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keyboard update
Oct. 10th, 2006 11:26 pmIf I do get this, it looks like I'll be spending less money than I'd planned, which would be nice, too.
piano woes
Oct. 8th, 2006 01:16 pmI've had my current electronic piano, a Korg C-150, since 1999. I've been very happy with it; it's not exactly like playing a real piano (no keyboard can quite match that), but it's the next best thing and has a good sound, a full-sized keyboard, and weighted keys. (The two big advantages over an actual piano is that it never needs to be tuned and is relatively portable.)
In recent months, however, I've noticed that on occasion it will change sounds in the middle of a song, so that suddenly I'm playing a harpsichord in the middle of a blues song. This doesn't happen that often, but it seems like its years on the road are catching up to it.
I think I will keep it for home use, because it is a good keyboard and has built-in speakers, but I think I should start looking in to getting a new keyboard for use at shows. I still want a full-sized keyboard and weighted keys. I definitely don't want built-in speakers this time, as they weight a ton and I am tired of carrying that much weight up the stairs to my apartment early in the morning after shows.
Cow Cow Blues revisited
Jul. 19th, 2004 11:00 pmI've continued to hack away at it, and it's been coming along, even though I still suck at it. Tonight I foolishly decided to record myself playing it: here's the recording for those of you who enjoy listening to blues piano classics being slaughtered. The ending in particular has great amusement value.
And while I'm at it, here's what happens when I use the power of MIDI to speed things up. Even the mistakes sound better when accelerated to 175 bpm from 115!
Cow Cow Boogie
Mar. 29th, 2004 08:44 pmAs with my earlier Pinetop's Boogie Woogie mass purchase, the idea here was to listen to a few different versions with an eye to learning to play some variant of the song myself.
The neat thing is that while the last time I tried to master the song (which was some years ago, I think) I couldn't play it at all, really. But now I'm trying to follow along and I only suck at it. So, progress! With a bit of luck I'll only be mediocre at it before too long, I hope!
As appears to be traditional with these things, one of the versions of the song is in good old C, while the other appears to be in E flat or some damn thing.
PINETOP'S BOOGIE WOOGIE
Feb. 13th, 2004 07:12 pmI play blues piano. I don't think I'm completely terrible, but I can certainly use a lot of improvement.
When I was first playing piano I made some half-assed attempts to learn some of the standard boogie woogie piano pieces, things like the Chicken Shack, the Dirty Dozens, the odd Jimmy Yancey piece and, of course, Pine Top's Boogie Woogie.
Pine Top Smith was a boogie woogie piano player who, in 1928, recorded the song 'Pine Top's Boogie Woogie'. It's basically a piano solo piece with a bass line that became (if it wasn't already) one of the standard bass lines and a few alternating right hand parts that he played over it. What really made the piece, though, was the patter that he kept going while playing, which went something like: "Now listen you all, this is my Pine Top strut. I want everyone dancing just like I tell you. And when I say to hold yourself, get ready to stop. And when I say stop, don't move a peg. And when I say to get it, everybody do a boogie woogie. Hold yourself now .... Boogie woogie. Now that's what I'm talking about." Listening to the piece, or seeing someone perform it live, it's clear that the piece just isn't the same without the piano player giving instructions to the nonexistent dancers that surround him (or her, although I don't think I've heard a woman perform this piece. Hm.)
So back in the day, as I said, I worked on this piece some and learned some approximation of bits of the piano part. What I had never bothered to do was deal with the patter. It turns out that this makes it a lot harder, at least for me.
But none of this is actually relevant to this post!
( The Eight Faces of Pine Top's Boogie Woogie )
