Let's Go to the Hop [Rick/Dorothy]

Rick's New Year's Resolution: Learn & Teach Ukelele

Apparently, people love ukelele more and more lately. I don't get it. For me, ukelele was a toy cousin of a guitar but as it turns out, there's much more to it than I thought. Guitar Center sells substantially sophisticated ukeleles and there is a damand for lessons, teaching ukelele. I already teach piano and of course specialize in that but my New Year's Resolution is to get going on ukelele, starting with a rendering of Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Chord changes, music theory, melody, vocals and much more can be taught on this instrument just as on a keyboard or piano and it might make an interesting addition to the Rick and Dorothy Piano Keyboard Hour for Retirement Residences. Here's Tim followed by more uke songs in coming days on a playlist.

Mysterious music to shift into 2016 by Bernard Herrman

I never thought about who composed the music for Twilight Zone until this morning as I thought about the end of a "year" 2015.... hours before we move into 2016 A.D. or C.E. as they now call it.

 It turns out Bernard Herrman has composed mysteriously wonderful music for many movies throughout the 20th century. I immediately created my own playlist to ADD+ to it as I saw fit. I'll continue to explore this music and adapt some of it to my own piano work where I can.

We are about to enter... the 2016 Zone.

Someone's theme song for 2016

ontario hydro pension scandal - Google Search

Celebration by Kool'n the Gang composed by James Taylor & Deodato among others.

Dorothy and I have played several shows for retirement residences over the past few weeks that have not been recorded since that extra effort is sometimes just too much to take care of. One thing I have to work harder on is the song Celebration-- especially for our New Year's Eve gig. The songs sounds straightforward enough but when you look at the sheet music, it's a real mess-- and a big problem rhythmically. I'll post the Youtube's I selected earlier again this morning and add to the same playlist as I explore the issues I have with it. Note that James Taylor and Deodato (of Also Sprach Zarathustra fame) were just two of about eight co-writers! That's ridiculous.

Duelling piano performance art by Felix Fingers

Half steps and whole steps on piano - a playlist edutainment production by Rick Potvin

Piano Instructor and Part-time
Half-Wit Rick Potvin

Lately, I'm really digging this Youtube playlisting of videos. Sure, I've known how to use it for years but-- for whatever reason-- I'm suddenly turned onto the concept on a whole new level. Rather than try to analyze "why?"-- I'll simply continue to do it as long as it seems useful or interesting and worry about "why now?" later.

Today, let's look at Half Steps and Whole Steps, otherwise called Half Tones and Whole Tones. (Does a Half-Wit neccessitate the existence of a Whole-Wit?--hmmm.... Note that Going-Halfway does not correspond in the alternative to Going-Wholeway-- but rather Going-ALL-the way... but enough of my half-baked attempts at whole-baked humor). Let's see where this playlist goes-- indexed below under half-wit--er... half tone whole tone for future reference.

November Rain cover, lesson & commentary by Rick Potvin

This song, November Rain,  by Guns 'n Roses really isn't my thing. I've had a running joke with Carlos at Orange corner store where I buy my High Life beer about my doing the tune. I finally did it awhile ago but it's not up to where I need it to be for Seasons 52 or cruise ship bars. The trick to these types of tunes is to just keep banging away at them. If they're popular with a younger gen than me, eventually I figure it'll have currency at some point.

The grammatical logic of the tune and chord progressions is terrible in my opinion. I don't even like the theme of the Guns'n Roses band or any of the guys in the band. The lyrics are too "dense" for the melody line-- what I mean is that there are too many syllables for the beats given. The song has to have a make-over... which I might eventually do. It's a depressing song too. So-- I don't like the lyrics, the chords, or the mood of the song. Here it is anyway.

By the way-- I would just like to take a second to defend beer. Beer has been attacked lately and I would like to point out that beer was invented by ancient Sumerian / Anunnaki gods. So... before anyone attacks beer-- they should consider ancient Sumeria. Enough said for now.

This is a playlist that will take it's normal Rick Potvin twists and turns as it attempts to stay focused on something to do with November Rain, the song. Enjoy as a background to your evening or advance it through as you wish. My specialty is what I direct my attention to and share.

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LYRICS  - Who wants to sing depressing songs like this? It's not even funny like the blues. It appears that the girl wants to leave him without having someone else to run to. The BIGGEST problem with this song is that it's too long. Note that the Youtubes including the one with the GREAT Elton John and the Gun's and Roses lead is over 9 minutes long. That's nuts. That's indulgence and it's musically criminal. Elton John made his point in 3 minutes like everyone else.

November Rain Lyrics

When I look into your eyes I can see a love restrained
But darlin’ when I hold you, don’t you know I feel the same? yeah
Nothin’ lasts forever and we both know hearts can change
And it’s hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain

We’ve been through this such a long long time
Just tryin’ to kill the pain, ooh yeah
But lovers always come and lovers always g

An’ no one’s really sure who’s lettin’ go today, walking away

And if we take the time to lay it on the line
I could rest my head just knowin’ that you were mine, all mine
So if you want to love me then darlin’ don’t refrain
Or I’ll just end up walkin’ in the cold November rain

Do you need some time on your own?
Do you need some time all alone?
Everybody needs some time on their own
Don’t you know you need some time all alone?

I know it’s hard to keep an open heart
When even friends seem out to harm you
But if you could heal the broken heart
Wouldn’t time be out to charm you?

