Days 53 and 54 – Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19: MOTHER OF ...

Goals: Stain the damn lid; work on the inlay.

Music: Eldar’s “Live at the Blue Note”; Bill Evans’ “Complete Village Vanguard Recordings 1961” (all three discs); Bill Evans’ “Portrait in Jazz”; Art Farmer’s “Portrait of Art Farmer” and “Blame It on My Youth”.

This was to be an unexciting entry, anyway, so it is about a week late. My schedule was upset by having to serve on a U.S. District Court jury last week to convict a guy who trafficked in 15-year old prostitutes who were illegal aliens to boot. (Like I said: we convicted.)

Enough about that.

I’m one coat on one side of the lid from being finished with it. When I’m finished with that, I’ll be finished with staining except for any touch-ups I have to do on the inside after I install everything. I’m looking forward to that.

The mother-of-pearl inlay work is no fun. No fun at all. It is very tedious, very time consuming, very slow, very precise, and dirty work. I’ve inhaled so much old wood and varnish I’ve developed a dry hack that is pretty serious. To make matters worse, the mother-of-pearl that I bought looks new, while the MOP on my piano does not. I’m not sure how to spruce up the antique inlay or how to tone down the modern inlay. I’m back to thinking about scrapping the inlay board all together and installing something else. Or, I may go against Mrs. S’s suggestion and just go ahead and let the modern and ancient MOP mix on that board, for better or worse.

I just want to be done.

Next session will be completing the harp and completing the lid.

Voyage on the Maiden

Well, let me first say that practice does pay off. I had a rather productive piano lesson last night, an hour long to make up for missing last week, but none of the time wasted and lot of pertinent discussion and practice on my playing at its current state. We talked about block chords, easing movement in the left hand, diminished chords, relevant minor chords, ...oh, many things. Even more to the point, we've got a road map for next week's lesson, which will also be an hour long, and it involves a lot of different themes and skills while working on Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage.

I recently purchased the CD of Maiden Voyage, and while I was unimpressed at first, I've been pleasantly surprised as the CD has grown on me. The title track itself I have always liked, and I think that while the MV voicings have become overused almost to the point of cliche, for a new pianist like myself, they lay a foundation of tonality that is easy to build on, because the chords range over a good portion of the register and include a seventh and what amounts to (I guess) some kind of suspended chord. What I mean is, the chords are really only useful in one context (playing Maiden Voyage and songs that sound like that), but in that context, they are extremely useful and reliable. (Of course.)

Because bashing out chords is, however, so one dimensional and not all that much fun and only improves one aspect of my playing, we also decided to try a different sort of Parker lick, so I'm going to have a go at Ornithology this week. I'm pretty sure I've got a recording of it around, pretty sure on one of my newer CD purchases, so I'm going to have at it pretty good this week. I mowed the grass Tuesday and don't have any plans for this weekend, and Mrs. S has a few things going on that she will be out of the house here and there, so this should be a big practice week for me and I hope to report a lot of progress between now and next Thursday when I run down next week's lesson in this spot. The only thing that will take some time away from practice is going through my CD collection and updating my list of songs that I have recordings for so I can listen and play along if necessary. That is not easy to maintain with the number of CD's I've been purchasing and what with trying to write reviews about them on amazon.com and, obviously, listen to them.

And something a bit off the track: We've had a traffic light installed at the entrance to our subdivision. There've been some accidents (a fatal one a month ago) and a lot of close calls, and the soccer moms on their cell phones can barely get in and out as it is, so the city deemed they deserved some help. I was against the light because I saw the issue to be more one of lack of driving skill than of needing to control traffic, but after two days, I now see this is a great advantage for me. Since I turn right coming out in the morning and left going in in the evening, I was required to make a stop (at the stop sign) coming out before I could go right, and could proceed if there was no traffic, else I had to wait for it. Coming home, I could proceed right through (turning left) if there was no traffic, but would often have to wait a while for traffic, or worse, for some dumbass to make a turn in front of me. Now, in the morning, if I'm coming out and the light is with me, I get to proceed right through and if it isn't, I'm no worse off than I was before, stopping, waiting for traffic, and then pulling out. So that's a plus. Coming back, I have it even better: I may have to stop for traffic, in which case after a while, I get an arrow, but if I'm lucky and there's no traffic, I can proceed right through any way. I can't see how I lose, other than the occasional time when I would have gone right through but I have to wait because somebody is pulling out and has the right of way. Say I save five minutes a week because of the light, that's over four hours of extra piano practice time a year! Groovy!

