Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Can someone tell YouTube reviewers to stop playing Jazz?

Ditto!

I wasn't going to involve myself in such a generalization and a thread like this is really counter production. That being said my issue is YouTube reviews are free. There's no need to judge, just move on to reviews that suit your ears Or make your own reviews.

How about some links to these bad jazz players?

Stu Harrison is an intelligent reviewer and plays jazz piano quite well:

What's wrong with this review? This gentleman sold me Ivory ACD years before I bought it.

That video triggers my classical OCD very badly

This guy is does this quite a lot. Hammering down the keys like he is trying to break the keybed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO8eUinFl3o&t=15s&ab

When you post youtube videos in this forum, to let the users see it directly inside the thread, you have to "strip" the url from all the unnecessary things after the "?v=xxxxxxxxx" part, otherwise it would not work.

For example, this doesn't work

But this works:

Sorry but what's a "classical OCD"?

It sounds so out of tune. I can't stand it. OCD (obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is when you want everything in the exact perfect place. Anything else drives you crazy.
I've heard that classical piece before and the parts that are not what I was expecting to be drive me crazy. Especially cause they sound out of tune.

I, too, did not like that performance.

Jazz is great, but I see no need to insert wrong notes into a classical standard.

I've heard classics altered in many ways ... with the augmentations adhering to the harmonic structure of the original. This one does not.

The pianist seems quite talented. Why this monstrosity?

Compare these two videos. Huge difference. Second video could be edited, because it is a commercial, but a real review of this type would give you better understanding.

So, our example of "bad jazz" is Stuart from Merriam Music and our example of "good jazz" is Stuart from Merriam Music.

He's a versatile player!

Second one is Jakob Koller
https://www.jacobkoller.com/

I am sure Steven can play classical too. I am mostly complaining about the music being less suitable for reviews rather than the player.

Whats funny is the first comment on the Korg Video:
"Shopping for digital pianos, we need more demos like these! More classical music and less light jazz and elevator music please!"

I think some people here respond as though we discuss if jazz is good or bad. I'm not sure of the OP's intention, but I believe jazz is a high-quality music and there are some very talented improvisers who are able to create great solos, reharmonize tunes in a fresh way and apply mind-blowing progressions, etc. The thing though is a lot of jazz relies on syncopation, fast soloing, punchy chords and that isn't the most suitable music for demonstrating how notes blend, how legato works, how a long crescendo (that's made of smaller decrescendos throughout) adds to the feel, how long sustained notes evolve, how a lyrical rubato where notes are not played exactly at the same time (as written) is translated into poetry Sorry for these words but I don't know how to explain it better. And most of jazz doesn't use these devices, so it's harder for one to judge from a demo how the piano will sound with classical repertoire.

Agree. The majority of reviewers don't play actual jazz. They just play clichés.


Yes!

Well, that's a classical piece from Chopin that most of us known, so we are used to hear a certain "flow" of notes that the above "jazz" version disrupts. So you hear those different scales and you are like "What the ....!".

But who can really say those notes are "out of tune"? A scale is an increasing (or decreasing) succession of notes... There are no "out of tune" scales. It's the context in which these scales are played that can make you feel something off (for example a chord very dissonant with the scale).

Personally, I like very much this jazz version of that classic composition and appreciate very much the work the pianist made. She is clearly very talented. It's much more easy to stay in the "rails" the original composer wrote. She decided to break free and, after all, that's what Jazz is.

He is a good jazz pianist, but it's true he has this tendency to BANG on the keys very hard. In the above video you can hear even the noise of its fingers banging on the keys!

I like Merriam Music piano reviews. Stu is a good player and reviews them thoroughly. He seems to answer my questions before I ask them. https://www.youtube.com/user/merriampianos There is so much to test in a piano and there are so many different setups and preferences that you will really only understand what you want after you play one yourself. I agree that most reviewers play some wishy washy elevator stuff on the pianos, but that's what THEY sound the best in, so can't blame them. I prefer a good elevator music to a poorly played classical piece as it distracts you from the instrument and shift the focus to the misery of the player.

I agree. Jazz is great music, but as someone who doesn't play jazz myself its hard for me to tell if I prefer the tone of one piano or another through jazz demos. Jazz seems to make any digital piano sound at least half decent.