Sometimes I need some time on my own
Sometimes I need some time all alone
Everybody needs some time on their own
Don’t you know you need some time all alone

And when your fears subside and shadows still remain, oh yeah
I know that you can love me when there’s no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness we still can find a way
Nothin’ lasts forever even cold November rain

Don’t ya think that you need somebody?
Don’t ya think that you need someone?
Everybody needs somebody
You’re not the only one, you’re not the only one

Don’t ya think that you need somebody?
Don’t ya think that you need someone?
Everybody needs somebody
You’re not the only one, you’re not the only one

Don’t ya think that you need somebody?
Don’t ya think that you need someone?
Everybody needs somebody
You’re not the only one, you’re not the only one

Don’t ya think that you need somebody?
Don’t ya think that you need someone?
Everybody needs somebody

Ancient Sumerian Music & Languages

Amazingly, there seems to be some idea of what ancient Sumerian music and languages sounded like-- according to some Youtubes. Check it out. Here's a playlist of my Youtube surfing on that matter. Sit back and enjoy or click forward at will.

"Just In Time" covered by Rick + more versions + analysis

I start this playlist-lesson with me playing "Just In Time" at Golden Buddha Restaurant to the background of noisy clashing dishes and restaurant patrons. The tap beer was on-the-house but I drank very moderately since anything overdone that way would negatively impact the accuracy of my fingers at the piano. Dorothy and I took turns-- this was one of my turns.

Please note the melody and chord line of "Just In Time" that uses the closest thing to a pitch-bend that a piano can produce-- a half-tone down and up again. It's quite effective in creating that pitch-bend effect and it's used multiple times through the song. After I play, I'll add other versions to the playlist for your edutainment.

I did indeed have a tip jar sitting to my right-- however my current tip jar is a little lower down on this page if you'd care to participate in that tradition for fun. I'm not yet able to do skype-based real-time piano requests yet but I imagine the future as going that direction. We'll see.

German mid-20th Century Music Study Playlist

Merry Muslim Christmas!-- and Happy Allah Akbhar New Year! -Parody Playlist

Computer game music study playlist

I'm currently reviewing video game music-- starting with a long segment from Commodore 64.

"Piano fails" are actually "good goofing around".

As a piano instructor, I see all kinds of students with all kinds of starting points, motivations, dreams and challenges. One of the things I've learned to do is to tolerate anything-- at least for half the lesson. It leads to some strange and even funny things when you let the student show the instructor what they can do.

I discovered that Youtubers have been filing their efforts under "piano fails"-- an understandable term but one that "fails" to label these efforts as "good goofing around" or-- more academically "piano playing experiments by untrained people" or "experimental amateur piano" or just "experimental piano", or in effect, "experimental experiential piano", since the experiment involves the experience.  Still-- that's where I found the following "to-me-interesting-as-a-piano-instructor" videos, arranged in my typical easy-to-watch-playlist-mode.

By the way, for the teachers out there: I discovered that if half the lesson allows for this type of "free form expression" unhindered by "instruction", that the other half of the lesson is then easier to carry out AS an instruction. I often "negotiate" my way through the lesson with students in this way. For more capable students, it's a song that THEY want to learn. For the untrained ones, it's patterns of notes based on their random generations.

Indexed below as  "experimental amateur piano"-- UPDATE: I've included some entertaining video clips of funny "fails" in performance along the way. My playlists often take detours like this. I attempt to stay on course, however, with my original idea of amateur piano experimental experiences or goofing around.

It's All About the Music

The following is a playlist of "It's All About Music". We'll study this now and see if we can get it done.

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Wow look at this! My new playlist for this "teaching series" on this song (edutainment)... has already been spidered by the youtube search engine and listed as about 8th from the top. This is phenomenal. I've long known that Youtube is the second most popular search engine after Google but I've never seen as quick a reponse to my posting as this. This is a new phenomenon, it appears.

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I can't find the chord changes yet-- in a chord/lyric sheet-- so we'll start with chords. I'll install the chords myself if I have to... or you, reader, can do it and email it back to me so I can post it. That's what PianoLessonsEtc.com aims to do-- widen out the idea of "piano lesson" to encompass the new internet technology and make all of us "co-musicians".. one giant "band" or "orchestra" working together to make music.

Every single sound I hear every single wave i'm near
It's all about music It's all about music
I don't even have to try even when i close my eyes
It's all about music it's all about music
Garbage cans, pots and pans,
Give me a beat that will make me dance
Country, soul, Rock and roll techno pop or classical
It's all about music it's all about music
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me
It's all about music it's all about music
It's like i'm living in a dream it's all about music to me 

When i hear the birds that sing all i hear is a symphony
Sometimes when the popcorns popping
I can't keep myself from rocking out
I like it loud, everybody twist and shout
It's all about music it's all about music
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me
It's all about music it's all about music
It's like i'm living in a dream it's all about music to me
Garbage cans, pots and pans
Give me a beat that will make me dance
Country, soul, Rock and roll techno pop or classical
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with Me
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me
It's all about music it's all about music
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me
It's all about music it's all about music
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me
It's all about music it's all about music
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me
It's all about music it's all about music
It's like i'm living in a dream it's all about music to me
It's all about music it's all about music
I'll about keep banging the keys come on and sing it with me

Happy New Year 2016 Playlist by Rick Potvin

In the previous entry, I reviewed the playlist I created for New Years 2015. A good part of that was the review of the ball dropping in New York each and every year from 1975 onward through to 2011.  I noted they played Auld Lang Sang most years on the TV broadcasts from Times Square. Increasing amounts of flashy light ads began to obscure the ball's bottom position. It's almost impossible to get the effect we used to have years ago-- now-- with all the ads. 

