1960 and Piano Lessons

1960 and Piano Lessons

When I was five years old, my brother who is six years older than me was taking lessons in Alexandria, Virginia.  This was in 1960.  At that time Alexandria was not called  Old Town Alexandria.  It actually was a run down area and not the beautiful, tourist town that it is now.  My brother took lessons from an older lady named Mrs. Whitestone.  She lived in any old apartment building on South Washington street.  ( It's still there) I was scared of that building for one reason.  When you walked through the large intimidating doors. everything echoed because of the wooden floors and the hard ceramic walls.  When I was young, I had a phobia with dogs.  There was a small dog that had an extremely loud bark as you entered the building.  That caused a lot of embarrassing trouble for me.  My father never seem to understand my phobia.  Mrs. Whitestone's apartment was on the second floor.  I didn't start taking piano lessons until I was probably around eight.  But from years  5 to 8, I banged on the piano many hours per day.  When I was eight, my parents decided that I should take piano lessons as well.  I did terribly.  Reading music was just not for me.  My ear was great and I could pick up almost anything at that time. But I couldn't learn to read music successfully.  Therefore, I only lasted about six months with Mrs. Whitestone.

However, I have two really great memories from those days.  One was going to the nearby Murphy's drugstore.  In the back they had a small snack bar with ice cream as well.  My father would buy a banana split or anything we wanted for us.  It is also the store that I purchased my first 45 records including the Beatles 45 "I wanna hold your hand" and " I saw her standing there" as the B side.
In addition, my father would take us to the nearby train station ( in front of the Masonic Temple) and we would sit on a small hill and watch the trains go by.  I have since learned how to read music very well.  My brother went on to study piano at the Shenandoah music observatory.  But life took him in a different direction and he no longer plays music on a professional basis.  As you may know, I still do. 

Who is my favorite?

Best Electric Guitarist - Jeff Beck

Best Blues Guitarist - Luther Allison

Best Acoustic Guitarist - Tommy Emmanuel

Best Electric Bassist - Jaco Pastorious

Best Acoustic Bassist - Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen,

Best Drummer - Buddy Rich

Best Male Vocalist - Kenny Rankin

Best Female Vocalist - Barbra Streisand

Best Pianist - Oscar Peterson

Best Songwriter - Jimmy Webb

Best Saxophonist - Stan Getz

Best Trumpet - Maynard Ferguson

Best All Around Entertainer - Sammy Davis Jr

Best Record Producer - George Martin

Best Record - ...

Jazz - Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis

Rock / Pop - Beatles Revolver

Country - Population Me - Dwight Yoakum

Best solo ever - Bill Chase - Poseidon  ( from Ennea)

Best Movie - Godfather

Best Soundtrack Music - Bernard Herrman - The Day the Earth Stood Still

Cool!

10 Cool Things about the Beatles album " Revolver"

1. The album cover was created by Klaus Voormen who also played bass.  He played on both George Harrison and John Lennon records.

2. The beautiful 3 part harmony behind " Here, There and Everywhere" was created by George Martin. ( like a lot of other musical moments )

3. The sound effects in " Tomorrow Never Knows" were created with loops of tape created by the Beatles on their own.  They were actually 20 or 30 second loops that played some weird sound over and over. This song had many of these incorporated into the track.

4.   George Harrison came up with the line " Ah....Look at all the lonely people " hook for " Eleanor Rigby.

5. McCartney was influenced by The Loving Spoonful song " Daydream" and wrote " Good Day Sunshine.  There's even a bootleg tape that has Lennon and McCartney trying to figure out the chords to the Spoonful song.

6.  The strings in Eleanor Rigby had no reverb and lots of compression. Very unusual. McCartney also wanted no vibrato played by the musicians, but some had to be used to avoid sounding amateurish.

7.  Here' There and Everywhere was influenced by the Beach Boys.

8 ,  Yellow Submarine was written for Ringo to sing by McCartney and Lennon.  ( mostly McCartney )  They wrote less than an octave of notes so it would be easier to sing.  Donavan helped with some of the lyrics.

9.   None of the Beatles voices were used for the film's speaking parts.  ( actors instead)

10. Marianne Faithfull , Patti Boyd ( George's wife at the time) and Rolling Stone's Brian Jones provided background voices for Yellow Submarine.  ( song) 

Cool..  

The American Idols Judges Really get this Wrong!

One of the often heard insults from an American Idol judge ( or other similar shows) is a comparison with a "Holiday Inn Lounge Singer" or something like that.  This is meant to be a negative comment toward the amateur on the stage.
    Here's the real story...

 Lounge singers are...

1. Talented enough to make a living singing 4 to 6 nights a week. People pay them to sing.  They just didn't wait in a big line at a stadium.

2. Lounge singers are normally gifted and have put hours and money into their craft.  They just didn't wake up one day and say " now I'm going to be a famous singer."

