Pianologist 钢琴家

How are you playing the piano??

rewsnat — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:13:09 +0000

Every piano player, amateur or pro, has their own piano playing posture. What many fail to realize is how each posture could trigger a very different effect in our playing.

Here’s a paragraph from Hal Galper in his book Forward Motion -

” One evening a blue-haired old lady came up to the piano and started talking to me while I was in the middle of a solo portion of some tune. I didn’t stop soloing while we talked. As the discussion progressed I started to notice that I was improvising ideas I had never played before. “

Of course what I’m talking about here is not the normal playing posture a piano teacher would talked about, relax shoulders, straight torso, forearm parallel to the floor, etc.

Instead, what we are focusing here is more of playing “habits” that could trigger different internal process, thus varying external behavior ie. our playing. In short, for lack of a better term, playing posture.

I for one have experimented with many different playing postures night after night while performing. Its surprising how different the results are. I’ve categorized a few of them, and here they are :

The Eyes Closed Mind Focused Posture

The pianist has his eyes closed, not to doze off, but his mind fully focused. Bill Evans is one of the jazz pianist who adopted this posture extensively, mostly throughout his whole performance

With the eyes closed, the ears listened more attentively. The pianist will tend to focus on how he is sounding, thus producing a nicer tone on the keys, and improvising lines straight from the heart.

Keith Jarrett is another jazz pianist who does this often.

However, when playing with such a posture, the pianist will also have a tendency to dwell in his own music, neglecting the importance of communication between band members on the band stand.

———————

The What Are We Doing Posture

The pianist is constantly looking at the other band members, carefully listening to what everyone is doing. One notable jazz pianist who does this often is the great Chick Corea.

With constant eye contact and communication, band members are feeding each other ideas along the way. The pianist will also be mindful of how the music is sounding as a whole.

——————-

The Are You All Having A Great Time Posture

The pianist looks at the audience while playing, always trying to project his feeling to the audience through his music. We can see from countless video clips, how Erroll Garner often communicate with his audience when performing.

Erroll Garner even mentioned in an interview, how he is always drawing ideas from what the audiences are feeding him. Pianists who adopt this posture are aware that they are not just making music, but also entertaining people, and are on a constant quest to get the listener’s foot tapping.

None of the posture mentioned above is better than the other, they only differ in the results they produce. Our goal as musicians, is to find one that you are comfortable with, also enabling you to sound great.

Note also that these are neither scientifically proven facts nor statiscally supported hypothesis, they are merely personal experiences gained from countless experimentation on stage.

You are very welcomed to voice your opinion or share some of your own experiences, I will be glad to read each and one of them.

Pianologist Live in Penang

rewsnat — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:35:43 +0000

Did a wedding gig in Penang, Malaysia recently. Had a wonderful line up, blessed with some wonderful talented musicians on stage. Here’s a youtube clip of us doing the famous Grover Washington Jr tune, just the two of us.

One of my aim, when performing that song, was to find a comping pattern that would sit tightly with the bass and drums, occasionally putting in some small jabs here and there to add some variations.

I was very careful when executing fill ins throughout, my task was to complement the vocalist and the sax.

Enjoy the video, and please do leave some comments..

Transcription and Lead Sheet of Chick Corea’s Humpty Dumpty

rewsnat — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:44:49 +0000

Chick Corea’s Humpty Dumpty piano solo transcription and lead sheet, with examples of polyrhythm application.

Chick Corea’s Humpty Dumpty is an interesting and challenging tune the play, mainly because of two reasons:

The harmony changes in the tune breaks away from the normal 2-5-1 progression that we expect.
The length of the tune is actually 18 bars, giving musicians who are accustomed to tunes written in multiples of four bars something new to tackle.

Here is a youtube clip of Chick Corea’s acoustic band doing a wonderful job on this tune.

I’m sure most of you will be dying to learn this tune after this video, so here is the lead sheet as promised.

humpty-dumpty-lead-sheet

And here is the transcription of Chick Corea’s piano solo on Humpty Dumpty, which is from 0m49s to 2m05s of the video above.

Chick-Corea-Humpty-Dumpty-piano-solo-transcription

We discussed about polyrhythm on an earlier post, you can read it here. Now we are going to see how the master of keyboard himself applied it in his improvisation.