I think I'll start this year's playlist with a little different approach-- with an emphasis on music that accompanies New Years-- music that I recognize and like. Dorothy and me will be playing a gig New Year's Eve this year so I might be able to include scenes from that party later. I'm never quite sure which direction a playlist will go once started since Youtube's suggestions to me are interesting and often yank me off course. Let's see where this one goes!.... Happy New Year 2016!!!

Happy New Year 2015

Here's a playlist of New Year videos I assembled last year.

Rick Regular + Rick +1 Octave sing/plays 6 Christmas songs

In the following performance from home, I used the $300 BOSS Vocoder to sing a half dozen Christmas carols for this Christmas morning by combining MY voice with a second electronically generated voice an octave higher than my own. It's a weird experience to be sure. It actually reminds me of my Aunt singing over my shoulder when I played piano as a little kid.  Notice my piano chords as well-- they're not the standard chords in all cases-- lots of "altered chords". Check it out.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 

A local medical center has a piano in their front entrance hall. We were contacted through Gigsalad.com to play Christmas songs for their Santa Clause party for staff and patients and we had a great time doing that. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

We're available throughout the holiday season-- other than for booked times-- for private parties or public events in the Phoenix Arizona area and can play existing pianos or we can bring out own equipment consisting of a portable piano, a backup keyboard with bass, percussion and other instruments-- microphones and sing along books-- and now a 400 watt amplifier/mixer for a full band sound in small venues and larger ones.

 We can be booked through [Gigmasters] or [GigSalad] (links above in masthead). We can often be available within a day for those spontaneous parties where someone has an impulse to find someone to play that piano that often just sits there.

A few people asked about lessons-- and of course we're always teaching-- now with added emphasis on the importance of vocals and equipment for everyone.

MORE CHRISTMAS PIANO WORKS by Rick and Dorothy... 

Dorothy's Christmas Luncheon with Large Crowd Talking at Luncheon

Uncommon Christmas Songs / Wild Boar Hunts

Christmas - Adeste Fideles

Christmas - Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

Christmas - Obscure carols 2

Christmas - The 12 Days of Chemtrails

Christmas / New Years 2015 - 16 - Playlist

Christmas 2014 Demo Reel

Christmas 2015 - Dec 17

Christmas Carols - Rick

Christmas in May

Christmas Medley played by Dorothy

Christmas Special - Lawrence Welk

Christmas Time - 121005 - Two Pianos by Rick and Dorothy

Christmas - Rick Regular + Rick +1 Octave

Ben Folds

I'm not sure why I'm attracted to Ben Fold's piano styles (yet). Update: I think something new is being done with piano here-- and this includes synths, keyboards, entire groups of acoustic guitars and realtime improvisation involving whole orchestras. The guy is a kind of a combination of Elton John and Rick Wakeman-- but packaged in a non-flashy way that's messy, real, chaotic and yet ends up with good results. His irreverent use of the piano while standing is reminiscent of Jerry Lee Lewis too but with more interesting complex songs consistent with a current edge. Interesting! 

Cocaine

 I was talking to a co-worker at Guitar Center about pianos and the fact that they're NOT distorted. He suggested a few tunes where they WERE and that pianos COULD be distorted more with good results.
I have a small amp that does distortion so in the following playlist, I'll include MY version of Cocaine on distorted piano.

Dorothy Motto's Piano-Orchestra Christmas Background Music with Crowded Room

I've seen and used many of the Youtubed background crowd noises to enhance my piano videos, giving them the feel of being live. When played at home during dinner or other functions, the live crowd noises makes it feel like you're "there". For decades, traditionally recorded songs occurred in sound studios with absolutely quiet background. Concerts recorded online and played back changed that to a large degree although a concert demands attention. The idea of BACKGROUND live music with crowd is STILL a viable format that has its uses. Try Dorothy's Piano-Orchestra Christmas Background Music with Crowded Room Having Luncheon! --Recorded and edited by Rick Potvin

Getting to Know You

Feliz Navidad at the Christmas Luncheon

Moon landing music playlist.

The first song in my playlist of moon landing music is "Fake Moon Landing". Interestingly, Stan Kubrick made the alternative news headlines this past week, confessing that the moon landings were fake. Interestingly, the confession by Kubrick was almost immediately proven to be fake. I've long understood the moon landings to have been faked (since roughly 1999), contrasting seriously with my serious belief in moon landings in the late 1960's, 1970's and even through the 80's. Now I don't think satellites exist, nor do nuclear bombs or power stations, nor the space shuttle, the space station or satellites. It's all fake. Finally, the Earth as a globe has been faked. The following playist will deal with moon landing music only however. Enjoy.

Feliz Navidad at Rick & Dorothy Christmas Luncheon

You'll note that Dorothy's and my heads are cut off in the photo from the video for our gig for the Christmas Luncheon. That's due to the camera being pointed at the piano for the most part. I'll have to update my camera to wider lens angle somehow in the future. Dorothy's playing Feliz Navidad. Everyone had a fun time.