Experiment Analysis: Part 2

I should have done further analysis before I wrote my initial results.

It turns out that I actually MISSED Little Madimba. I guess I overthought the experiment and figured Eldar had to throw in at least one Latin flavored song, or whatever, and never having heard the song before, I suppose I figured it was some esoteric stuff that Eldar dug up for his album. So much for that hypothesis. However, in my defense, I'd never heard African Village before either, and I pegged that as a Tyner song right away, so I don't think I was completely off base in my initial analysis.

Here's the playlist and what I hit and missed. I think I'm going to leave the analysis at that.

The conclusion is simply: Eldar and McCoy Tyner can be very hard to tell apart for the beginning jazz pianist or casual listener, so Mrs. S's comments about Tyner sounding like Eldar were not as far off the mark as I at first thought. And with that, the experiment is completed.

Soon, we start work on the Yoity Tot CD list. Stay tuned.

Experiment Analysis: Part 1

Well, we conducted the Tyner vs. Eldar experiment over the weekend. The two subject CD's were Time for Tyner and Eldar's self-titled CD, Eldar (yeah, no kidding). The experiment even had some controls. Mrs. S did a really good job of mixing up all seventeen tunes from the CD's, and the artists themselves had basically standards with a few songs that I was completely unfamiliar with, as well as some made up of pieces of other songs, so there was no possibility for me to judge the artists based on the tracks themselves. Both CD's were studio CD's and for the most part, the accompanists and pianos sounded similar enough that I could not tell the artists apart based just on sound. I have to say, these two CD's match up very well stylistically, technically, and artistically, and it made telling the artists apart solely on their piano chops very challenging.

Before I present the results, here's my analysis.

Tyner's work in Latin and African rhythms and songs stands out. I just couldn't picture Eldar playing Little Madimba, African Village, or Afro Blue (which wasn't on the experiment CD) or something like that. So when I heard something Latin-sounding, I could assume it to not be Eldar. Similarly, when Eldar does that keyboard mashing glissando up or down, there is no mistaking it, and I just couldn't picture Tyner doing something like that. Eldar also makes with the lightning-fingers riffs that, while I'm sure Tyner could do if he wanted, he doesn't, simply because that's not his style. So again, I had no trouble identifying any songs containing those kinds of things as Eldar songs.

Where I got into trouble was when they were playing classic standards at normal tempo with what one could call standard arrangements. There just isn't enough individual style there, at least, not when you just listen to the song for a minute or two. So I need to point out, had I spent, say two or three minutes per song, I think the results would have been different. Yesterday morning and afternoon, I listened to the Eldar CD and in some of the solo work, I heard things I didn't hear when we did the experiment. I think I probably made my decision too early on at least two, and probably three of the songs. (I will do a song by song breakdown and what I heard or didn't hear or thought I heard at a later date, after I've had a chance to listen to each CD .)

Finally, the results were: out of seventeen songs, I correctly identified the artist in eleven of them, 65%. I think that is close to being statistically significant, but probably is not. More interesting is that I was unable to identify the artist in four of the first five songs I listened to. Maybe if I had gone back and listened to the songs again after doing a once-through on them, I might have changed my mind or been able to listen more capably. Hard to say if that would have been the case or not. I think it is accurate to say that, in truth, I cannot tell the difference between Tyner and Eldar just by listening, unless they do something that is one of their trademarks or play a song that the other just never would do.

My final comment here, for now, is this started as a comparison of block chords and based on what I heard yesterday, there wasn't all that much block chord work on either one of the CD's. (Maybe block chords would have made telling them apart even more difficult. The ramifications are endless.)

Next post: a song by song, post-listening analysis.

