Author Topic: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread  (Read 300694 times)

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Online Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1540 on: November 23, 2016, 07:42:27 AM »
My pastor texted me a few weeks ago and asked me if I'd play the piano for the Multifaith Thanksgiving Eve Service (or whatever it's called).  I'll pretty much play music anytime, anywhere, and I love playing that grand piano in the chancel, so of course I texted her back telling her that I'd do it.  The multicultural thing started several years ago and moves around to different churches and other houses of worship.  Our church has hosted it twice, and I've been to it at a few other places, singing in the choir, but I think this will be my first time playing the piano.

She texted me back, thanking me, and later sent me an email telling me where and when it would be.  It's in the basement of the Islamic Cultural Center over on the west side of town, and she cc'd the Imam, giving his phone number as well.  Also, they don't have a piano there, so we'll have to figure something out, probably bring the electronic piano from our church.

It crossed my mind that it was no mistake how she'd asked me to do this before mentioning that it was not at our church, or that I'd be hauling the Yamaha.  I still think it's possible.  It's also possible that that angle never crossed her mind, and she was just doing her part, the same as the other leaders/organizers, and finding someone to play, and she knew someone and that we have a keyboard as well.  But our Yamaha thing is nice, 88 weighted keys, and I'm not supposed to lift that much weight by myself (long story).  Also, someone messed it up and now the power cord keeps dropping out unless you get the cord set just the right way and hold it there.  It's currently taped in place, but you still have to move it around to find the right spot; the tape just holds it in place once you've actually found the spot.

So I'm not hauling that thing down stairs into a basement; I'm just bringing my own Yamaha, which is a $500 piece of plastic and doesn't quite sound as nice, but it has a decent piano patch that sounds good enough through a decent P.A.  It's the one I use in the band.  I went over there last night with my Yamaha, stand, amp, and cord bag.  We ended up running it through the board, so I didn't need the amp, but you never know.  Got everything set up, tested it, it sounds good coming through the P.A.  They've got an eight-channel board, four wireless microphones, a few other things hooked up, so I'm on Channel 7.

On the way out of there, I'm walking down this long hallway to the stairs, then up the stairs, then down another hallway to the main entrance/exit.  It occurred to me that this is the type of place that some people would firebomb, a house of Islam, and we'd be in the basement, far from the nearest exit.  They would do it when there was a service going on, when they knew there'd be lots of people inside.  I would be one of those people.  I don't know why that even occurred to me, other than the fact that I make it a point to always be aware of my surroundings and circumstances, because you never know.  I'll be getting there tonight an hour before things start.  I'm going to wander around a bit, admire the decor (it really is very nice), and make sure I know where the emergency exits are.  Yes, this is a shitty thing to have to do, to even think about, but these are the times we live in.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1541 on: November 23, 2016, 10:46:46 PM »
Got there around 5:45, things didn't start until 7:00.  My piano was still there, right where we'd left it last night, and the P.A. was on, so I switched the piano on and warmed up a bit.  The Imam had seen me come in and walked down with me, but after a few moments, he excused himself and left me there alone in the room.  I went through the hymns, and there's a part of the service marked "Offering" so I'd prepared a piece for that.  Didn't end up using it.

Before he left, the Imam had said something about playing as people are coming in.  Cool, I'll just noodle around, wander in and out of songs, my usual thing.  About 6:30, people are starting to wander in, but it's really quiet and it seemed weird to just start playing.  By 6:40, more people were there, and there was chatter, so I turned the volume down and started playing some quiet stuff.  "Solace" by Scott Joplin (I wonder if Joplin had ever been played in that building before), which is in F, pretty mellow.  I figured that at that volume, I could go brighter, so I started messing around in D.  D was boring, so I switched to G.  G, D/F#, Em... and suddenly I heard a voice cry out "Freebird!", so F, C, D.  Turns out the voice was only in my head, but it was too late, I was committed to it.  Played the intro, a verse, took the solo (live version, of course)... it's actually a lovely piece of music as a solo piano piece.  I looked up to see if anyone noticed.  No.  It's probably for the best.  I'm pretty sure Lynyrd Skynyrd has never been played in that building before, not during a service.  But music is about breaking down barriers and bringing us all together, right?

