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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
My piece this month is Jitterbug Waltz, written by Fats Waller in 1942.
In its day, the idea of a jitterbug waltz was considered to be quite a good joke. The waltz was thought of as the epitome of dignity and decorum; the jitterbug was just one of those rebellious teenage things - unseemly, possibly dangerous. Thus the joke.
I suppose the real meaning of the title is that it was in ¾ time with some jazzy syncopation. At the time, that was highly unusual.
To my surprise, I have found that there have been dozens of recordings of this song by well-known jazz musicians, in various forms, wildly varying styles, and with tempos varying from about 70 to over 200 bpm. This is the kind of situation I like -- however I choose to play it, nobody can say I am wrong.
I am playing from a lead sheet. The drums and bass are from a backing track.
I have been practising this piece all week and I'm really pleased with how it's panned out, and I feel that I have made real progress at the piano and sheet reading of late.
Ed, great job on that waltz. It was very pleasing.
Sor, as always, very nice performance. Well done!
Larry, I was going to make some off color comment about how my ex-wife was NOT named Mary, but, decided that would be in poor taste. I'm glad you are enjoying your progress and you are sounding nice on the piano.
Thanks guys! I now get to practice every night for 30 minutes with headphones in. Working on a new piece called Gavotte https://www.instagram.com/p/BV0RB6GF3_w/
Here's a recording of the Gavotte I'm learning. A few mistakes crept in but I'm getting there. I'm finding it quite a tricky piece, there's a particular section in the middle that I had to practice separately. Also bar 12 is marked poco.rit (a little slower) and I tried to include that into the playing. Also the last 2 bars are played forte.
Capturing all of that by ear, remembering it, working out the fingering, and mastering the execution is a phenomenal feat. Well done.
Ed
It was beautifully played .... but why do you assume he did everything by ear ?
Sor does not sheet read. He plays everything by ear. Amazing, isn't it?
That's how I normally play. I could never read music but have always been able to pick out a tune by ear. However I felt it was time that I learned to read music. It's certainly slowed my piano playing right down!
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