Round Midnight

Well I've been working on it for a while,  and here is my version of 'Round Midnight:

 'Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk/Cootie Williams/Bernie Hanaghan) by Malcolm81

or the link: http://soundcloud.com/malcolm81/round-midnight-thelonious-monk

I'm using sparse left hand voicings in this one, I found for the most part the harmony could be adequately suggested using two notes, one staying the same and one moving.  But only the Eb- gets the root note (along with the minor third), in the entire song I believe, everything else is an oddball combination.

But I couldn't help but get a deeper appreciation of Thelonious from this, there is an unmistakable otherworldly quality to it, and you can obtain it by very simple means.

Anyhow, it isn't perfect, might try to improve it,
Malcolm

Short Improv

Well I was feeling a little discouraged with my piano playing, so I rented a trumpet, never have played a note on one in my life.  And now I feel much better about my piano playing!

On a more serious note, I think my practice regiment of repertoire building and progression practice was leading me feel encumbered by having to play the harmony along with the melody.  But that's wrong, the point isn't to try to bifurcate your psyche into your left hand half, controlling working on the harmony and rhythm, while your right hand half works the melody, the point is that the playing of both are parts of a piano piece, and in a piano piece those two things should be intimately related.  And, if anything, that is the goal of improvs with a trumpet playing the melody two, it's just that in that case the presence of two minds requires communication as to what notes are going to be played in the future.

In this vein of thought, I have decided that I have to get away (at least some of the time) from repertoire building and working on progressions, and spend some time just playing the piano, letting the harmony and the rhythmic playing coexists in a mutually beneficial manner with lead playing.  Anyway, that's the goal.  And then I can use this experience in what is the ultimate goal, at least my current long term piano goal, which is to be able to play jazz standards in a creative, and unique, way.

Well, here's a short rendition of nothing in particular:
 Short improv by Malcolm81
or the link: http://soundcloud.com/malcolm81/short-improv

Also, some of my hand coordination difficulties are caused by my "I'll get there when I get there" melodic sense--and yes I was like that when I played guitar too.  Maybe it's from playing music where the rhythm music might drone out the melody if it's played right on the beat, I don't know, but I rarely jump beats, and I'm not so rarely a little behind them, and I'm not entirely unhappy about that, though I guess maybe it is something I can work on to extend my comfort zone.

Anyhow, take it easy,
Malcolm

Nothing New Today

I did some practice today, getting discouraged.  I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to play the piano well, there's just such a huge gap between what I can do and what I want to do.

Oh well, not everyone can play the piano well I suppose.
Malcolm

Rhythm Changes

Hi everbody,

I know I said I was going to get you a version of 'Round Midnight, but I decided I had to work on fundamentals, so I got a metronome and plan to get to the point where I can play stock rhythm changes in my sleep in all twelve keys, and then work on improvising chord substitutions.  Also, I am noticeably worse at playing sharp keys than flat ones (well I notice it anyway.)

Oh, for the uninitiated "rhythm changes" refers to the chord progression of a Gershwin tune called "I Got Rhythm", which has been lifted a million times and is at this point just a progression that everyone knows (similar to 12 bar blues progressions.)  Well everyone but me.  But I will get it down cold.  Yessirree.

Though at some point in that I will get back to working at songs I'm sure, and in the meantime I will probably try to write up some stuff on here.  Also might post some of the practice I'm doing, it's easy enough to record, some might be worth listening to.

Anyhow, here are some rhythm changes in D:
 D Rhythm Changes by Malcolm81

or click: http://soundcloud.com/malcolm81/d-rhythm-changes

Testing...

Alright, bear with me a second here, just trying something....

Ok, That's a jazz minor scale, in C.  Classical folks will recognize that as an ascending or descending melodic minor, the one that isn't a mode of the major scale.  Ascending I guess.  Appreciate your comments if I'm dead wrong.  50/50 chance.  Wow I put a lot of care into this blog.  Anyhow, it forms it's own modes in jazz and doesn't change depending on whether the melody is ascending or descending or anything, and  it's pretty important, it's the basis of  a lot of altered harmonies, and an Eb jazz minor is the main key of 'Round Midnight, which I should be posting shortly.  

Alright, smashing success.  

Malcolm

F'ing Blues

Hi everybody,

I recorded a simple composition of mine called "F'ing Blues", it's a blues number, hence the term Blues, and it's in F, hence "F'ing".

anyhow, here it is:
 F'ing Blues by Malcolm81

or the link to it on SoundCloud : http://soundcloud.com/malcolm81/fing-blues

Anyhow hope you like it.

I'm working on a rendition of Monk's "Round Midnight", and man it seems like everytime I try to learn a new Monk tune I realize I don't know anything about playing the damn piano or music in general.  But I more or less have it down as far as playing it goes, it's a question of how to improvise with it without messing with that oh-so-awesome atmosphere obtained by really simple means.

Also, once I figure out how to use some software to post music on the blog I will, and I will see if I can get some jazz tutorial stuff up for non-jazz musicians to get started with, and also to refer to in other posts where I want to talk music in more particulars than I have been able to as of now.

Ok.  Beat the buzzer, I've been trying to post everyday.  So hurray for me.

Till Next Time,
Malcolm

Play Misty for You

Ok, I am not too happy with this rendition but I don't feel like playing this song anymore right now, so I'm just going to post it and be done with it.  I learned a lot getting this song to this point, and of course I could learn more with it but there are a lot of other songs in the world worth learning.

Without further ado, then--
 Misty (Erroll Garner) by Malcolm81

or feel free to visit it on my SoundCloud page by clicking here.

It is a little tough getting the rhythms to ring the way I want them using the pedal, since of course the pedal causes the melody to ring as well, and so sometimes the melody ends up ringing, and sometimes the harmony is not entirely smooth in its transition.  This was the main challenge I faced in learning this piece to this point.

The solo sounds pleasant enough for the most part, but I must have buggered something up, as in an extra repeat or two or letting the tempo really drop off because it is much longer than it was intended to be, I meant to just go through the form once for the solo (song once as a head, once as a solo, once at the end).

In reality I think it's probably better to not go through the whole form, it just makes it crazy long.  I think I will just run through the A-1, then solo over the A-1, then run the A-2, then the bridge, then the A-2.  Any input on this?  Or anything?  Or am I talking to myself?

Speaking of talking to myself, I have decided not to play this on request, ever.  Because that dialogue would go something like:

Requester: Could you play Misty for me?
Me: No, I can't.  Or rather I could, but then you'd have to kill me, and I don't want to die.

Though actually I've never seen "Play Misty for Me,"  but I have the impression it is a fatal attraction style thriller.

Anyhow, that's a blogpost if I've ever seen one.  Till next time,
Malcolm