We have several gigs coming up in the next few weeks leading up to New Year's Eve, including New Year's Eve-- already booked.  If you're an Activity Director in the Phoenix area, we have our Christmas Show ready to move within a day's notice. Give us a call at (602) 371-0094 or email me at rick_potvin@yahoo.com. Subscribers to this blog who get our posts in email... Merry Christmas-- or in language of the immigrants from Mexico-- Feliz Navidad! Party on.

Idiotic Cadillac Escalade 2016 ad combines Chopin with cattle

This ad is horrible. On one hand, you can hear a Chopin waltz in the background-- I forgot which one exactly-- I think it's Opus 15 No. 2 -- I'll check.... but in the foreground is the noise of cattle. We're supposed to think that the Escalade has a class about it that goes against the herd which we see as multiple other SUV's. The ad is sheer idiocy and whoever created it should be fired. Here it is... the comment section is open below and there are now 20 regular readers of this blog. I invite you to agree or disagree.

Cryogenics music videos

I'm not sure what to call this but it's fairly wild.

Obscure & Uncommon Christmas Songs along with Wild Boar Hunts

In my compilation of obscure Christmas songs, I ran across The Boar's Head Carol and subsequently ran many searches on what that was about. It turns out that the back story is quite interesting and that Boar's Head is quite tasty when properly prepared (they intimate, on the videos). The following playlist is now 152 videos long and is suitable for playing during this Christmas season but be forewarned-- I have included wild boar hunts. Trust me-- it IS appropriate (and fun.) The 12 days of Christmas started yesterday on the 14th with Christmas Day being the 1st day, as I currently understand or misunderstand it. I haven't done the research on that one. In any case, I've installed a LINK in the banner of this web page under "Rick's Playlists" (in bold) where you can play my selected Youtubes anytime you like as background for your Christmas season, parties or gatherings.

Flying Saucer Symphony from Close Encounters

Usually, the theme recalled from this movie are the 5 opening notes but there's far more to the entire performance. I'll post the initial scene here and look for others who can play the entire thing on piano in the near future. If you find it, please post it to comments below.

Chinese songs we'll prepare for a Chinese New Year Gig

Chinese New Years is in Feb 2016 based on moon cycles. We have many Asian songs we can play on piano and will begin reviewing them via this playlist. We have previous playlists with our Chinese songs-- Dorothy has done most of the work in that area. I'll likely include those on the following list.

Lesson Playlist for These Boots... including R&D

I've been creating a lot of playlists lately-- experimenting with what seems to be useful or what works and what doesn't really work-- as a viewer/listener experience. The following playlist includes a guitar lessons for These Boots... and I'll likely add keyboard and piano hints at how to play it as well. It's an older 1966 pop rock tune but it still seems to have a lot of currency online with various people performing it as you'll see. Dorothy and I perform our version of it on piano and keyboard at around #7 on the list.

Christine the movie by John Carpenter 1983

I missed this 1983 horror movie in 1983. I think the idea of possessed cars actually works but it was first done by Rod Serling in a Twilight Zone episode. More original ideas of demonic control of physical reality occurred in later made-for-TV movies that went beyond the car that were more entertaining. It occurs to me that if demonic control of physical things can occur-- that so too can angelic control -- or benign control by spirits departed from the earth. I'll consider the soundtrack for Christine in the following playlist if I have time this week.

Obscure Christmas songs playlist continued.

I've been adding more the Obscure Songs of Christmas playlist. Dorothy and I will do a Christmas luncheon this week and play background music for a few hundred people. She'll handle the better known tunes while I'll do some of these more uncommon ones.

Incredible sililoquy by my boss at Guitar Center about education

Leo has an incredible extemporaneous gift of gab that is conducive to talk radio and podcasts that actually has an angle to it-- in this incredibly politically incorrect age. I just discovered his extra curricular youtube activities online as I started looking at my other work-mates online. Leo has a talented ability to talk. I know that from being a talk radio junkie. He's comfortable in his own skin- his doesn't hesitate to confess discomfort and he extemporizes using interesting interjections just when you think there's going to be some dead air. It's almost as if he knows what he's doing! Take a listen. THE FOLLOWING IS A PLAYLIST of Leo's online presence which is a kick. (for me first-- and for the viewers here, likely entertaining but not overly so).

Ionnis Goudelis referral from Mara

Good reference from Mara at Guitar Center... Ionnis Goudelis, local Phoenix musician.

R&D cover "Old Time Rock'n Roll" at old-timers residence

Improv class

Surfin USA by Rick & Dorothy at a retirement residence, Nov. 2015

My boss wants more singing instructors.

With the surge in demand for lessons of all kinds at Guitar Center, my boss says we're short on singing instructors. The one other piano teacher at my store is a combination singing and piano teacher but teaches one or the other. I prefer to teach piano WITH vocal if I do vocal-- which I haven't done until perhaps soon-- given the situation. So it's fairly easy for me to transition if I make the attempt I think-- as long as the student agrees to learn basic keyboard/piano skills, I can transfer some vocal skills. In pursuit of that, I'll now create a video playlist of vocal lesson videos I find interesting. I can pretty much guarantee that there won't be anyone teaching BOTH piano/keys and voice as a matter of course. In my opinion, you can't have one without the other. Similarly, the person wanting to sing should pick up a guitar or ukelele at least... something!! You simply cannot expect to sing if you don't have an instrument, in my view.

