Good example of senior singlong participation

R&D to lead sing along for residents at Acacia@SagewoodLCS Mar 3

R&D (Rick and Dorothy) have finalized their singalong song list for the residents at Acacia@Sagewood for March 3 at 3:30, the hour before dinner is served. Sagewood is in North Scottsdale just north of the 101 and near the Music Instrument Museum that Roger Williams played at the opening of.

The first half of the Rick & Dorothy Show will be the singalong portion on the Korg piano with Rick leading singing using a vocal correction unit from BOSS.... That's because he's the boss of singing, see. That's how that works. The Boss Vocoder makes singing on pitch a breeze and turns anyone's voice into a musical instrument of precision. Interestingly, once the vocoder is adopted, one's regular unassisted voice gains strength too-- just because of the increased confidence the Boss unit gives an otherwise amateur singer.

The second half of the show will consist of the Ferrente Teicher Piano Duet Salute where Rick and Dorothy play the on site Kimball upright piano and the Korg piano together through a set of songs starting with the glorious "Born Free" from the movie of the same name.

Singalong Songs Scheduled
Baby Face
shine on Harvest Moon
For Me and My Gal
Heart of my Heart
Give My Regards to Broadway
Ain't She Sweet
I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandee
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
In the Good Old Summertime
My Blue Heaven
Fourleaf Clover
You are my Sunshine
Bicycle Built for Two
When Irish Eyes are Smiling
My Wild Irish Rose
If you Knew Suzi
Bye Bye Blackbird
Country Roads
Hello Dolly
It Had to Be You
I Can't Give Yu Anything but Love
When The Saints Go Marching In
California Here I come
Roll Out the Barrel
Piano Man
Sweet Caroline
Brown Eyed Girl
Yellow Submarine
Sentimental Journey
Goodnight Sweetheart.

If you are an Activity Director for any retirment residence in the Greater Phoenix Area, give us a call at 602 371 0094 or email us at rick_potvin@yahoo.com and we'll be happy to perform the above sets for you along with any additions or subtractions you like at any time for any function. We like to arrive an hour in advance, and we set up then play a prelude to warm up. We follow up performances with coaching seminars that instruct music hobbyists on how to use their portable keybaords, organs and pianos. We hand out books for singalongs as well so everyone can follow the words. Our experience with Shroeders Organ and Piano and Fletcher Music Centers in the 1980s, 1990's and 2000's has proven that there are more people interested in making music a hobby all the time-- and that today's instruments make it easier than ever to learn and make life interesting as well as fun. Keeping things interesting is the key to health and longevity.
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Our Current Piano Duet Salute to Ferrante & Teicher (with percussion assist from Yamaha 433)

Born Free
What Now My Love
Brazil
Shangrila
Alley Cat
When the Saints Go Marching In
Canadian Sunset
I'll Remember April
How High the Moon
Blueberry Hill
Only You
Arrivaderci Roma
Elvis Trbiute Finale: HoundDog, TeddyBear, DontBeCruel

We're confident your in-house piano will be in tune with our digital Korg because we have a microtuner on our Korg that will match the tuning of your piano even if it's off a bit.

Monthly Birthday Party for residents of Orchard Mesa Apts by Rick & Dorothy.

Dorothy and Rick have played Orchard Mesa Retirement Apartments Monthly BIRTHDAY PARTY for three months now-- and every show has been different and fun for all.

Dec. 29 - Dorothy played a piano prelude from 1:30 to 2:00. Rick and Dorothy performed with Dorothy on the KORG piano and Rick on the YAMAHA keyboard, while both sang the following tunes from 2 to 3. Residents had a food-break at 2:30.

It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that Swing
In the Mood
At the Hop
New York, New York
Five Foot Two
Ain't She Sweet
When the Saints Go Marching In
Hello Dolly
Cabaret
On the Sunny Side of the Street
Brazil
...more listings soon

Jan. 26, 2015 - Rick & Dorothy took turns playing and singing on the Korg with the Yamaha keyboard on the side.