Glanced at my phone; it's 6:50 now.  Cool.  "One for the Vine" by Genesis is exactly ten minutes long.  I worked out a solo piano arrangement years ago, and pull it out on occasions such as this.  It sounds better on an acoustic piano, but this was serviceable, plus no one was paying attention anyway.  Strictly background music.  Finish, check my phone, 7:00.  Except there's no sign of any clergy.

I started noodling around some more, just some basic stuff in G, and after a few minutes I see the clergy starting to enter.  The main entrance is at the side of the room, and they snake around to the back and come up the center aisle.  I'm going between G, D, and C, and start giving the chords a bit more punch, make it kinduv regal sounding or something, like a Processional, since that's what it is.  As the last of them nears the front, I wind things down, end on a big G chord.  Yay.  Soundtrack for people walking.

I guess I expected someone to say something, some kind of Welcome message, but after a few moments of silence, no one's moving, so I kick into the first hymn.  And we're off!

Closing "hymn" was "America the Beautiful" in Bb.  Big, rich-sounding chords, yeah baby!  Closing words by the Bahá'í leader, technically not a clergyman since they do not have clergy in the Bahá'í faith, just leaders, but he's the new president of the local Clergy Association who've organized this whole thing, so he talks for a while, then wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.  After a pause, he realizes what he's said, and corrects himself with a Happy Thanksgiving.

The program says "Recessional" so I start up "Morning Has Broken".  I figured it would be a nice thing as people get up, walk out, maybe linger and chat, whatever.  As I started the first verse, people started singing along.  Whoa, unexpected, but I rolled with it.  After the first verse, the next Wakeman break that's when everyone started getting up, chatting, walking out (refreshments in the Community Room across the hall), etc.  Perfect.  Finished the tune.  At least four or five people came up to me and thanked me for the music, which was nice.  Then I packed up and got out of there.

I'm not in the program.  No one knows my name, but I played Scott Joplin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Genesis, and Rick Wakeman (and a fair amount of Orbert original) in a mosque, and people had no idea; they just thought it sounded nice.

I'm a musical whore, I admit.  I'll play for anyone, anytime.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1542 on: November 24, 2016, 01:04:33 AM »
Very cool story indeed :D
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline Lucien

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1543 on: November 26, 2016, 10:48:15 PM »
https://musescore.com/blackavar/gymnosolitude-9
https://musescore.com/blackavar/tunnel
https://musescore.com/blackavar/gymnosolitude-10 (YMMV)
https://musescore.com/blackavar/respite
https://musescore.com/blackavar/symphony_2-2

Here's five pieces I've written relatively recently, including the second movement of my second symphony (the first movement can be found here. Enjoy
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1544 on: November 28, 2016, 02:28:35 PM »
D was boring, so I switched to G.  G, D/F#, Em... and suddenly I heard a voice cry out "Freebird!", so F, C, D.  Turns out the voice was only in my head, but it was too late, I was committed to it. 
I cannot count the number of times this has happened to me.

Sweet story, bro.
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1545 on: November 28, 2016, 04:05:04 PM »
Thanks.  I played it purty (for Atlanta).

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1546 on: November 29, 2016, 07:17:28 AM »
:clap:
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1547 on: December 13, 2016, 01:02:04 PM »
So I thought I have to share my epic fail today. I was playing drums in a trio outdoors in preperation for a christmas gig tonight. The stage was very small and maybe one meter up so we all could just barely fit with our gear. I was behind everyone and my drum chair legs was dangerously close to the edge so of course the thought crossed my mind.....

Anyway one song had only piano and bass so I took a break, while standung up I accidently moved the chair a bit and when I sat down again one leg was outside the edge and I just lost balance and fell backwards. Time slowed down and as I was in panic mode and looking for something to grab onto I grabbed my hi-hat stand which of course didn't help me one bit. During the fall my foot also caught my snare and   brought it with me into a pile of mess behind the stage. I quickly stood up and started laughing nervously thinking no one noticed, of course everyone saw it including the small audience listening at the rehearsal. People rushed towards me asking if I was OK, I of course was fine however the only thought that went through my mind was....I hope no one was filming..... :-[

For the sake of my pride please share if you been involved in related stage accidents.