Muslim attempt at creating music is questionable

You have to wonder if this qualifies as music. I guess it does-- sort of. You could call it really bad music, but to the fellows at the start of the following playlist, it's still music. Note the piano chords move as follows, over and over... i - iv - bVI - V7. They're starting with Fm, moving to Cm, then DbM and CM7 as the turnaround.

The singer is rapping more than singing with no discernable melody, although he seems fairly excited about his lyrics. Unfortunately, the there is no piano solo-- which I always look for.

A lot of Muslims say that their holy books indicate that music in general is evil so these two guys are sort of breaking the rules on that point. I wonder what one-time American pop rock star Cat Stevens is saying about all this now. He converted to Islam. Did he have to stop playing Peace Train? The following playlist will explore his latest songs too. Later in the playlist, I'll include video lectures explaining why Islam is finished-- that this latest round of attempted jihad is doomed and that Islamic terror is being faked.

Childhood's End soundtracks etc.

I haven't been interested in new movies for a long time. I watch a lot of Turner Classic Movies on TCM however. A new movie, an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is coming to SyFy channel this month and it has caught my interest because I ploughed through the novel years ago.

I actually thought the story was silly and didn't really think much of the plot-- of the Overlord invasion of Earth. I didn't like the conclusion either-- predicting the end of mankind rather than it's uplifting. In the end, the Earth vapourized. Isn't that just great? It was depressing. The mechanisms for time travel, time dilation, were combined with hibernation-- which made no sense to me. It should have been one or the other.

In any case, as part of a new effort to expand PianoLessonsEtc into a wider "entertainment" education zone, and to exeriment with the creation of playlists, I'd like to take a look at the movie as seen on Youtube promos along with the music via a playlist-- and possibly translate the sound track to something playable on piano. Movie music played on piano has a lot of currency among millions of movie goers so it behooves me to know some portion of it. Here we go, starting with Pink Floyd's interpretation of the concept in a song by the same title as the book.

As always, use the arrows in the bottom left to click forward or back and the drop down menu at the top left to explore the titles I've included in the playlist. Below the video on this page is a comparison of Clarke's idea with Sitchen's Anunnaki.

Parallels I independently discovered between Childhood's End and Sitchen. Sitchen only began translating Sumerian tablets and publishing in the 1970's I believe. Clark published is roughly parallel fiction in the 1950's.

1. The Overlords are like the Anunnki.

2. The Overlords try to end Apartheid in South Africa. Sitchen has the Enki Anunnuki mining gold and creating man in South Africa. What a coincidence.

3. Clarke has man establish a safe zone in the middle of the ocean, on a manufactured island-- reminiscent of Atlantis.

4. Clarke's Overmind seems parallel to The Creator of All referred to by Thoth in Sitchen's work.

Talk show with Marshal Klarfeld

I first heard Marshal Klarfeld on Coast to Coast with George Noori a few years ago. He gave me the idea that the ancient alien Anunnaki from whom we descend via genetic engineering-- were using the stepped pyramids to wash out gold particles. Gerald Clark's discovery of the stone circles in South Africa also remind me of the process of gold panning. I'm the first I've seen to put the idea of gold panning together with Gerald Clark's stone circles but have not yet proposed that to him on his youtube channel. Here is a 40 minute podcast transferred to a youtube of Marshal Klarfeld interviewed by Russell Scott. I've reviewed it and vetted it-- I'm expanding PianoLessonsEtc.com to include educational entertainment via the online video and audio resources.

Maggie May by Rod Stewart--

I played Maggie Mae at the entrance to Guitar Center today after it came on Guitar Center broadcast radio at the stores and got an acknowledgement from the girl in the rental deptartment who is so young that she ought not know this song but does! Who would know the younger gen knows these tunes? Anyway, I was missing a chord I couldn't figure out. It was the iim7 chord after I looked it up. --Rick

Rick at 45 with sales awards.

Would you buy a used piano from this man? Of course you would! ...even if you weren't planning on it. And you'd get free lessons to boot!

Lewis Black reminds me of Donald Trump

Trump is making headlines again with calling for a moratorium on importing more Muslims into the USA until we figure out "what the hell is going on". For some reason, it occurred to me that Lewis Black has been the most politically incorrect figure on the comedy stage... before Trump took the stage nationally. I thought I'd expand PianoLessonsEtc. to include some stand up comedy starting with Lewis Black.

Rick met Highway 85 Band at Guitar Center

I met the leader of the Highway 85 band at Guitar Center the other day. They call themselves a Variety Dance Band so I'll check them out on Youtube in the coming playlist below.

Homepage
http://highway85.iireproductions.com/

Rick's Romantic Piano-Vocals for Antarctica Cruise Ships and Blimp Trips.

I've been thinking about playing and singing romantic piano on blimps and cruise ships (but preferably blimps) that voyage around the entire perimeter of Antarctica. The following will be a playlist of those songs that I'll submit to an Antarctica Blimp Trip Cruise company. Hopefully we'll be landing our blimp at various research stations. As well, since penguins are so numerous, I hope to try penguin veal. I hear it tastes like... well... penguin.

Santa Clause as guitar or piano player.

