So I handed out the chart at the next rehearsal - it was very simple, but I made sure to write out the melody for the Bb sax and trumpet. Everyone laughed and told me they did not need to rehearse the song. So I suggested in that case that it would be no problem to quickly run thru the chart. We started the tune and it sounded horrible. Everyone laughs and we stop halfway thru. The sax player admitted she had mistakenly picked up her Eb sax, not realizing the chart was written for Bb sax . And we never tried to rehearse it again. Happy Birthday continued to be the most embarrassing part of every performance where it was called - played as a disorganized 4/4 swing. The band did at least manage to play it in a consistent key from that time onwards - so I got that going for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathOfInsects Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 We play it in 4. More like a 2-step actually. Quote Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material. www.joshweinstein.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokely Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 We play a short excerpt from the Beatles tune. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montunoman 2 Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 I usually perform at Latino events and clubs ( mostly Mexican clients) I starts off with “ Las Mañanits” a classic Mexican birthday song, I try to emulate the sound of a mariachi playing in 3/4 waltz time, then go directly to Happy Birthday as an up tempo cha-cha-cha, sometimes as merengue or norteña polka. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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