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Offline James Mypetgiress

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1548 on: December 18, 2016, 01:32:55 PM »
So, my band did something and released a music video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly38wHzFZBY
This band has been very FlashDrive esque, in that we've had many problems... the biggest one being that half of the band didn't actually turn up to the filming. If y'all want I'll expand on that, but, I just thought you might like to see it. (I play keys).

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1549 on: December 19, 2016, 07:01:35 AM »
This band has been very FlashDrive esque, in that we've had many problems... the biggest one being that half of the band didn't actually turn up to the filming.

what. how. why.

Nice song though, good job.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1550 on: December 19, 2016, 11:24:40 AM »
This band has been very FlashDrive esque, in that we've had many problems... the biggest one being that half of the band didn't actually turn up to the filming.

what. how. why.

Nice song though, good job.
It's basically just a lack of dedication. We were basically formed out of 2 bands, so we ended up having one half super dedicated, and the other half not giving a damn. They didn't turn up to most of the writing sessions, one of the guitarists didn't record on the actual track, and the drummer is just an all round dislikeable person. My side of the group (the people who give a shit) have basically decided to kick all of them out and get a new guitarist. I'm gonna program drums for the time being, until we get a proper drummer again.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1551 on: December 19, 2016, 07:13:43 PM »
Get a text out of the blue from the pastor of my church, a very pretty lady named Melissa.  She is great, but sometimes her brain runs a little differently from most people's, and you have to keep up.

Her:  My notes from our meeting have you and Michael playing on one of our songs. Do you know what instrument you are playing?

(There was a meeting about three weeks ago.  It's already foggy...)

Me:  One of our songs for what?

Her:  For Wednesday's longest night

(Longest Night is a special midweek service on Dec 21, the longest night.  It's for people for whom the holidays are not all happy or fulfilling or whatever someone would like them to be but they're not, and it can be tough.)

Me:  Ah yes. I was going to play something on the piano.

Me:  If that's okay.

(Yes, I use punctuation when I text.  Sue me.)

Her:  Great!

Her: I think it was for when we sing In the Bleak Midwinter. Was there also another piece?

Me:  I was thinking of a solo piece. But I know In the Bleak Midwinter came up during discussion. I could play that.

Her:  Let's do both!

(That's right, kids.  She suggested doing both.)

Me:  That's fine with me. :)


Haven't heard from her since, must be a done deal.   :hat

I'm gonna whip out "Solace" by Scott Joplin again.  It'll be perfect.  My goal: Make them weep, openly.  (I've done it before, heh heh.)

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1552 on: December 20, 2016, 08:17:42 AM »
 :metal

BTW, that is a cool idea for a service.  I am jealous.
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1553 on: December 20, 2016, 11:26:03 AM »
It's very mellow, very laid-back.  Most of the attendees are the old church ladies, the widows facing another holiday season without their husbands.  The music is all quiet, contemplative stuff.  Lots of candles and stuff.  I like it.  At the meeting, I had said that I wanted to play something this year.  In the past, I've accompanied some songs, and sometimes didn't do anything, but I've never played a solo piece.  I didn't have anything in mind, but I knew I wanted to contribute something.

I got a text from her this morning asking if I'd like to just do the whole service (prelude, postlude, etc).  She was probably thinking that it would be a little weird that we have our regular organist, then there's me playing a solo piece and one of the songs.  If it was just the solo piece, it would make sense; it's a special thing.  Playing one of the songs but not the rest is a little wacky, but that's what we ended up with last night.

I declined, because as it happens, I'm already doing all the music for Christmas morning and New Year's Day (Sundays this year) so our organist can take some time off.  But it's not because of the effort; I would love to do the whole thing.  It's because I only have so many pieces in my head and I don't want to run out, or start repeating myself.  She said that it had never occurred to her that I'd run out of things to play.  She's heard me just sit down and play for 20 or 30 minutes, but what she doesn't know is that that's most of what I know.  I mean, of what I have prepared, performance-quality, and suitable for playing in a church.  I need a prelude, postlude, and offertory for each service.  I could probably do it, but this is not the Orbert show.  I don't want anyone to ever think I'm doing this for some kind of glory, showing off, whatever.  So it seemed at the moment (I hadn't had my coffee yet, so I'm still not sure) that it would be best to take a step back.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1554 on: December 20, 2016, 11:27:20 AM »
I understand.
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1555 on: December 20, 2016, 11:52:11 AM »
I'm curious how well Extreme's "More Than Words" would translate to piano.  It's random thoughts like this that make me wish I could play the piano.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1556 on: December 20, 2016, 12:29:26 PM »
I would think that it translates well.  With a song like that, there's lots of room to play, too.  You could go for something which more or less emulates the original song (e.g., staccato chords where originally the guitars picked rather than strummed) or go all Richard Clayderman with it, with the melody up top with open sixth harmonies and flowing arpeggios in the left hand.  Or anywhere in between.

