h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't know nothing about playing piano or keyboard but I know that a keyboard doesn't sound good at all to me.The sound of it doesn't "live". It's a dead numerical thing wich produces allways the same noises. hate it. *s*.

Me too. But have you ever heard someone who's only been a keyboardist try to play a piano? They butcher the tone, because it's never made a difference to the sound before.

Hi pAt, Hi Penguin Girl,

Maybe you're right, most of the guys I know who can jam on a piano also play keyboards. Basically, I think the only real difference between a keyboard player and a pianist is that most pianists don't get taught to play ad lib accompaniment. The reason herefore would seem to be that most piano teachers teach 'classic piano' and in classical music the words "jamming" and "improvisation" simply do not exist. Keyboard players are normally pianists who've been lucky enough to enjoy jazz piano lessons where you learn to use the piano for accompaniment in a band context and where you're taught to and encouraged to jam with other musicians. Thing is, most jazz teachers put their teaching emphasis more on learning to play chords and interacting with others properly than on learning to play correctly from a technical point of view, which is why classical teachers prefer not to be associated with thát kind of 'sloppy' teaching.
Er, I think I may be going on a bit about this...

Anyway, pAt, we would seem to have the same point of view concerning the importance of music in our lives. I think it takes people like you and me who are fired up about music to keep the whole thing going..

You know, talking about all this has really whetted my appetite for some music.. Is there any way in which we can perhaps have some sort of a virtual jam session?
We could take the blues to "twinkle twinkle little star" as our first song, for example. I'm on the drums. Ready? Ah-one, ah-two, ah-one, two, three,...

E: That was very interesting, that part about the classical piano education... Now I understand why I've seen so many piano players with classical education having so much difficulties improvising on a simple twelve-bar blues. I mean if technically you can play Mozart Chopin or Beethoven, those three simple chords (ok let's add 7th and 9th chords *s*) shouldn't be a problem. When I used to live in France, I played a bit Bass in a Ska-band. The keyboardist we had would take some jazz-piano lessons, and he could improvise very well but couldn't play any classical tunes...

We're on a mission from God Eddie, we can't let all those people living only with bad music.A think I wanted to ask is :Do you play music for your own, or do you play it for the others ?

"twinkle twinkle little star" suits me fine: I take the Bass-part so we've got a full rythm section know (or almost...), the only question I have to ask before is: "In which key do we play ???"

E: That was very interesting, that part about the classical piano education... Now I understand why I've seen so many piano players with classical education having so much difficulties improvising on a simple twelve-bar blues. I mean if technically you can play Mozart Chopin or Beethoven, those three simple chords (ok let's add 7th and 9th chords *s*) shouldn't be a problem. When I used to live in France, I played a bit Bass in a Ska-band. The keyboardist we had would take some jazz-piano lessons, and he could improvise very well but couldn't play any classical tunes...

We're on a mission from God Eddie, we can't let all those people living only with bad music.A thing I wanted to ask is :Do you play music for your own, or do you play it for the others ?

"twinkle twinkle little star" suits me fine: I take the Bass-part so we've got a full rythm section now (or almost...), the only question I have to ask before is: "In which key do we play ???"

I can play some guitar, or piano, but I got the classical training and have never tried to play with anyone else. how about Gmajor? I can play all the chords for that. Or D major.

Whatever you want Gmaj or Dmaj is Ok for me ... Eddie have you got some preferences ?? Penguin girl: We all have got to listen to each other enough and it will be ok, I hope.

Hopefully

O.k., great, let's play in G-major!

Just one more question: Who's singing? I'll be singing along, but no one's gonna hear me 'cos the drums are too loud..
Do we need a singer? Can one of you play the tune at the same time with the accompaniment? Should we put an ad for a singer in the newspaper?

Ooops, did I say "one" question?
I meant "just ninety-nine more questions".. *grin*

Oh, err, pAt, I play both for myself and for other people; I prefer playing for other people though -poor students who dream of becoming superstars generally do, or so I believe, being one of 'em..

Now, I can't sing. No way. I just can't. Penguin girl would you like to sing ? We can also mic Eddie's voice if he hasn't got any monsterdrumkit with a lot of china's all around him, and even then it should be possible...
If no one wants to sing, I guess we will have to make an add in the newspapers .

I can sing. My guitar playing may suffer, but if it doesn't, everyone else will. And if you don't understand the logic of that statement, you obviously haven't been up 20 hours a day for a week with finals and have serious sleep deprivation problems

The cool thing about jazz,is the ammount of dissonance that listeners accept. Therefore, you can get away with playing any note, its all a matter of how you go about fitting it in.

The main difference betweene jazz and blues is that "blues" denotes a fairly specific 12 bar pattern of tonic I, subdominant IV, and Dominant V chords, no matter which added notes you use. Jazz on the other hand usualy forgoes a strict pattern of chord sequences.

Stravinsky used plenty of Jazz like chords in his compositions, his piano tango (1940) was even arranged for big band.

Jazz is much freer than most music. It's a nice release...I read a book where jazz was baaned in the future because it stimulated violent, creative and sexual behavior in people.

Wow that sound like an interesting book. Jamming usualy makes me tired, maby its the beer, or perhaps the emotional drain. Sort of like a blood lettting, but actually healthy.

If I could remeber the title I'd tell you ...interface masque, I think? It was a wonderful book.