Welcome to Classical Music Guide
NEW! Classical Music Videos
Classical Music Cds 20 Article
George Winston and New Age Piano Playing
Edward Weiss
The first time I heard George Winston play back in the early 1980's I was blown away. I didn't know why I liked this music. All I knew was that it made me feel good and that was enough. I didn't even play piano back then but something about this music seeped into me almost haunting me. The way he let the notes ring out and wasn't concerned with pop flavorings. A new sound for the time.
When I began to play piano, I wanted to know how he did it. How did he create this music? I read somewhere that his method was to create the chords first, then improvise a melody over them. Great, but what chords and how do you know where and when to play them?
I then realized that George wasn't really doing anything radically different than most classical composers who think in sections. Composing is all about using the techniques of repetition and contrast. Now in most of Winston's music, there is a lot of repetition going on with the contrast coming from the melody. The chords are repeated in certain patterns, the melody played on top, but there still is a framework operating here.
For example, if we take 8 measures of music and call it a (A) section, we have composed. We have taken chords, put them into some kind of order (no matter how tightly or loosely) and have composed. It takes a certain skill to keep the music fresh after a certain number of repetitions. This skill has to be practiced. It can not be taught. This is a doing operation. You can listen to music, but to learn improvisation and composition, you must do it.
Now the secret is this: You may repeat a section as many times as your interest remains with the music. As soon as you become bored in your improvising, so will the listener. For most, having one section isn't enough therefore we bring in the (B) section. This could be anything from 4 to 8 bars of new material. This new material is also repeated and eventually we return to the (A) section. When you start to think in sections, you can unlock the mystery of most music.
About the Author
Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years! Visit us now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!
Classical Music Cds 20 News
Playing favorites: Top CDs of 2008 - Aspen Times
Aimee Mann’s 2008 release is “@#%&! Smilers.” Stewart Oksenhorn/The Aspen Times There are so many ways to hear about music these days — and that’s especially true for a professional music reviewer, who has squads of publicists trying to get ...
Read more...This anniversary is nothing short of a miracle - Detroit Free Press
The Paul Keller Orchestra celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend. Ponder that for a moment. Two decades is an eternity in jazz, where most bands of any size seem to come and go with the seasons. To keep a 15-piece big band together for 20 years ...
Read more...Music lovers still singing single-song chorus - Memphis Commercial Appeal
NASHVILLE -- Music sales continued to slump in 2008 as the increased number of downloads of digital tracks failed to make up for a plunge in the sale of compact discs. Year-end sales figures released Wednesday by The Nielsen Co. show total album ...
Read more...Music to kill for - BBC News
It must be the best part of 20 years since Sarah made her extraordinary declaration but I can still recall every detail of the scene. We'd all finished dinner round at Robert and Sarah's and as usual had moved from the table and seated ourselves in ...
Read more...The orchestra of brotherly love - San Francisco Examiner
The December 2008 issue of Gramophone featured an article ranking the top twenty of the world's orchestras. Naturally, such critical rankings are hardly authoritative; they're opinions by various folks all rolled into a list of some sort. Personally ...
Read more...Midem rolls out jazz and classical - Variety
More Articles: The economic downturn has meant serious reprioritizing for all sorts of companies, but for classical and jazz labels, belt-tightening has long been the norm. According to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, classical's U.S. market ...
Read more...