Experiment controls

Just about two months ago, I wrote about how I had been listening to McCoy Tyner's Afro-Blue and Mrs. S, over a period of a couple of days, kept coming in the middle of it, going "Is that Eldar?" and how I considered the two different enough, even though they are both block chord specialists (of a sort), that I could tell them apart just by listening. But, I further commented, I was usually the one who picked the music and I was familiar enough with Eldar's Blue Note album and some of Tyner's other stuff that maybe I was telling them apart by subconscious clues. I devised an experiment where I would buy one CD each of Eldar and McCoy Tyner that I didn't have and wasn't familiar with, and I wouldn't look at the song list, and Mrs. S would load them in iMusic and randomize a selection of their songs and I would attempt to identify the pianist.

Here are the controls for the experiment:
1) Like I said, I haven't looked at the CD's and don't know what songs are on them. I can somewhat suspect the Tyner plays more standards and Eldar plays "free" stuff, so I will ask Mrs. S to try and mix in mostly just standards, but not knowing what's on the CD's, I'm not sure this is even possible.
2) When the Eldar self titled CD arrived from amazon, I didn't even open the packaging. I just gave it to Mrs. S. When Time for Tyner arrived, same thing, though I happened to see the Eldar CD sitting on the computer keyboard stand. So, I just piled it on top, again, not looking at either one.
3) In preparation, I have been listening to nothing but jazz pianists for the past week. Yesterday, my CD's finally arrived from yourmusic.com (what a story that was) and in addition to the Tyner, there was Jarrett Peacock DeJohnette's Live at Montreaux, which is what I've been listening to this morning. This past week has been a steady diet of Oscar Peterson and Thelonious Monk, but no Tyner or Eldar.
4) When conducting the experiment, I will arrange the room so that I can't see the computer screen or even a reflection of it. Basically, I'm going to sit with my back to the screen (so I can hear all the speakers, sub woofers, etc.) and, I'm guessing, have Mrs. S play ten songs (or more) for a minute or two each, listing them in order, and I will write down who I think is playing each one. She will not tell me if my guess is right or wrong until after I have listened to and guessed at all of the songs so that I don't use any feedback to tell who is playing.

Obviously, if the sounds and songs of the CD's are vastly different, like if one is live and the other isn't, the experiment will not be a success anyway. Same goes if the tonality of the instruments used is very pronounced or unique: I may not know who is playing, but I will know which piano it is and be able to match it up with previously heard songs and my pianist guess.

I suppose someone with a lot more experience than me couldn't even perform this kind of experiment, which is why I think this is such a great opportunity. Some time from now, who knows when, one hopes that my jazz knowledge and experience would be sufficient that I could guess virtually any pianist after hearing just a few bars. Then again, I'm not sure THAT is even possible in the first place.

The experiment is going to be this weekend. Stop back soon to find out how it went.

Eldar vs. Tyner: Clash of the Block Chord Titans - A Potential Experiment

Mrs. S, who if pressed to pick a favorite jazz pianist would pick Billy Taylor, often says she also likes McCoy Tyner, but every time I put on a Tyner CD, she goes, "Oh, sounds like Eldar!" Now I must admit that by the simple fact that both of these guys use all ten of their fingers practically all the time, they share some degree of similarity, but personally, I can tell right away when I'm listening to Tyner and when I'm listening to Eldar. Maybe it's familiarity or expectation, but I wonder if there isn't something fundamental in the selection of the chord or the inversion or the voicing that I'm picking up on subconsciously in order to know whether I'm listening to Tyner or listening to Eldar. It's a classic philosophical conundrum that could probably be solved with some transcriptions and/or heavy listening. I'm just not really sure it is worth pursuing. I usually pick the music we listen to in the evenings, so I always know what we are listening to. It may be as simple as that. Maybe I can use the iPod shuffle function to produce a listening experiment, but again, I have too much familiarity with the music. Maybe when my next club CD (Time for Tyner) comes, I'll pick up the Eldar CD that's been on my Amazon wish list forever and ever and let Mrs. S load them up before I listen to them or learn the track names, then let her play some songs at random and see if I can tell the difference just by listening to their playing styles. The results might be noteworthy.

Worked on So What with my instructor last night. Still have some rhythmic challenges to overcome on the bass line, but as Newt pointed out, we don't have to worry about that too much, since if I ever perform the song (someday), the bass player will have that line anyway. We did a run through of Easy to Love as well. The only revelation I had last night: A flatted fifth is a whole tone above the third. (Never thought of it that way before.) That should make it easier to pull those chords out in the middle of songs, I think.

Added May 23:
Controls for the experiment
Results
Analysis