First we look at the first four bars of the transcription,

Figure 1

We see a series of dotted crotchets over the 4/4 time signature, giving it a polyrhythm between the original 4/4 time and a 6/8 time.
In applying it, Chick Corea would simply fill the dotted crotchets with appropriate chord tones of each bar. And to add more flavor, a keen observer would notice that the string of dotted crotchets notes didn’t start on the first beat, but was actually displaced a quaver after.

Next, we look at bars 51 - 52 of the transcription

Figure 2

The basic polyrhythm pattern is exactly similar to the earlier example. But instead of just plain dotted crotchets, they are each divided into a crotchet and quaver to form a motif, which is repeated in an ascending manner.

Lastly, we look at bars 73 - 75 of the transcription

Figure 3

Here, we see that the motifs each has a duration of 3 crotchets, thus creating a polyrhythm between a 3/4 time and the original 4/4 time.

Moreover, it can be seen that not all the notes are in line with each chord, as if the motifs are rhythmically shifted to create and interesting effect, which we evidently call it the rhythmic displacement technique.

So that’s all for now, have fun learning and playing this tune. Enjoy ….

Polyrhythm

rewsnat — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:15:14 +0000

Polyrhythm is when we have two or more rhythms existing simultaneously. The most commonly used polyrhythms are the “two on three” and “three on two”. Shown below are two examples of polyrhythms.

Figure 1

Figure 2

In figure 1, the left hand is clearly playing the basic pulse of a 3/4 time. The right hand however is playing the pulse of a 6/8 time.

In figure 2, the left hand is again playing the basic pulse of a 3/4 time, also sounding much like a 6/4 time. Whereas the right hand is playing the pulse of a 3/2 time.

Almost every accomplished jazz musician has mastered this technique, and is capable of calling it out anywhere in his or her solo.

A motif may be developed, and repeated as polyrhythms to create an interesting effect. Here is an example.

Figure 3

Notice in figure 3, the original time signature is a 4/4. However the motif has a length of a dotted minim each, giving it a rhythmic structure as shown below in figure 4.

Figure 4

The result is a polyrhythm between a basic 4/4 time and a 3/4 time.

Here is the great youtube jazz pianist Lot2learn demonstrating some use of the “two on three” polyrhythm.

Swinging in sixteenth notes

rewsnat — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:37:15 +0000

Sixteenth notes are often neglected by many when improvising over a swing beat.

Observe how pianist David Newton demonstrates the use of sixteenth notes in his solo, at 3m33s of this video.

The basic rhythm for a swing beat is as shown in diagram 1 below

Diagram 1

Thus an improvised melody maybe played like this over a swing beat

Diagram 2

string of eight notes triplets fit nicely into swing beats too

Diagram 3

A jazz improviser will usually apply a mixture of both in his solos, as shown in diagram 4 below

Diagram 4

This alone is quite enough for a nice solo, however, an occasional use of sixteenth notes could always produce some interesting effect rhythmically

Here’s another example,

See how Diana Krall spice up her solo with sixteenth notes, at 1m23s of this video.

Students who have practised bebop eight notes soloing thoroughly should have no problem in this area. The sixteenth notes here could be treated as eight notes played in double time.

Diagram 5

is equivalent to

Diagram 6
However, keep in mind that due to this factor, applying sixteenth notes on a medium tempo swing beat of maybe 150bpm, would be like soloing over a bebop tune at 300bpm !!

Transcription of Chick Corea on Armando’s Rhumba

rewsnat — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:50:55 +0000

Transcription of Chick Corea’s solo piano playing of Jazz Salsa tune Armando’s Rhumba

Chick Corea did a nice solo piano version of his own composition called Armando’s Rhumba on Legends of Jazz. Here is the youtube video :

Here’s the transcription of the video from roughly 0m44s to 1m33s :

armandos-rhumba-by-chick-corea-part-1

A few points to take note :

Harmonizing Melody

We see how Chick Corea manage to harmonize the original melody of the tune beautifully, instead of just playing it with both hands unison.
The melody need not always be harmonize a third away. From the transcription, we see a mixture of fifths, and thirds and many others. What’s more important is the chord at that instant you plan to harmonize.

Salsa Groove

The tune should be played with a strong salsa groove to it. With the clave beat in your head, even though there’s no salsa drumming or a steady bass tumbao to guide you. This will strongly effect your phrasing, and accents.
Check out this video when Chick Corea is playing with Bobby McFerrin. Note how McFerrin was doing the bass tumbao when Chick Corea was improvising a solo.

Bar 9 - 12

The left hand part of these four bars were very blurry, my best guess was a rolling of left hand with two C notes an octave a part, with the intention of a C pedal tone through these four bars.

