The twenty-third installment in the "28 in Twenty-Eight" blog by Robert Ian Winstin.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
"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
Stats: Blog Views to Date (February 22, 2010): 14,155 Sheet Music Downloads to Date (February 22, 2010): 9611
You can grab the FREE sheet music to most of the music in this blog series at www.numusicdirect.com/28intwentyeight.html
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