Dorothy began the Prelude to the show at 1:30 for the earlybirds
2:00 Dorothy played tributes to Gershwin, Porter, Rogerss and Hart on Piano and Keyboard combination with the keyboard at 90 deg to the Korg piano;
2:30 Happy Birthday to all birthday people + breakout for food while Rick played his set.
2:30 Rick played his "Book 11" with vocals, the keyboard and Korg 88 key piano
Wind beneath My wings
Nadia's theme
Music Box Dancer
Last Dance
Moondance
Chariots of Fire
Skating
Love Boat
Sweet Caroline
Piano Man
Old Time Rock and Roll
Great Balls of Fire
Yakate Sax


Feb., 23, 2015 - This was a two part show with the Prelude for earlybirds at 1:30.
2:00 Rick and Dorothy's Singalong. Dorothy was on the Korg while Rick handed out sing along books and led the sing along from his mic stand / music rack.
2:30 Happy Birthday was sung to 11 birthday people  out of the overall 50-60 in attendance!
2:35 Rick and Dorothy played a piano duet set in the tradition of Ferrante and Teicher. Rick was on the house piano at Orchard and Dorothy was on the Korg. Rick set up the drum machine for great percussion backgrounds from the Yamaha 433 Keyboard.
3:15. Lessons were held in the classroom by Dorothy and Rick instructed students on the Lowrey Organ in the main room.

On Broadway-- a lesson & exercise in the secret code of music

EXERCISE - PART I - Hit the C chord on your keyboard and starting singing "On Broadway" beginning on the G-note just below the C. You'll find that the Bb chord fits right in as you sing along.

C            Bb    C          Bb         C    Bb  C Bb

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway

C                Bb      C     Bb      C   Bb C  Bb

They say there's always magic in the air

F               Eb       F         Eb     F

But when you're walkin' down that street

              Eb      F      G

And you ain't had enough to eat

C           Bb          C   Bb            C   Bb  C  Bb

The glitter rubs right off and you're nowhere

PART II - Start the same song over again but start with the G chord, using the 5th tone of THAT chord, D-- just below your G in the middle of the piano and sing your way through my new lyrics the best you can. 

G            F      G    F        G    F  G  F

They say the pizza's real good on Broadway

G            F           G         F          G     F  G  F

The hot dogs too are the best they say there are.

C         Bb     C         Bb

If I were walkin down that street

C         Bb     C        D    

And if I hadn't 'nough to eat

G         F        G                 F       G    F   G   F

The pizza pies and hot dogs can't be beat on Broadway

PART III- Do the same thing by starting on D chord-- and singing the 5th tone of that scale, A, to the tune of On Broadway.

D            C          D      C        D    C   D   C

They say the pork chops really swing on Broadway

D            C          D          C          D   C  D  C

I couldn't tell you - I just don't drive that far

G            F     G       F

But if you tell me down my street

G            F     G       A

A pork chop can be had for free

D           C            D        C     D        C  D  C 

Then I'll admit it, I'd take that right awayyy... 

PART IV- Look through the roman numbers of chords built on each note of the C scale below. Notice the chord changes written out as roman numbers. "I" means I chord. "bIII" means "flat III chord"

C D   E   F  G  A   B   C

I ii iii IV  V  VI vii  I

Normally, E and B are minor chords in the major scale of "scale chords". To make them Major chords, just raise the normal 3rd tone a half step. The major roman numeral is denoted with capitalized letters III and VII.

      Emaj          Bmaj
       III           VII

Now consider the major chords based on the flatted III and flatted VII chords.

      Eb maj         Bb maj
       bIII          bVII

The roman numeral progression will now look like this... 

I - bVII - I - bVII 

IV - bIII - IV - bIII

Spelling out the roman numeral chords should make sense to you by now as follows... 

