Thanks for sharing this - Iāve created a short video with some feedback and suggestions:
Related Lessons
A related lesson is the arpeggio technique that I demonstrate, you can find a dedicated lesson on that here:
This is lesson 4.1 in the course on "Nearness Of You - Ballad Voicings, Fills & Runs " which you can find here:
This course is mixed level and so you will definitely find it challenging from module 3 onwards. It will expose you to lots of new theory areas from our other beginner/intermediate courses. I recommend to try to avoid using the transcriptions where possible and instead focus on visualising the chord tones, extensions, alterations etcā¦ on the piano.
Nearness Of You Playlist
Hereās a playlist that I compiled of my favourite recordings of āThe Nearness Of Youā:
If youāre a Spotify user you can save the playlist to your account, rearrange/remove the songs based on your taste, add new songs to that playlist that you discover etcā¦
Try to spend as much time as possible listening to the recordings and trying to pick little things out and apply them to your arrangements. Start simple with melodic decorations and embellishments and gradually expand your field of curiosity.
Upper Structure Triads
Finally, I recommend that you study Upper Structure Triad theory and I think this will add some nice colours, textures, and tensions to your playing. I touch upon this in the video above. Here are a few lessons on Upper Structure Triads:
Thank you so much for taking the time to create such a personalised reply and for the feedback. Itās really unexpected to have this level of service and support. The information shared is incredibly valuable and I will be sure to work with the resources you have shared to enhance my playing and then will re-record a new version .
Thank you so much again - itās really appreciated!
Hi All! Here is my attempt of Haydenās reharmonisation of Happy Birthday recently shared in the community forums. This was take #121 so itās still a way off being perfect - I hope you enjoy.
āWhy did I choose youā was my ear training exercise for the past three weeks. I like this tune very much as played by George Shearing and Neil Swainson. I didnĀ“t download any transcription. It was an attempt on my own to find the right notes, chords and tempo. Playing in a small band with this beautiful bass player as a sideman was some kind of a struggle at the beginning. After many repetitions I
Thanks for sharing this @cornelius.moser and great job emulating the phrasing and feel of George Shearingās melodies.
Are you using the stemroller app to isolate the bass? Your playing fits beautifully with the bass playerā¦ it sounds like you are both in the studio together! Very nicely played
This is exactly the kind of ear training/transcription work that will take your improvisation skills to the next level. Congratulations on completing this project and thanks for sharing it with the community - Iām sure it will be an inspiration to others!
Yes indeed I used the stemroller app to isolate the bass. I really recommend to use this app if the original is of good quality like the one of George Shearing. It would probably not work with recordings of Bill Evans playing in a club with backround noise and low volume of the bass. The app has only one command which leads one result. Any editing is not possible. That helps to take it easy. Importing the stems into ātranscribe appā offers adjustments like pitch and tempo for transcription. Stemroller is open source and free.
Beautiful always wondering how your piano solo is such solid and sure ā¦ bravo
love this version much more. Understand you about phrasing ā¦ but so much going harmony speed ā¦ maybe at slower tempo to be focused on phrasing ?
Hey Pierre great to hear from youāI havenāt been around much lately on PG, but Iām still playing a lot. My comment about phrasing is related to the challenges of playing in 7. Thereās an underlying clave of half note, half note, quarter note dot, quarter note dot, that I try and internalize and think about constantly when playing in 7. That helps to keep the meter where it should be, and also provides guidepost for phrasing. However, I find myself playing a limited number of phrase rhythm patterns in the RH. By contrast when playing in 4 (or 3) itās much easier for me to be creative with patterns that extend across the barlines. Not in 7, so I need more practice!
I missed the last (maybe the two last) community challenges and thought I would share a recent recording I made that was a fun open studio project. Two of the OS instructors, Bob DeBoo and Kaleb Kirby, put together an mp4 backing track every month and invite students to play āwith themā. A few students figured out how to combine the videos and I followed their advice. Hereās my (and Bob and Kalebās) version of Tenor Madness.
Your arrangement sounds great and I like how you fill the space when the melody rests and during the turnarounds. Your melodic embellishments work really nicely to enhance the melody and create a more personalised arrangement. Nice job!
One suggestion could be to experiment with octave melody lines to create a bigger sound - this works well for the repeating A sections of the tune. Hereās a lesson on this topic:
When Iām playing this tune I like to play single note melody lines (with melodic decoration and embellishment) and then contrast this by playing the melody in octaves; often with the chord tones in between.
The octave melody technique allows us to command a wider range of the keyboard which creates a bigger and more textured sound and works great for solo piano.
Keep in mind that when we play the melody in octaves, we lose some of the ability to add intricate melodic decoration such as the grace notes and chromaticism that you are already using in your arrangement, so Iām always mindful to achieve a balance between these 2 styles of interpreting the melody.
If you check out the lesson above I explain this in more detail and show the different steps to get this style under our fingers. Start just with the octave melody, and then once you are comfortable with that try to add the chord tones in between your right hand octaves and play this over the stride left hand.
I hope that helps James and have fun experimenting with this!
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