I got a Sam Ash music store ad that intrigued me because I haven't seen the image before-- that of a Santa Clause playing electric guitar. It's a still but I thought it was a clever promotion, given this Christmas promotional month we're in, in the retail business-- at Guitar Center where I give piano lessons and play piano at the front of the store to attract passers by's attention-- occassionally between lessons. Given my recent renewed interest in creating Youtube Playlists that highlight a topic along with associated music, I thought I'd look for Santa Clause playing instruments. Here is the playlist result. (The original inspirational Sam Ash ad is below the video).

Rick adds.... When Dorothy and I were holding our recitals at Sam Ash last year, their gift certificate methods were terrible. It now appears they've improved but I wouldn't trust them until I tested them. The original program looked good to me too but it burned my students.

Problems with private parties-- you never know what the piano is like.

We often bid on jobs at Gig Salad or Gig Master and we get some but I'm very picky. This new request for a bid leaves me a bit baffled. Thier party theme says Christmas but it's on Jan. 8, obviously well after Christmas. And they also have a 1920's theme. This is red flag to me that they don't know what they want... so it's problematic to be enthusiastic and confident about bidding on it. As well-- you have to wonder what shape the piano is in-- if they think it already is suitable for 1920's music. I'm reticent about it. Here's the ad... then a playlist of some 1920's piano music in a playlist I created, including some of Dorothy's Honky Tonk Western show... which might or might not apply.

Neurophone recordings playlist

The neurophone is a device invented by Patrick Flanagan (of pyramid power fame) that apparently increases cognitive powers. It's cost is $800 but some people have made recordings of what it sounds like and have posted those to Youtube. Here's a playlist of what I found.

Meditation recordings playlist

I'm fairly sure that certain meditation recordings "work". My current collection of CD's however are non functional due to scratches and other glitches. I'll be surveying this field again soon to see if I can create a new collection-- perhaps installed on a different medium like a mobile device / smart phone / ipad or something more current than CD. For now, here is a playlist I'll be surveying to see if anything 'works'. --Rick

Body and Soul

When I played piano at the front of the Guitar Center store tonight between lessons, a guy introduced himself and played Body and Soul in D flat. I was somewhat impressed but he wasn't really getting all the notes and playing sloppy. It got me curious about that song again-- here is a playlist that reviews several versions. I don't yet have a copy anywhere in any fake book I can find but it's definitely a nice addition to my 300 song memorization project.

Sing We Now of Christmas

As part of my "obscure Christmas songs" playlist, I ran across this impressive carol. It's so impressive to me today that I had to post it as a new blog entry. You'll be able to let the playlist roll forward as I post more on it in coming days-- or you can see the other songs on the drop down menu in the top left. In the meantime, listen to THIS-- I'll be playing it at the Christmas lunch on Dec. 17 on PIANO and possible PIANO WITH an 8 beat drum pattern... called Pop 1 on the Casio Privia ensemble piano.

Mario Brothers on piano (playlist)

More obscure Christmas tunes playlist

In this next playlist, I'll explore some of the rarer Christmas songs-- at least from my persepctive-- since I'll be playing them at our next Christmas lunch coming up next week.

Ancient Aliens in Mexico update by Gerald Clark

Gerald Clark updates Zachariah Sitchen in a series of books and videos over the past decade and the following video is his latest update after an absense of close to a year. There is no music or piano involved in this documentary by Gerald Clark but it's part of an ongoing stream of interest of mine. particularly the angle involving the very long lived Sumerian kings (50,000 year lifespans!) and the Gilgamesh's search for physical immortality. I may turn this into a playlist that includes music consistent with thinking about this topic. Lately, I've been experimenting with building playlists alternating discussion with suitably related music.

Disturbing, jarring and ethereal theme "The Riddler" from "Batman Forever"

Orchestral masterpiece "The Riddler" from "Batman Forever" evokes all sorts of emotions throughout its chaotic and weird 7 minutes. Could it be a soundtrack consistent with our lives given the chaos in the world today-- and the challenges on a personal level? It might. Both horror and comfort are covered in various sections of the piece. It leaves the listener unresolved and somewhat upset. Dare you attempt to listen to it with HEADPHONES?

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (playlist)

Angie

So this Hawaiin girl comes into Guitar Center with her friends from ASU and she asks me if there's a patch cord for the ukelele she's testing. Of course, I go find a patch cord and plug it into the amp at the front of the store beside the piano. She proceeds to strum fairly well but she doesn't know the names of the chords she's playing so I just follow along on the piano. She says her name is Angie. Of course, I'm reminded of the Stones song but she can't follow along with Am to E to G to C because she only strums chords without really knowing the name- - nor can she count out 4 beats in a routine way. Agggh! Anyway we played piano and ukelele at the front of the store with some onlookers and got by for a few minutes. When I got home I decided to look at this song again-- as well as the powered ukelele... which will be part of the following playlist. My goal is to play Angie (and sing it) using a powered ukelele. Until Angie, I didn't even realized there were big powered ukelele's in my own store. -Rick P.