That's the beauty of playing the piano; there's infinite modes of expression on the spectrum.  It just comes down to your audience, your mood at the time, and finding something suitable for both.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1557 on: December 20, 2016, 12:56:13 PM »
Only problem with More than Words is that the guitars are tuned a half step down, so despite being played in G position, it's actually technically sounding in Gb.  Easier to do on a guitar than on a piano, since you can retune the guitar on the fly

Whereas with guitar, unless you're someone like Stu Hamm, playing melody AND accompaniment all together is considerably more difficult than on a piano.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1558 on: December 20, 2016, 02:15:44 PM »
Playing in Gb isn't a big deal if you're cooking up your own arrangement anyway.  Your fingers will know what to do.  It can be a little harder to read because there are five flats in the key signature, but really, you get past 2nd or 3rd year piano students and that's not a big deal either.  I know, some people go "Oh shit, five flats!  G flat?!"  But I've never seen anyone who can actually play get all upset over the key.

Plus it sounds sweet in that key.  Super mellow.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1559 on: December 20, 2016, 02:17:52 PM »
Nice.  I get so agitated that I can make my fingers do spectacular things on a guitar, but I cannot for the life of me make them work with anything more than a very slow and painful amount of facility on a piano.   :censored

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1560 on: December 20, 2016, 02:24:31 PM »
I'm just the opposite.  I can do some very basic things on guitar, but on the piano I literally don't even have to think.  If I start thinking too much about what I'm doing, I screw up.  It's better just to let my fingers go.  They know what to do.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1561 on: December 21, 2016, 05:16:09 AM »
Waiting for a Christmas bonus to finally put the final touches on my pedalboard.... :)

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1562 on: December 31, 2016, 09:30:39 AM »
Our church organist is out of town for a few weeks, so I'm filling in.  I don't play the pipe organ.  Maybe one of these days.

Last Sunday (Christmas Day) I hauled my amp and my main keyboard in and we set up in the fellowship hall for an informal service featuring juice, coffee, cinnamon rolls, and singing a lot of Christmas songs.  I was joined by a violin and viola played by some of the better musicians in the congregation, so it turned out really cool.  Sounded great.

Tomorrow (New Year's Day) we're back in the sanctuary, so I'll be on the grand piano.  Yeah, baby!  I love playing that piano.  Hymns, prelude and postlude, offertory, all me, tickling the ivories and (hopefully) amazing everyone.  It's also "Student Sunday" where the college kids take over for a day, since most are in town over break and stuff.  I got an email Thursday night from one of them, saying he'd picked a piece to play on Sunday.  I'd completely forgotten that one of the kids was going to play a clarinet solo, so I offered to accompany him.  But he hadn't decided what to play yet.  I told him to just let me know when he decided.  That was weeks ago and I'd completely forgotten.  So yesterday he dropped off the music at our house.  Fuck.  Some wacky thing by Saint-Saens in Ab, Allegro, and we're playing it tomorrow.  I have some practicing to do.

I know it's my own fault for offering to play, but I didn't think he was going to wait until two days before and drop off five pages of four flats and all kinds of crazy timing and shit.  This will be interesting.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1563 on: January 04, 2017, 09:37:29 AM »
How did Student Sunday go?
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1564 on: January 04, 2017, 10:58:17 AM »
It went well.  I practiced the hell out of the thing, doing my usual thing of looking for shortcuts, both mental and physical.  I'm just the accompanist, the "orchestra" backing up the soloist in a concerto.  All ears will be on him; all I have to do is cover.  I don't have to play every note that's written for me, just enough to back him up, provide the chords and rhythm, which I have plenty of experience with.  I realized a while back that Classical music, for all of its seeming insanity and complexity compared to popular music, still comes down to chords and rhythm.  I can never play anything the same way twice.  First of all, that's boring; second, I literally can't because I'm always changing things on the fly and I often don't know what my fingers are going to do until after they've already done it.

