MLT Club Member Chris Weber
MLT Club MemberForum Replies Created
-
The first keyboard I ever used was an upright built in 1919. It couldn’t be tuned up to concert pitch, so it was half a step below that. That’s what I practiced on when I was taking lessons. So between lessons and practicing, the fingering was the same, but the pitch was different.
That piano was definitely on theme for this thread as an unusual instrument.
I remember learning Billy Joel’s New York State of Mind by ear on that thing and playing it in C#. Which sounded like the key of C that Billy played it in, more or less.
Never did figure out how to make my guitar capo work on that piano. Lol.
-
I remember the year it was built because that’s the year my dad was born. Don’t remember who made it, and don’t have a photo of it. It’s gone.
In America, even today, if you want a piano like that, you can probably find someone who’ll give you one, as long as you agree to move it. I found a list of almost 300 “prominent” American piano makers from around that time. I expect there were a lot more less prominent ones.
Next my parents bought a spinet, also not a great piano.
In 1976, I bought a Rhodes, and I still have that. What I use now are synths – the Yamaha has the best action of any keyboard I’ve ever had.
-
David,
You wrote: “a condenser microphone that allowed you to input your own short sound, and then the different keys played that sound at different speeds”.
That sounds like a sampler.
-
I bought the albums when I joined the Club and noticed what I think you’re saying.
I had been watching videos on YouTube, and when that happens, I see them communicating with each other, I see their fingering and the chords they’re playing, the foot tapping, which instruments they’re using, all of that.
When I listen to the CD in my car, I hear more of what’s going on in the music. Including a lot of stuff that you can’t see in the video, you can only hear it, like the extra instruments in the background.
When I’m working on my laptop, I have the music playing in the background, but not in view, usually from a YouTube playlist. There are songs that start with loud footsteps. But I know which songs they are – if there’s a strong wind blowing, it’s Starman. If I hear the creak of a door, it’s I Bought Myself a Politician.
-
Jürgen,
If they were musicians, I’m sure there would have been more broken glasses. Some planned, some as improvisation, some by accident. Engineers tend to be a bit more deliberate, even though I bet they broke some too.
I was half expecting at the end to see a sign that said:
“No glasses were harmed in the making of this video.”
But it probably wouldn’t have been true.
-
Bud,
Agreed on Beato. Any guy with his experience knows a thing or two I haven’t heard about. Beato’s interviews are really good too. Saw the one with Yngwie recently; that’s another great one.
There are lots of ratings for bassists, for sure. From your list I’ve seen Ron Carter, who’s from Detroit, so he’s local, and Stanley Clarke, who I saw with RTF, parts of RTF, and also the Stanley Clark – George Duke Band long ago. All those guys you mentioned are great though of course.
Speaking of ratings, if you haven’t seen Beato’s rant on Rolling Stones’s rating of all time guitarists, which I had the same reaction to not long ago, it’s funny. He gets pretty irate.
-
I’ve seen Jaco listed as the #2 best bass player of all time. So who’s #1?
Some say James Jamerson. One of the Funk Brothers, the unseen backup band of Motown, whose day gig was playing in what they jokingly called “Studio A”, a little room in Berry Gordy’s basement. At night he played in jazz clubs.
From 1963-1968 he played on 60 top 15 pop singles, 23 #1 pop hits, and 56 #1 R&B hits. I don’t know if those totals count US and UK both though. To put that into perspective, the Beatles had 32 #1 hits, and that number does count both US and UK.
-
Here’s Rick Beato’s analysis of the first cut from Jaco’s album above. ^ ^. I like Rick, he includes the esoterica for guys like me, while also making it (somewhat) comprehensible to anyone else. I think Rick likes it, and he’s not the only one.
https://youtu.be/kjqSBU0v6TU?list=PLGgj9jEo9iqlhw-wEQMI9NvNwlruZzpoa
-
You might find this interesting – a bit different. Jaco’s debut album. Check the notes – look at who else is playing(!). He had made a name for himself already. My next post is Rick Beato analyzing the first cut on this album. But pick any cut you like. Lol.
-
Yes, Brownsville Station is from my backyard. One of the original members still lives walking distance from me. He teaches guitar at a local music store and runs his studio. I remember Smoking in the Boy’s Room.
There’s an annual Memorial Day festival in Detroit for electronic music. I know nothing about electronic music. I thought it might be interesting to go to that festival one year, until I found out tickets were over $100. I’ve been spoiled by years of free jazz.
This year I found out why that music festival is there. Techno was invented in the early ’80s 10 miles from where I live, by The Belleville Three. I never knew that. I played in a band that rehearsed in Belleville, a town of 3,000 people, at that same time period.
Here’s a Techno song, by a couple Austrian/Italian lads. I wonder if team MLT knows of these guys.
-
I know Charley Daniels; that song you posted got play on the rock channels. Crossover hit.
We thought he was “southern rock” at the time. Although I don’t remember any other songs of his. So my question is, did he tour with rock bands before he had that crossover hit? That might be another reason he was there.
I’m with you in preferring the older, classic style of country music. But everybody loves Willie Nelson. The newer country/pop songs would not have had that harmonic rhythm difference that I mentioned in that story from the ’80s. The newer stuff changes chords just like pop and rock do.
-
That Liliac tune was fun. I actually don’t listen to hard rock much any more. I did in my youth though. It’s fun to play too. Play it like you mean it. This is closer to what I might play when my neighbors want to hear my guitar. Okay, they never tell me they want to hear it, but I’m sure they do. And really, the guy next door, and both the husband and wife across the street all play trombone, so they can’t complain.
I didn’t recognize the title, but I see it’s Metallica now. I recognized the tune though when they started. So another one for the list of songs that I remember hearing before, but not the title, or any of the lyrics, or who wrote it. Lol.
-
I grew up in suburbia, so even though country music was available, I didn’t grow up with it. I still don’t know that much about it. I remember playing in a band in the early ’80s and the singer brought in a country song. That was culture shock – a different idea of harmonic rhythm, to begin with, but playing in bands taught me a bit about how it works. It’s very popular around here. and everywhere else in America. The biggest country radio station in this part of the state is a mile from my house.
There’s at least one guy I always knew and liked though, and that was the man in black, Johnny Cash.
-
Some are though. This is more internal ones. #1 on the Rock Charts in 2019.
-
Not all Monster songs are scary.