Teaching rhythm to children ( or any beginner )

I still don't think Youtube works for teaching but I thought this was an interesting account of pedagogy for piano. This "teacher of teachers" relates how she tries to get kids to understand rhythm and counting-- which I had to do today myself. This entry is filed under "pedagogy - rhythm"

Yakety Sax (USE HEADPHONES) & more San Bernadino Hoax

The following Youtube has excellent audio in stereo, possibly 3D binaural stereo-- so use headphones. The song is Yakety Sax and the group is Snake Davis's. I think he's slowed it down a bit which I like. It comes across much better and there's time to enjoy the different sections. I think it's likely transposed down a few keys too which helps. I've included it as #38 on my playlist about the San Bernadino active shooter hoax of Dec. 2015 so immediately following it, you'll likely see more of those hoax videos included, along with more versions of Yakety Sax. There are as many variations on media hoaxes as there are versions of Yakety Sax!

Wakeman... an investigation.

What's going on here? Wakeman, master of theatrical keyboards is on a digital piano playing children's tunes-- expertly mind you-- but in venues that are a distant galaxy away from where I discovered him n the 1970's. Where are the stacked multi synths? Why just one Roland piano? I don't get it. I'll investigate further. [Investigation cancelled-- it turns out that Wakeman was doing a promo at a TV morning show but he's still actively doing recording and concerts on synths.]

Manilow Christmas Playlist

I wanted to get some ideas for a contemporary sound for this years Christmas and New Years gigs we have coming up and it occurred to me that Manilow, still doing a Vegas show, and a piano player to boot, might provide some inspiration to me. So here is a playlist I'm creating of various tunes I think might be good for year end-- inspired by Manilow. --Rick

Yakkety Sax song makes anything funny-- including fake San Bernadino active shooter drill

Mainstream media continue to run media hoaxes, the latest being the San Bernadino active shooter drill where nobody died. I created the following playlist using several different performances of Yakkety Sax-- a tune that makes anything funny. Interleaved with the Yakkety Sax songs are videos proving that the event was and is a hoax and was nothing but another active shooter drill. I've also included Third Man Theme as a musical reference to the "third shooter who got away" for which San Bernadino was put in lockdown. Enjoy. Let it run-- or-- you can advance it yourself with the arrows in the bottom left or the drop down menu on the top left.

Luncheon Piano: Rick & Dorothy to play Christmas Lunch on Dec. 17

It's been awhile since we've played a Luncheon-- but here comes a Christmas Luncheon on Dec. 17 2015 where we'll use a Casio Ensemble Piano. The room will be packed so we'll be downsizing our staging area to just a piano ensemble with the 400 watt speaker system. The trick in a situation like this, as opposed to a one hour show, is to engineer the acoustics to suit the environment. I've been working on that with difficulty lately since our venues are so varied and our equipment has changed or is in transition. More on this soon.

Steely Dan concert

Rick & Dorothy play Rock-n-Roll Christmas at Orchard today! PLUS Exercise Hour

It's an hour of exercise to music and musical instruments today by Rick & Dorothy at Orchard where everyone has a rhythm instrument to inspire and motivate seniors to move to the music. After that, we have a birthday party for those with birthdays in November-- where we'll play our Rock-n-Roll Piano-Keyboard Hour concert. Again, my video camera has a bad connector-- but besides that the acoustics in the hall we play are bad. So I've got work to do in that department. For now, I'll repost a short playlist as a sample of our previous work there.

Rick & Dorothy play Madison Meadows today!

We'll be at Madison Meadows Retirement Residence today, playing Christmas songs to rock beats on our Yamaha keyboard and piano with some vocals thrown in. The Rick & Dorothy Piano Keyboard Hour continues on to Orchard in Mesa tomorrow. Video updates won't be possible this time around since I'm still working on replacing my broken camera-- although I might come up with a temporary solution. For now, here is a playlist of some of our previous work at Madison Meadows.

Dominican Republic music seems pointlessly quick.

Why is the following Dominican Republic music (first song on the playlist) so pointlessly fast? The only thing I can "hear" is the bass line. There are 2 chords. I guess it must have some value if you get "used" to it. It's hard to catch a heavy beat with the bongos. I'll try to reproduce something on piano. I wonder what it would be like if we slowed it down by just 30%? After the first video, I've added some slower versions of various dance and traditional music like "Bachata" (which has the word "Bach" in it, strangely enough). Along the way I look at food, politics and history as well-- selecting videos on youtube with good soundtracks always with the end in mind of doing something on piano to represent this music from "Barahona". Since looking at this island country in geography class in high school, I found it curious that it was split in two with the problematic Haiti. I'll include a look at the border with Haiti which should be interesting given the world's current border problems. You can let it roll or click an advance in the bottom left corner. There is a drop down menu on the top left.

Learn to play MyPillow.com

I noted the TV infomercial My Pillow has a catchy ditty that's worth learning. The lyrics are For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world, visit My Pillow dot com.

Rick played 6-8 am at x Black Friday after watching Walmart's Craig Roberts

I didn't do the Craig Roberts' schtick at x this morning at the front of the store as it was opened to a long line waiting to get in for Black Friday morning at 6 am... a COLD 6 am in Phoenix.... but I DID play and greet while doing standard Christmas songs in various arrangements on a Casio 88 key piano on sale for $299... with weighted keys. Most customers were interested in guitar and amp gear but I did talk to several piano types and pitched lessons. I have no recording but I noted a Walmart TV ad over the past few days featuring a guy doing roughly was I did this morning. In the interests of the etc. part of piano lessons etc, I've created a playlist of some of Craig Roberts' ads for Walmart followed by some of his other work.

Why us Turk music insipid, repetitive and uninteresting?