So the solo clarinet piece with me accompanying went well, better than I'd expected.  I practiced it several times sober, a couple of times not so sober, and even later while I was somewhere in between.  I figured having the tune in my head the same way as playing any rock song would be the way to go.  The audience has no idea what I'm supposed to be playing, so whatever I can add will be cool.

"Morning Has Broken" (Cat Stevens Rick Wakeman version) makes a great opening prelude, and in the past people have told me that they love that piece, so it was a good choice.  Plus, New Year's Morning, a brand new year, all that.  During communion, "Solace" by Scott Joplin, chill and unobtrusive.  "Firth of Fifth" by Genesis (intro only) for the postlude.  I always liked the effect of final words by the pastor and a moment of silence before the organist rips into something uptempo and exciting, and "Firth of Fifth" brings it.  88 keys, and I use most of 'em for that one.  The hymns and stuff were pretty basic.  Cook up a little intro on the fly, then once people start singing it's just a matter of pounding out something to keep it moving and support the voices, again stuff I've been doing for like 40 years.

Got an email from one of the church ladies later that day, thanking me for the music and always being so generous with my gifts.  I thanked her, and explained that the true gift of being a musician is not the talent; it's the awesome feeling of playing for others and having them totally dig it.  That's what I live for.

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1565 on: January 04, 2017, 12:56:10 PM »
So true.  :tup
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1566 on: January 24, 2017, 07:16:27 AM »
So, as many of you know, my wife and I were very active in music ministry at our long-time church, but we moved in July, so we had to leave that behind.  We haven't yet found a new church in our new city yet, so we have basically gone that long without using our gifts.

Next month, though, we get to visit our old home church to lead worship while the music minister is out of town.  It will be good to get back to do what we do and see old friends.
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1567 on: January 24, 2017, 09:38:24 AM »
Ah, the triumphant return!  Sounds like a good time. :)

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1568 on: January 24, 2017, 10:17:35 AM »
Ah, the triumphant return!  Sounds like a good time. :)
Hopefully.  We are really looking forward to it.
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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1569 on: January 27, 2017, 07:04:46 PM »
Speaking of church music, our choir did a pretty swinging gospel arrangement of "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" with my buddy Brian playing Alto Sax.  He even got a nice solo.  Brian is my partner in crime when it comes to doing unconventional music.  He and I were basically the main guys in the praise band, and he's the one I've roped into doing wacky things like a Sax Duet for "Special Music" and stuff like that.  So I asked our director Shirley if I could play the piano for it.  She agreed, and we rehearsed it a few times at Thursday night rehearsal, for not the Sunday coming up, but the one after that.  This was a few weeks ago.

The next day I realized that we'd be out of town that weekend.  Crap.  I'd gotten so excited about the prospect of playing the tune that I didn't even think.  Also, I was bummed because I was really looking forward to jamming on that song.  Shirley's husband Steve ended up playing the piano instead.  He's one of the few "real musicians" in the congregation, an excellent pianist.  Better than me when it comes to the technical stuff, like several leagues above me, since I'm mostly self-taught and he's on the freakin' music faculty at DePaul University.

Anyway, I asked Mike and Brian later (Mike is the other tenor, and also a regular in the praise band) how it went, with Brian's solo, and with Steve on piano.  Mike goes "It was fine.  Steve is very..." and he looks at Brian, and Brian says "precise" and Mike practically says "precise" at the same time.  A very different style from mine.  I just let it fly, while Steve clearly had practiced and was very well-prepared to play it.  That's how they described it, "but that's good" they were sure to mention.  It's great that I can just sit down and whip through it, as I did at rehearsal, but Steve is at the other end of the spectrum; very "precise".  It was funny because I couldn't tell if they were searching for words to praise Steve properly without insulting him, or to not insult me by comparison to someone so much better.  Steve was very precise, but it would have been more fun with me on the piano.  Ah ha!  A sincere compliment to Steve, while making clear that they still would've preferred me.  But I have no problem with "precise".  Most of the time, if everyone sings and plays exactly what's in the arrangement, it sounds great.

