February 2010
1 post
What is up with COMMERCIALS!
I’m guilty enough of watching too much television and I know I’m a total slacker, but the repetitive commercials on tv suck soooo bad. It’s repetitive because the major corporate outposts (Target, McDonald’s, GM, Nike) all bank money on it I guess. Since we buy from all those major places, they do the most advertising but their commercials SUCK. Especially Old Navy (die...
January 2010
2 posts
December 2009
6 posts
Hawaii's Big Island in greater detail →
Destination360 is a fantastic resource for travel in Hawaii. I chose the Big Island because it seems to be the most nature-oriented and ecologically diverse of all the islands. I can’t believe a place where you go from Tropical Rainforest to Snowcapped Volcanic mountains in just minutes drive of a car! Here’s another picture of where I’m staying, in the Puna District near the...
September 2009
2 posts
Follow-up to the previous post
It’s not that I don’t like living out here- it’s fine. It’s just a shockingly new experience that’s forcing me to figure all sorts of new things out from scratch. Like where the Target is. Granted the map #2 is on a slightly larger (about 5%) scale than the first, but you get the stark differences. One is very balanced, figured, even-sided and stable, while the...
August 2009
1 post
Beethoven Op.101 1st mvt.
It’s not a great quality recording, but for now it will have to do.
July 2009
15 posts
Beginner's guide to Piano Improv: Vol 1
In my first installment of a pianist’s guide to Improvisation techniques, I discuss the diminished chord at a basic level.
First music vid ever!
Fiddling around at the piano with this new blog-camera thingy.
I can't believe this has happened sooner. →
(via sincerelyandy)
It really was only a matter of time…..
My mock interview with Oprah
Oprah and I step into the local tavern down Broadway from the edge of the strip in Boystown, Chicago called North End. She asks me why I chose it.
John: Well, it’s that kind of place located just at the edge of the main ‘drag’ which is always so busy, and I like it because I can be away from that element and yet still have a good time.
Oprah: How long have you been coming...
May 2009
13 posts
more thoughts on Wikipedia's music-bashing.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._16_(Beethoven)
Says author about the 2nd movement: “…several graceful melodies in the piece saves it from merely being a joke.”
Anyone who has heard this piece knows it is most definitely NOT a joke. But once again, the lazy, or uneducated, or simply uncaring musician will go straight to Wikipedia right away to find quick...
from Wikipedia article posted below.
author writes about the 2nd mvt:
“takes the form of a vigorous romantic march characterized by a daring, formidable and clamorous network of dotted rhythms and harmonic dislocation.”
Problem #1: the overwhelming subjectivity. Since I don’t know the author, I can’t ask him/her where they found their idea for “romantic.” Informed listeners have a general...
Excellent source from Pianopedia.com
Beethoven - Sonata no.28 in A major, op.101General InformationComposer(s) : Beethoven, Ludwig Van (1770-1827) Work type(s) : Piano solo Duration : 20:30Composition date(s) : 1816 Key & mode : A majorMovements or Excerpts Tempo IndicationAverage duration1 Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung 4:26 2 Lebhaft. Marschmassig...
Wikipedia and Music? Not so much...
Sometimes I go to Wikipedia for fast musical knowledge like facts, Opus numbers, etc. but time and time again I find the resource is inconclusive at best. There are incosistencies within the structure that take you to foreign pages written by a different author with a completely different mechanism of organising the output of the works. Plus, Wikipedia is riddled with all kinds of commentary...
Problems in Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas
Everyone loves a good Beethoven Sonata on a recital program. But are we pianists up for the challenge? When I was younger, i.e. 15 or 16, I played so many Beethoven Sonatas easily. Now when I face them 10 years later I appear technically sluggish and lacking in finesse.
I can play a Mozart Sonata well-polished, which I was never able to before, but I can’t tackle the technical ferocity...
April 2009
18 posts
Programs and Concerts
So I want to compose a recital program that both stings and bites, but warms and melts you at the same time. I picked pieces by similar composers and divvied (that’s divided, if you aren’t from Chicago) them up between two programs. Here’s what I came up with, then some thoughts.
Program A
Mozart: K. 455 Variations on a Theme by Gluck in G.
Schubert: Impromptu #1 in C
...
Warm-Up Thoughts
I think that of all musical instruments the piano proves to be the most difficult in regards to warming up. What constitutes a good warm-up to one pianist can be entirely different to another. I also think too many pianists neglect the opportunity for a good warm-up. Say, for instance, you have a round of accompanying to do. Many pianists, myself included, simply brush aside a serious warm-up...
From another Google.com review, this one on Robert...
“I came here for college and left with an associate’s degree. I had some good teachers and got good grades and good instruction, and left with a good job. I wish, though, I had been able to stay for a bachelor’s degree, but when you’re middle class you can’t get much financial aid. I am still paying them, years later. But overall a great learning experience. “
...
From a Google.com review on the Childhood...
“We feel that the staffs there alway chat away themself in the morning, and do not pay much attention to the children arrivaling. Students who are helping in the school, do not know what to do most of the time, until somebody tell them.”
Very informative. I’m glad that I read that review. I really got a lot out of it.
