Tuesday, February 23, 2010

"Blues Etude #3"

The twenty-third installment in the "28 in Twenty-Eight" blog by Robert Ian Winstin.

"Blues Etude #3"


"Blues Etude #3"

Yessiree, it's time for another of these little ditties.

Imagine Chopin's "Winterwind" Etude combined with a Tom Waits left-hand. ("The piano's been drinking, not me!"???)

The Chopin has that signature right-hand part that every developing pianist has to try and do - much to everyone's chagrin. I was no exception. I faked my way through that thing for years, finally playing it well post-college years. Now, twenty-five years later, I'm back to murdering the evenness of the right-hand part. My apologies! (Really, it's no defense, but I haven't done the piece in decades!)

I love the "Blues." (What long-suffering artist doesn't?) I love the immediacy of the pattern, the flexibility of the rhythm and the utter fun it is to play. (Rather ironic that the "Blues" is fun to play!)

A few summers ago I was up in upstate New York - to the hippie mecca Woodstock. (My homeland ...) I had a small orchestra that was touring with Professor Louie & The Chrowmatix - a fabulous R & B Old Time Rock-n-Roll band. (Gave me an excuse to wear my tie-dye.) Somewhere towards the last gig I found I could leave the podium, stash the baton and wander over to an open keyboard and sit-in and jam.

!

Great fun and since almost every song was a blues pattern - I knew every piece of music!

My thanks to all who have followed daily - for twenty-three days so far.

Twenty-three days.

Twenty-three.

Days.

A new piece every day.

Write it. Record it. Blog about it.

Thank God February only has twenty-eight days!

In all seriousness - Thank You!

This one is for my friend Sam Bell.
Robert Ian Winstin

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You can grab the FREE sheet music to most of the music in this blog series at www.numusicdirect.com/28intwentyeight.html