Re: [Harp-L] Improvising on keyboards, walking baselines ----- Was Real Musican VS. Crap - music related - no harp content




James said:


My wife, was a classically trained pianist. She reads but she cant jam. I use to beg her, I would say, give me an A Minor vamp and will show you 'Summertime"
She cant do it. If its not written down, she cant play it.
I have another friend who plays beautiful classical guitar. I will travel anywhere to hear him. Same thing. Ask him to play "Moondance" or some Flamenco and he demands some sheet music.

I think we need to understand, is that a piano player plays two instruments at the same time. Playing a piano is like writing one sentence on one computer keyboard while typing another sentence with the other hand. This is hard! So to make it easy (I guess), kids are taught from the age of 6 to read and eventually "memorize" a piece. Sheet music in a sense is a way to make sure you play exactly the same thing every time so muscle memory can kick in. After that the fingers kick in and the brain can then focus on dynamics, grace notes or whatever is needed to make it sound nice.


With respect to "complex" improvising on a keyboard, it is probably extremely difficult to do as the proper fingers must be selected to be able to play a musical idea without ever running out of fingers. It must be 5-10 times harder to improvise on a piano than on a sax, unless you do it with one hand only. Even then it is still harder as the sax player never runs out of fingers, actually they never have to move them when improvising (not sure?). I imagine keyboard improvisers probably use learned patterns to avoid problems, at least they probably start that way.

The other issue for a "sheet" trained person is that they may not know how to compose on the fly (or not), meaning they have no idea how to put together a walking baseline (with their left hand) without the sheet music, what notes should they select, and what rhythm. Interesting because this is a question I have as a beginner on my keyboard.

So here is my question, I've heard lots of walking baselines ove the years, but what am I hearing? how does one do this? is it just arpeggios? can it be scaled base? is there a trick involved in moving from one chord or key to another? Are there any free or $$$ resources for learning this at a basic level?

Pierre.

PS: James, just thinking, why don't you write a few chords for her and express a rhythm (she can write the music for it) and see if you can get her to do it. For her its the next step (if she likes) to become versatile. Its probably a lot easier to learn to improvise when you are trained then when you are untrained, but the "can't do it" mindset has to go. I suspect anyone who tries and works at it can do it.















----- Original Message ----- From: "James" <wasabileo@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 8:12 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Real Musican VS. Crap



You know folks, we better stop this before it gets ugly and we start resorting to personal insults.Real Musician , Crap Musician what the hell does it all mean.
For me, while I am a harp player, I am first and foremost a BLUES MAN!. I play music performed and developed by African Americans who were denied formal education. that includes a musical education. Walter Horton didn't read music. He didn't know micro tones or flatted fifths, but he knew what sounded good and notes expressed his situation and told his story. Muddy Water told the late Robert Palmer (in Deep Blues) he didn't know micro tones but he knew 'bout the notes that fall between the piano keys. Walter Horton was able to play Ellington's "Things isn't what they use to be" and did some incredible things with "La Cucaracha" folksy Mexican Dance.One can argue that if the opportunity was made available to study formal music theory, they would have jumped at the chance. How it would affected they playing is anyone's guess.
Reading doesnt necessarily make you a great musician
My wife, was a classically trained pianist. She reads but she cant jam. I use to beg her, I would say, give me an A Minor vamp and will show you 'Summertime"
She cant do it. If its not written down, she cant play it.
I have another friend who plays beautiful classical guitar. I will travel anywhere to hear him. Same thing. Ask him to play "Moondance" or some Flamenco and he demands some sheet music.


I would love to study with Richard Hunter and Robert Bonfiglio and I admit they have a lot to teach me. I have the greatest respect for their talents. But I will never forget the first music I heard ,the music that made pick a harp in the first place.
BTW Larry Adler could not read music until much later in his career. He was playing Hors Staccato and Rhapsody in Blue from Memory.


I hope this resolves the issue.

BTW Richard Hunter, your book on Jazz Harp is an excelent tool.
_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l





This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.