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My original piece on the Yamaha Montage 8

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:42 am
by Chummy
"The Ragtime Party"

My original Ragtime piece. Played by me (the composer). In case Ragtimers and music appreciators would like to have a listen. I kinda like my execution here although there may had been a little bit of overpedaling (towards the end) than what I would have intended due to not really being used to MIDI Pedal and its interaction with that Piano preset. I wish I could record it on a real piano, but recording a real piano is a tedious process and requires expensive mics which I don't have access to.

The piece is dedicated to Tom Brier and Ron O'dell and inspired by their Ragtime Party YT videos, usually at Skunk Hollow. Tom Brier is a prolific Ragtime composer and pianist who lost his ability to play on 2015 due to severe car accident. Ron O'dell also known as Keeper1st on YT is a Ragtime Composer known for "Mad Scientist Rag".

I have like 5-6 more already finished pieces I composed and plan to upload vid of at some point, and transcribe all into sheet music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7wDUcrwp8c

Re: My original piece on the Yamaha Montage 8

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:04 am
by parametric
Very Nice Chummy.

There's a lot going on there with strong melodic phrases all driven along by that Stride-Bass.

Must be a lot of practice required to get it that good with all those hand position changes . . .

My Dad used to play a lot of Billy Mayerl - which, although not RagTime, did have similar Stride style in the LH.

Did you nail the sustain pedal down?

I always seem to end up chasing it around on the floor with my foot . . . :roll:

Clavinova or a Real Piano is more comfortable for this :lol:

I agree, miking up a Real Piano in a domestic environment is difficult - as they are almost always NOT placed

well in the room . . . + you DO need decent Mikes . . .

parametric

Re: My original piece on the Yamaha Montage 8

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:47 pm
by Saul
Great job Chummy. Very nicely played indeed! :clap: :clap: :clap:

And THAT folks is why I stick to guitar. My piano hands will simply never work like that ;) :/:

Re: My original piece on the Yamaha Montage 8

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:44 pm
by Chummy
Thanks guys. I didn't nail the pedal although I have to be barefoot for it not to move. I still think the feel and response of it could be better. Maybe it's because I am using an old cheap chinese pedal. I don't know really. Ragtime just comes naturally to me to improvise in real time and compose. It's just I'm so familiar with the genre to the point where I hear music when there isn't one.

Ask me about Baroque music or classical and I'm mostly stumped though

Re: My original piece on the Yamaha Montage 8

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:56 pm
by Chummy
Saul wrote: Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:47 pm Great job Chummy. Very nicely played indeed! :clap: :clap: :clap:

And THAT folks is why I stick to guitar. My piano hands will simply never work like that ;) :/:
Haha.. are there any videos of you playing? I always wanted to play guitar and I did learn for 2 years at some point, but the only thing I know is a few chords :( and even then I suck. Sticking to my ukulele. I wish I'd play like Issei Noro, Casiopea's guitarist whose happen to also use mainly Yamaha gear. He's so good, not only the technique, some of the sounds he makes out of his guitars are simply magical.

Re: My original piece on the Yamaha Montage 8

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:22 pm
by Saul
Yeah I am not as good a player as I should be. Too many years not pushing myself, comfortable with what I play and so on. It's a trap a lot of guitarists and musicians in general fall into and it's so easy to do.

Having said that, I do play a lot more things than I used to although most of it is ad-hoc so not recorded.

The only things online are on the YouTube channel and they are all snippets of stuff improvised on the spot.

Really it's just a matter of more structured practice and stretching myself a little more however work does get in the way and the bills need to be paid so time is always a bit of a luxury I don't have. I am sure we could all do with more of that ;)