I = C E G

bVII = Bb D F

IV - F A C 

bIII - Eb G Bb  

EXERCISE

SPELL OUT THE I and "flat seven" chords as well as the IV and "flat three" chords for 2nd and 3rd verses as I did for the first verse just above. 

Email me if you're stuck. If you get it, write a new verse with new lyrics in a new key and email me that. rick_potvin@yahoo.com

Here's a short video describing what I've just done where you can hear what I'd like you to do on the piano.

Rick & Dorothy do Mardi Gras at Southern Rail with live music.

Here is a 15 minute raw video clip of our evening with some music oriented commentary by me...

Band led by Will Goble - Bassist and Composer :: Performance and Education
Restaurant homepage Southern Rail AZ Restaurant | Flavors from the American South

Valentines Day dinner 4:30-7:00 at Madison featured Dorothy & Rick at the piano

Old tune "Smiles" is new to me.

In prepping a senior singalong today, I ran across this tune's lyrics. Never having heard it before, I used the trusty youtube to learn it.

Egypt's military band needs to practice Russian anthem.

Putin is visiting Egypt. The Egyptian military band tried to play the Russian anthem-- with more or less success. You can see Putin gulp at how terribly bad it was. I guess they had to put it together quick. This shows that even world visible music majors need to practise. So do Dorothy and me and students everywhere. Check it out:

Old Time Sing Along Peggy O'Neill on 78 rpm-- the original!

We're currently putting more sing alongs together for retiree residence gigs and I found this song, in particular today, to be of interest to me because Dorothy knew it and I did "not" know it. So I looked it up and found it on Utube where someone posted an old 78 rpm version of it that I really liked. Here it is.

Ken Walker has DJ'd since high school-- Plays "Name that Tune" at Madison.

Dorothy and I went to see Ken Walker at the Madison Meadows Retirement Residence this afternoon. Retirees crowded into the Front Hall at 1:30 to hear him spin his Time-Life CD Series-- top hits from across the decades-- and wait for everyone to shout out the name of the tune and the artist. Ken keeps the performance going with his friendly interactive conversation and "DJ-patter", playing songs on nothing but a CD player using a paper-based index and a big ampflier on a cart. It works well as he catches the after-lunch crowed at Madison who enjoy an after-lunch concert.

"It's happening" at Old-time Sing-Along with piano at Retirement Residences!

 Retirement residences seem to be increasing in number, especially in well-known retirement states like Arizona. The songs the retirees know are songs we already know so we're fitting right in! Here's a sample of sing along using a piano from a few years ago (not by us-- but used here as an example). There are always more or less active participants of course-- both in the retiree audience and the residence staff. This crowd has it all.

Joe "Mr. Memories" Taylor memorized lyrics to all his tunes.

We went to see Joe Taylor at the Madison Meadows Retirement Village in Phoenix the other day. Here's a little news blurb on him. He did a number of tunes that are still popular in the retirement community here in Arizona-- tunes we ourselves do when we go out to play as well. After the show, I asked Joe if he had any special way to memorize all his lyrics and he said that lyrics tell a story. Remember the story-- write it down to help you memorize it-- and you'll remember the song. I'm trying to memorize more lyrics lately, myself-- as well as chord changes-- since it seems to be "the thing to do" rather than lean on notation books which I've done for years.

Learn to play or to sing along to Jamaica Farewell with this 200 video playlist.

We saw Jay Ferris play Jamaica Farewell at "The Stratford" in Phoenix this afternoon among a dozen or so other numbers. It grabbed us in particular because it's a good audience sing-along-- and we've been working on our sing-alongs. We plan to add it to our local lesson program too because it's a fairly simple tune-- both chord-wise and melody wise. The original reggae rhythm adds something new for most students. If you follow this blog, you can learn this tune best by "osmosis"-- in other words-- just listen to the playlist that follows and I'll be adding a link to a lesson forum thread soon.

Superbowl opened with a piano-vocal.

I was interested to see a piano-vocalist featured at the Superbowl opening.