3.  Because they perform so much, they have perfected and fine tuned their craft. They know how to act and speak and move on stage,  Did you see Nora Jones on the Oscar awards?  It looked like a statue singing. Most of the young performers have no live experience. They don't come close to a well seasoned entertainer performing in a lounge over a series of years.

4. Finally, they have a more balanced approached to life. They don't abandon their families and bring shame to their family name.

And by the way, most American Idols and runner ups are long forgotten. Most do not sing for a living because no one would pay them.

So the next time you hear one of these no talent judges try to insult a singer by comparing him or her to a " hotel lounge singer"  remember that the lounge singer will be singing for a living long after American Idol and all it's singers and judges are long gone.  

10 Recording Events You May Not Know About

1.  On the Byrds number 1 hit " Mr. Tambourine Man"  none of the Byrds ( except Roger McGuin ) played on the record.  The backing band was a group of session musicians called the Wrecking Crew.

2.  The Wrecking Crew was also the main backing band on all the early Beach Boy hits.

3.  One of Elvis's favorite percussive sounds was actually created by turning an acoustic guitar over and slapping it ( sort of like a conga drum)   Check out " All Shook Up."

4. The guitar sound on the James Bond soundtrack to DR. NO was very unique because at the time, there was little separation between the various mics in the studio.  The guitar was much louder than the strings and therefore it was picked up through the violinist mics as well.   They were not able to recreate the sound in later sessions.

5. Paul McCartney wrote hits for other artist as well as the Beatles. " Woman" and " World Without Love" by Peter and Gordon and " Come and Get It" by Badfinger for example.

6.  Carole King and then husband Gerry Goffen wrote countless hits for artist back in the early 60's.
But did you know after they were divorced , he continued to write with other partners. He wrote " Saving All My Love" for Whitney Houston and   " Tonight I Celebrate My Love" for Peabo Bryson.

7.  None of Paul McCartney's earlier Beatle albums were recorded with a direct line from his bass to the mixing board. ( DI)  It was only mic'd to the bass amp.

8.  One of the first recording sessions to utilize a backwards tape sound was not the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix. It was on the soundtrack to " The Day the Earth Stood Still". It happens when 12 o'clock strikes and all electronics comes to a stop.

9.  Most of the Sgt. Peppers Beatles album features the vocals "sped up" to sound younger. George Martin the producer worried that it would sound " like chipmonks" if they took the effect any higher.

10. The first Lou Rawls record ( with Les McCan ) was recorded in one night. ( 6 hour session)  It's considered one of his best.  The songs were put together on the spot. Rawls was 26.

Cool!

Evolution - Songs to Non-Songs?

Years ago, we had guitar heroes like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Drummers like Dino Danelli, Ginger Baker and John Bonham.  Keyboardist like Kieth Emerson, Jon Lord and Rick Wakeman.  The sad truth is that we have no younger musicians coming up the ranks to take their place.  But what about the quality of songwriting?
        Let's just go back to the Great American Songbook era. The songs had rich melodies and intricate chording. The verses and choruses were different.  Really different.   And they had bridges and intro verses too. 
       In the 60's and 70's the songs remained great.  Each melody was distinctive and could be played on the piano or guitar or with a group. You could remember the songs. 
      Let's come to this day and age.  It's hard to pinpoint the problem  The songs kind of sound like songs, but with closer inspection, they are not real tunes.  It's sounds like someone wrote something based on a riff or an improvisation.   But there's very little distinction to the verses and no distinction between the verses and the choruses. Most of the Adele or Bruno Mars songs sound identical to me.
  They say we deserve the low quality politicians we have because we elected them. So do we deserve the low quality songwriting that we're getting because the average listener thinks they're great?
Probably.   The good news is that there's still a lot of tremendous music being made. It's all over the Internet.   But don't look for it on TV or the radio.   It's not there.     

Why should you record a CD?

I would say that the number one reason to record a CD is that....you've sung for a long time and perfected your craft.  You want to make a historical document of this achievement.  Yes, people may remember what you sounded like 10 years ago or even 5 years ago, but that doesn't replace a physical document that they can listen too.
    Unfortunately, as we age we start to lose some of the power we once had.  Or at least the dynamics and tone of our voice will change.  If you wait 5 years from now, it maybe will be too late.  Has Barbra Striesand's voice changed in the last 5 to 10 years?  Big time.
     In addition, our family and friends really enjoy having a recording to put on once in a while to hear what we sounded like years ago.  ( or more recent)   There are many singers that are no longer with us that I would of loved to have a recording of.
       Although the " big boys" may charge up to $10,000 for a CD, locals cats ( like myself) can get it done for under a thousand dollars.   10 to 15 songs is the norm.
      So if you don't have a CD yet, you may want to think about it.