Note the lack of harmonic progression in the following Turk music. Sure there are some different melodic lines and there is virtuosity. But overall-- it's dull because there are no chords as we have in more advanced "Western" music most recently reinvented by Bach. The player of this stringed instrument-- a type of lute I think-- has frets that look like they can accomodate chords but he only hits one different chord at the very end. His name is Balil Erdogan, by the way, the same name as the son of President Erdogan of Turkey, Balil being on the front line of the revealing shoot down of the Russian jet over Syria a few days ago. It turns out that Turkey "is ISIS".

Consider videogame music-- Mario Bros.main theme

I have never been a fan of video game music. It's not "real music", is it? And yet it is, unfortunately, "popular" music. So I'll have to look at it. Here's a developing playlist of the Mario Brothers music that is now on the menu of my teaching schedule at Guitar Center as a result of a student there. The score book doesn't have chords but of course, chords are embedded here. It MAY be possible to turn this awful "music" around and make it into a sort of ragtime with latin combinations here and there. I'd have to slow it down a bit and play it in a viable piano style rather than simply copy it note for note as many youtubers do. In effect, I think it CAN be interpreted to be something viable. Time will tell. My video camera is fried at the moment so it'll likely be a few weeks before I upload my take on Mario Brothers. In the meantime, just hit play on this playlist and hear what I've selected as relevent listening for my listening friends.

Determine the chords & piano notes in the soundtrack for this documentary.

Note the piano chords & melody in the background of this documentary and duplicate them on your keyboard or piano. How do you think the music in the background is better than any old sound effects or of nothing at all? Would you say that the chords and melody create mystery? I'll search for other relevent documentaries about the mystery of water droplets and water memory and create a playlist of these documentaries so that we can compare the various soundtracks by various producers on this topic. I'll replicate the chords and notes and create a soundtrack by itself that you can replicate on your piano or keyboard. Why not consider making your own documentary and soundtrack. Far too many youtube video's these days have poor soundtracks consisting of noisy music that distracts from the message or that doesn't suit the message. Custome soundtracks that match the topic are best.

Alright Now song study & conversion to piano

Here is a playlist of Alright Now (Free, 1970) that will include ideas on how to play the song on piano and possibly sing it. I'll be adding to the playlist in coming days. I picked it up again on local Phoenix FM radio, 91.5 I think, where they play rock oldies-- on the way to work at Guitar Center. It has decent chord changes and is pretty much embedded in my own musical memory-- still stuck in the 1970's. I'm not sure if the message the lyrics convey are viable for me yet.


Here are the chords and lyrics...

ALL RIGHT NOW         FREE

A   Asus4   A
Dsus4  D    A

          A        D   A
There she stood in the street
Dsus4            D           A
Smiling from her head to her feet,
         A        D  A
I said 'Hey, what is this?'
             Dsus4        D         A
Now  baby, maybe she's in need of a kiss.

I said 'Hey, what's your name, baby,
maybe we can see things the same.
Now don't you wait or  hesitate,
Let's move before they raise the parking rate.'

Chorus
A         G              D         A
All right now Baby, it's all right now
A         G              D         A
All right now Baby, it's all right now

I took her home to my place
Watching ev'ry move on her face,
She said ''Look, what's your game baby
are you tryin' to put in shame?''

I said 'slow, don't go so fast,
don't you think that love can last?'
She said 'Love, Lord above,
now you're tryin' to trick me in love.'

Chorus

All right now baby, it's all right now
All right now baby, it's all right now

All Right Now by Free - Theorytab

Wayne Newton - watch for the keys. (concert)

Piano lessons ought to include structured understanding of the use of keys in concerts. All it takes is enjoying your own fave concerts-- and watching for "your" instrument with a critical eye. Watch for the keys in the following.

Rick & Dorothy's Piano-keyboard Holiday Hour for 2015-16.

We're starting work on our holiday hour to use at several shows we're booked for in December and New Year's Eve. I don't currently have a working video camera so I won't be posting any part of upcoming shows-- at least as far as the current situation goes. I might change that situation-- but I might not, as well. The critical elements of shows around Phoenix is to keep the car in shape, the house in shape, and to keep ourselves in shape-- through the traffic, the chaos and confusion, private teaching and Guitar Center functions. My overall plan is to wake up on January 2, 2016 after the "holiday challenge" is over.

For now, I'll simply start a playlist and see where it goes-- and then try to upload samples of our own work when I can. Last night, the GC band-- with Micheal on guitar, Brian on electric guitar, Zech, Mahlon and Brian on bass, Tim on drums and me on piano-- did a number of tunes for the Guitar Center VIP promotional sales event--- which included Here Comes Santa Clause. There were camera phones around-- I'll look later to see if anyone uploaded anything we did to Facebook or Youtube.

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Rick & Dorothy's Rhythm Band (For Retirement Residents)

We kicked off a new name plate today-- Rick and Dorothy's Rhythm Band-- without using the words "retirement" or "seniors" or "exercise"-- with the performance (not recorded since my video camera is out of commission)-- at Rio Del Vista in Sun City. Dorothy organized the performance and participants had fun moving to the music we provided using various musical rhythm instruments. Nothing like it is found anywhere else, at least anywhere on youtube I can find.

If YOU are a retirement activities director looking for a 1 hour timeslot for recreation for your residents,  Rick and Dorothy's Rhythm Band might be an interesting possibility for you-- if you're in the Phoenix area.