The Work Diary

Just my friend and I rocking out..

In G Major and g minor

My keyboard got a new "firmware" update and with it they threw in a piano sample that is blowing my mind!  Not only does it sound really good to me but after you've already paid for the device, the company goes ahead and makes it even better - completely for free!

Anyway, piano is really hard because playing faster usually makes you play harder which is very detectable given the wide spectrum of volume that a piano can make (the full name for the piano is piano-forte.... or maybe forte-piano which means "loud soft").  You want to keep it light while being quick and accurate and peppering in little musical accoutrements at the same time.  All of these things become more difficult when you're trying to record as well.  Why do I try to play more than one instrument?  Isn't one enough for a lifetime?

Its fun also because I got a new German backpack for Christmas from my girlfriend, and the brand name is Bach.

Also, it turns out the first melody which is really famous wasn't even written by Bach at all!  Apparently, it was written by a guy called Christian Petzold so wtf?

Pretty big break thrus with this piece.  After 20 years, I heard a really good tip on youtube about polishing your finger nails when playing classical guitar.  The tip is, you have to polish them until they feel like the rim of a glass cup because even the smallest rough surface will interfere with creating a clean release from the string.  I tried it and holy hell does it make a difference.  I've always filed my nails on my right hand but sanded them this much before - I always assumed it was the better priced instruments that created the tone that the professionals make.  I quickly switched back to light tension strings to give my Left hand a break and I think I've unlocked a major piece of the puzzle.  I don't want to get my hopes up too soon, but this discovery I believe is significant.

Recorded using the front camera on my smart phone - the quality is much worse but now I know what it looks like.

I used my Rode M2 mic which eliminated a lot of the external noise of cars driving down the rainy road outside.  

Focusing issues again because I wanted visual on my hands. 

Pro Tip: to really minimize the chance for error, you just have to choreograph and rehearse every "shift" and every right hand pattern.  What does this mean?  I've been navigating classical guitar pieces for years just more or less spontaneously hitting more clean notes than rough ones, but what do the pros do?  I theorize that they really conciously execute every left hand shift with thoroughly rehearsed movements - and unsual right hand patterns are identified and really practiced ad nauseam.  We'll come back to all this another time. 

Sometimes people ask me to do certain songs, but the point of the blog isn't just to do covers people like.  I try to do things that are either new or difficult, so I studied an art song by Beethoven that he wrote when he was 25.  The title means 'tender love', so I thought it fit in nicely amongst all the folk hits of the 60's and 70's that I throw up on here. 

Singing in the classical style is to me insanely difficult.  Back in the old days when there were no microphones, singers had to:
 - be loud: optimize resonance within their own bodies in order to send their voices into massive concert halls
 - be musical: for example suggest moments of softness / quiet (but you're still pretty loud though) AND also even greater loudness / intensity
 - be coherent: manage all the different words by choreographing your tongue and lips into shapes that wont disrupt the column of air you're blasting thru your vocal chords. 

And thats the complete list of how to be a singer - just kidding.  I mean singers today still need to be musical and coherent, but the loudness factor really I think sets the operatic / classical genre apart from all the others. 

I took voice lessons in college, but singing is so personal I don't really think voice lessons are really the same as guitar lessons.  A guitar teacher can literally see what you're doing wrong, show you how to do it, or physically manipulate your hands into the right position.  Because neither of you can see whats happening under your skin, a voice teacher can show you and give a variety of tips to try at home hoping that one of them will generate a sensation of 'naturalness' that you will then adopt and continue to use.  I always went to voice lessons thinking that amazing breakthrus would happen in the lesson itself, but this is not the right mindset - breakthrus happen when you're experimenting alone and then you show your voice teacher later.  A voice teacher is kinda like a psychologist - they give you advice and then you try it outside.

Anyway, my favorite singer possibly of all time is Fritz Wunderlich who just every single recording of him is absolutely flawless - theres not much more to say on it.

Ishida

The piano accompaniment was created for rehearsal by thekingjacob1 on Youtube

Ishida

The Pros

Bach
Bach is truly a brutal dictator.  Just kidding I didn't mean that...ok maybe I did.  Its just hard as hell and this is one of his easier pieces!  First I chose a short piece from my book, but I quickly realized it was too easy, so I tried another one and thought I could play them consecutively, but I still thought they'd be too easy even together.  Then I started this prelude foolishly thinking, "I can just play these three all together!"  and Bach LoL'd in my face - this one alone wound up taking almost twice as long as my posts usually take to record.   

You could spend your entire life studying Bach and still have your mind blown regularly I think.  In fact, Pablo Casals the famous Spanish cellist who played the Cello Suites internationally said when he was around 80 years old that he was still only scratching the surface.  My favorite Bach player of all time is Glenn Gould and you just have to imagine the ecstasy he must have felt by having such a command of the repertoire.  Then I imagine someone looking at my playing who maybe has tried playing piano a few times and he or she says "wow it must be amazing to play and understand music." but I am in the exact same position!  And it never ends - going on forever!  The more you practice the more you realize "merciful Jesus I'm only learning how little I know and how much farther there is to go!"  I guess it is pretty profound though that works like Bach even exist on planet earth.  My counterpoint teacher in college said that if aliens ever came to earth and for whatever reason needed proof as to why we deserve to even exist in the first place, that all we'd need to do is submit the Musical Offering by Bach (another collection that was composed for a local prince) and we'd be safe case closed. 

Keyboard
I used to think that Piano was more accessible than guitar because a single piano key is wider than a guitar string, so you have a greater change of hitting the note - more room for error.  But now I think its equally as hard.  You must be precise in terms of where on the piano key you are landing else the neighboring key walls trip you up as your wrist moves in new direction.  Its audible on a recording when your mind is consumed with trying to navigate obstacles instead of proactively landing on the right spot and triggering the note you want.  What you gotta do is eliminate a step by practicing precise landings instead of landing on a key and then worrying how to get off it a millisecond later.  Accuracy eliminates the second step of getting off it smoothly. 

The Harpsichord
Considered an early instrument, the harpsichord was a popular piece of furniture in the homes of wealthy European families, and often daughters were taught how to play in hopes of rounding out their candidacy for marriage to the son of another neighboring wealthy family.  If you press a key down, a trigger in the body plucks a single string creating a tone at a fixed volume.  If you had a "double manual" harpsichord, the second keyboard would trigger the plucking of 2 or 3 strings which would make the tone 2 or 3 times louder - so you had a softer manual and a louder manual.  Unfortunately, when the Piano was invented and mass produced for purchase, everyone quickly upgraded to the Piano because the technology allowed the force applied by the finger tips to be directly transferred to a hammer inside therefore creating a relative volume proportionate to the force applied which suddenly made the keyboard much more like a violin or wind instrument or voice because you could produce a whole range of volumes for dramatic effect.  The harpsichord reached its peak in popular during the early / mid 1700s - to put the timing in perspective Thomas Jefferson played the Harpsichord (and other keyboard instruments).

I just don't have much to say about this one maybe because my brain is fried from Bach.

The Courante was rough but luckily I recovered in the Sarabande - ironically I spent the entire week working on the Courante and it ended up having the most problems.  But if it weren't for mistakes / tension I guess there would be no drama.  The point was to record a live multimovement piece and survive to the end. 

By the way this is the "hall" setting on my Roland 1980's reverb unit and I think it sounds awesome.  Reverb really does add depth in my opinion. 

This is on vimeo.  Lets see how it goes.