Have fun and Enjoy ……

Mambo Influenciado (Take 1)

rewsnat — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:06:38 +0000

Jazz Piano Improvisation video and lead sheet of latin tune Mambo Influenciado

Mambo Influenciado is a nice and catchy latin tune written by the great Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes. I first came across this song when listening to the Klazz Brothers performing together with cuba percussions.

Here’s the video of the Klazz Brothers doing their version of Mambo Influenciado :

And here’s the video of me improvising through the changes, which frankly speaking, still need a lot of work :

The backing track was from Band-in-a-Box, playing a salsa groove. The sound was recorded straight through my Sony Handycam.

A few points I have to take note after analyzing my own video :

a) Needs more dynamics on the solo, achieving it particularly through altering note density.

b) More work on left hand choice of harmonizing notes, perhaps more quartals.

c) This piano sound simply will not do. Better start saving money for an 88 Graded Hammer Action .

Here’s the lead sheet for the head of Mambo Influenciado:

mambo-influenciado

Have fun and enjoy..

Acoustica Pianissimo Virtual Grand Review and Guide

KCLau — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:15:37 +0000

For many years, pianists had never paid attention to any “piano” instrument that is unreal, until recent years. With the introduction of well designed digital pianos, many piano learners have opted to own an electric-powered piano prior to spending thousands dollars on a real wooden piano.

I can see the trend is moving towards “virtual”. Most of the recording studios don’t provide a grand piano for live recording. Audio engineers save the trouble of setting up stereo mic for pianos, yet are able to use well recorded sample software piano when mixing down tracks. One of the recent products available on the market is Pianissimo, developed by Acoustica.

Pianissimo combines the high quality 250MB samples of Steinway Model D grand piano with advanced physical modeling to create stunning piano sounds. For the street price of US$68.95, it is in fact a great bargain to be able to stock a full Steinway sound in your audio system.

Low CPU usage

This is something that amazed me when I ran Pianissimo for the first time on my PC. It shows 2% usage when not played. Even when I hit more than 5 keys at the same time or run a super fast drill, it keeps the usage under 10%. I tried the extreme by holding down the sustain pedal, and hit all possible 88 keys. And yet, it never went over 30% CPU usage.

I’ve tried the similar stuff with other software pianos and my PC was overloaded in no time.

Overview

How it sounds?

Nothing describes the sound better than a demo.
Have a listen yourself: Pianissimo Demo
This is a track I improvised.
Overall, I love the sound of the high notes.

Built-in Recorder

Pianissimo comes with a built-in recorder. You can set the time-signature and tempo of the metronome, which is very handy during practice. Or you simply want to record a song with the correct barring when exporting the MIDI file. These features are extremely useful when I am just going to improvise and compose some music. This saves the trouble of loading up my sequencer.
The recorder provides two tracks recording. It is designated left hand and right hand track. However, it doesn’t limit the note you play on each track. You can record both hand playing on one track, and record another one on top of that track, thus making your recording a four-hand piece.

When you are done with your song, you can export it as MIDI file, or render it into MP3, OGG, WAVE or WMA format.

Real time Keyboard and Pedal Animation

One of the common features of a software piano is to show what keys you are actually playing on screen. This will be useful if you want to do screen cast to show how a song is played. Audience can clearly see the notes you press. The animated action includes sustain and soft pedal as well.

Try record a song, and play it back later just to watch how the keys are hit. I am fascinated and hooked. I believe that you will too. This is a pretty standard feature of any sample player with keyboard display. But there are many software pianos that don’t come with one.

Subtle Sound Effects

There are some controls on the sound effects of a real piano.

Hammer Sound – you can decide the volume level of a hammer sound

Reverb – there are seven presets. You can only control the level of reverb, but not the advanced setting of a typical reverb effect unit. But we don’t really need that. I normally put off the reverb because when you are playing a grand piano, the dry sound just hit your ear first. All the reflection later (delay, reverb) will be produced by the acoustic environment of your room.

Tone Control

Tone control page allow you to adjust several parameters.

Velocity curve – from very light to very heavy. I like it at the normal level.
Sympathetic resonance – this mimics the resonance of strings when you press the sustain pedal. I like it at the default setting of 50%. Try push it to 100% and you will hear the effects. It is like putting your ear just next to the strings.
Chorus – default at zero.
EQ – it is a three-band EQ. Not much to adjust but it is better than none.

How to change the metronome sound?