My problem is that I literally cannot do that.  I've tried.  I can't sight-read that fast, but what I can do instead is very quickly scan the notes, process them and translate them into chords and rhythm (this realization recently is what led to my comment about chords and rhythm earlier), and then I play something with the same feel as what's written, possibly even groovier, with the right chords and all, and I couldn't tell you later what my fingers were doing.  Even if I practiced for hours (and believe me, a couple of hours is more than I can usually stand, practicing a single piece), it would not get significantly better, if better means closer to the original arrangement.  But it'll sound fine (possibly even groovier).

To me, that's what being a musician is all about.  Someone's playing or singing something, and you can grab a guitar or a saxophone or a flute and just play along, add something to what's going on.  It'll be completely original and spontaneous and will never happen again, but you were there and you were part of it.  I love that, I love being able to do that.  Oh fuck, now it sounds like I'm bragging, and I guess I am, but I fucking love playing music, especially with other people and/or for other people.

"Music is the best."  -- Frank Zappa

Online Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1570 on: January 29, 2017, 11:18:44 PM »
Got home from band practice Saturday - damn, 10 songs in 2 hours - to an email from our choir director, asking if I can cover the hymns again on Sunday (today), as our organist is sick.  Sure, what the heck.  Third time in six weeks, but who's counting?

I did something a little different for the prelude; I just improvised the whole thing.  I didn't mean to; I started in F and had planned on working around to B-flat and then into "How Great Thou Art" which is in B-flat, but I messed around too much and before I knew it I'd hit a B-flat major 7, and I couldn't figure out a way to a regular B-flat, so I just kinda kept at it.  Kinda jazzy, kinda new-agey, major sevenths and minor sevenths everywhere.  At one point I got into a bunch of open stuff, like C6/9 with a roving bass to kinda change the color.  C6/9 turns into an F2/6 if you put an F in the bass, so I did the new age thing for a while, in and out of Am, Fsomething, Gsomething, that kind of thing, then worked into something more jazzy with the sevenths again.  Ended up being about a six-minute improv.

Steve made a point of finding me later and telling me it sounded great.  "You made that up, didn't you?"  Yeah.  I mean, I would've thought it was obvious, but maybe not.  Just Orbert messing around.  I've done that in less formal situations and have people ask me what I'm playing.  I have no idea; I'm just messing around.  Just tune in your head and move your fingers.

I whipped out "How Great Thou Art" for the offertory, since I still wanted to play it and needed something more structured, and good old "Morning Has Broken" for the postlude.  The hymns went well, and I pounded out the doxology as usual.  Some people told me that the piano sounded really great today, which I took to mean me (but maybe not, I suppose).  Hey, we've got that baby, might as well pound on it.  That's what it's for.

Online hefdaddy42

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1571 on: January 30, 2017, 08:25:10 AM »
:clap:
Hef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

Offline Sir GuitarCozmo

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1572 on: February 08, 2017, 06:31:38 AM »
Contacted by a singer and drummer looking to get something going.  I'm bringing my bass player on board and we're going to jam in a couple weeks and see how it sounds/feels.  Chosen tunes for said jam:

Gypsy Road – Cinderella
Shake Me – Cinderella
Piece of Me – Skid Row
S*x Type Thing – Stone Temple Pilots
Fly High Michelle – Enuff Z’Nuff
Slide It In – Whitesnake
Bark at the Moon – Ozzy
Home Sweet Home – Motley Crue
Don’t Go Away Mad, Just Go Away – Motley Crue
Tell Me – White Lion
Burnin’ Like a Flame – Dokken
She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult

Online Orbert

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1573 on: February 08, 2017, 08:09:26 AM »
Yeah, baby!  It's exciting just knowing you have a jam coming up, and that it might lead to something more.  :tup

Offline Sir GuitarCozmo

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Re: All musicians unite! - The Musicians Chat Thread
« Reply #1574 on: February 08, 2017, 08:15:56 AM »
I know, I'm feeling good about it.  Saw some video of the singer doing Fastway's "Say What You Will" and it was pretty good.  Crossing my fingers this actually sounds good all around and turns into something.  The fact that I was able to suggest an Enuff Z'Nuff song and nobody even flinched, is a good thing.  :lol