By default, the first beat is a bass drum and the rest are closed hihats. Don’t like the metronome sounds, you can easily change it under “File”, “Preferences”

Preset Sounds Setting

Pianissimo comes with 10 preset piano sounds. Basically they use the same sample, just differ in tone control and effects. Too bad there is no user setting slot. It would be a great feature to let user save their own setting and recall it at an instant. The only way to do now is to insert Pianissimo as a VSTi (VST instrument plugin) in your digital audio workstation (such as Cakewalk Sonar, Cubase etc) and save the setting together with your project file.

Pianissimo Videos

Conclusion

For value and performance, the Pianissimo is a total knockout. It gives decent piano sounds, and yet with a retail price that won’t make a big hole on your wallet. Whether you need a piano sample player for your MIDI controller, or a software piano to power up your piano track during recording, Pianissimo over-delivers the quality. For only a fraction of the price for the top big player (think of Ivory Piano), in my opinion, it delivers 80% of the quality. Definitely a great buy!

Product Features of Pianissimo

Features 250MB of high-quality, quadruple-strike samples from a Steinway™ Model D grand piano, enhanced with acoustic modeling technology to produce a rich, warm, expressive, and highly realistic grand piano sound.
Ultra-professional integrated studio reverb creates a highly realistic ambience that places the piano within a true acoustic space.
Unparalleled sample programming creates a fluid, dynamic, expressive tone without identifiable velocity switching or other digital artifacts.
Advanced sympathetic resonance modeling recreates the subtle shimmer of piano strings when the damper pedal is depressed.
Adjustable incidental piano sounds, including mechanical noises from damper pedal and key release, for an unparalleled level of realism.
256 voices of polyphony and low CPU usage make Pianissimo ideal for solo piano performance, studio compositions, and live performance.
Adjustable piano lid, velocity curve, tone controls, sympathetic resonance, reverb, and chorus effect allow you to tailor the piano’s tone and response to fit your playing style.
Works in all major digital audio recording software packages (including Mixcraft™) as a VSTi plug-in instrument.
Stand-alone version features metronome, two-track sequencer, and ability to mix down recordings to WAV, MP3, WMA, or OGG Vorbis audio files.

System Requirement

Windows XP, or Vista.
1 GB RAM (2 GB RAM recommended).
1.5 GHz CPU (2 GHz Dual Core recommended).
Sound card or sound device.
USB or MIDI controller keyboard recommended.
Display resolution @ 1024 x 768 or above.

Purchase Pianissimo

You can purchase Pianissimo here.

More Reviews of Pianissimo

Pianissimo Review on Squidoo
Pianissimo Review on Sonikmatter
Pianissimo Review on Sonic State
Review by PC world
Review by PC Advisor
Review by Cariboo Computer Magazine

Most of the best pianists are self-taught

KCLau — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:21:23 +0000

I hope I won’t offend anyone when I said this - most of the best pianists are self-taught!

Rewsnat is a good example. I think he would say the same thing to me too. We don’t consider ourself as the best. But we do play the piano better than 95% of the population (probably higher). Most of the techniques and skills we have, we acquired through self study.

we practice the songs we love
we work on the drills mostly alone in our own room
we learn important tricks from other musicians and gurus (note that they wouldn’t have taught us if we didn’t ask on the first place)
we read books on improvisation techniques
we asked help on certain things in an online forum
we watch the masters play on video and live, to learn their stuff.

I don’t mean that the piano teachers play no role in nurturing a student to become a virtuoso. All I want to express is that a person’s burning desire to master the piano is the key and ultimate reason that will make him one of the best.

Since you are reading this blog, I bet you are heading to the right path —– teaching yourself! Congratulations!

Play Piano Using Computer Keyboard & Mouse: Piano FX Studio 4.0

KCLau — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:41:46 +0000

I wrote about a virtual piano application for PC users before. But the download link doesn’t work anymore, probably because the creator doesn’t support the software anymore.

Here is another virtual piano for you to try - PianoFX Studio 4.0 from Tanseon Systems is an advanced Piano Chords music keyboard Synthesizer for the Personal Computer. You can play live piano music using your PC keyboard or mouse without the requirement of a conventional Piano.

System Requirements:
Any 166 Mhz Processor or greater
Color Monitor
Sound Card
Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
Tested on Vista. Vista Compatible.

Program is full version 100% working and tested.

Screen Shot of Piano FX Studio 4.0

Size: 2.11 MB
Download here
Visit the NAMLN
for more details.