Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This excerpt from the Public Television program The Piano Guy is brought to you by the Roland Corporation
(music)
(music)
In this segment we would like to work through a great tune that was written by Horas Silver
called, Song for my Father. Even if you don't know the title I bet you'll recognize it once
we start playing it.
And to work through it I need to introduce my good friend David Beniot
Hi David
Scott
How are you
Good, how are you?
Doing very well. This one, you said you played this like when you were a kid? This is something
you heard and kind of got started on.
It was, I heard this on the radio back when jazz wasn't so segmented, it was just all
jazz, was smooth jazz and contemporary jazz and bee bop and everything so there was a
great station in LA called KBCA and they played what I called the funky jazz, which was a
Horace Silver, Vince Guaraldi, and Ramsey Lewis. I heard this song and I said wow, it
was right when I was learning how to play the piano. So I learned it by ear in the wrong
key.
Oh no, just trying you just sat down one time and did it and you never had the recording.
Yea, I didn't have the recording or anything and I was just trying to remember it
(music)
And did something that wasn't even really faithful to the tune so when I finally recorded
it on Heroes, cause I had to include Horace as one of my Heroes then I had to go back
to the, actually bought the sheet music and oh its in Fminor and wow all these years I
was playing it in the wrong key.
No it's not really the wrong key. There's no right or wrong, its just the recorded key.
In Jazz that's true, there's no really right or wrong key.
Now tell me when you first started playing piano how it all got going.
Well I was in ear player, which means I didn't read music per say, I learned songs from hearing
them on the radio. Not to say that I didn't have any sheet music. I had a few pieces of
sheet music and my first teacher was with a jazz pianist she played basically in bars
and taught me kind of a system of playing with chord changes. What he would do be to
kind of write out kind of a fake piano arrangement where he might have the bass and he might
have the melody and he'd have some chords and then he called this a small 7th. I stead
of playing an octave you played a 7th and these little code names for things, but basically
the idea was to learn how to play in any key and learn standards
It sounds like a precursor to reading lead sheets.
Yea, I mean a lot of what you really teach is a lot of how I really came up playing piano
and I was one of those that one to play and I would go to someone house and there would
be a baby grand and I was just right over there to the piano and it was just so much
fun for me.
How much time did you spend practicing? did you really sit down and wood shed a bunch?
No, I didn't practice much and people are shocked to hear that but I really didn't do
a lot of this
(music)
You know I still can't play a C scale to save my life but ouch. But, later on I did study
classical piano and technique but in the early days it was just at the piano all the time.
So you were just playing a lot.
yea, just playing a lot and discovering things, goofing around on it and it was just like
this incredible world was here and yea
Yea I talk about that being quality set time, I call that you know. Sometimes I think you
can really just knock your head against the wall trying to crack this thing. I say you
know what I'd rather play than practice and then end result is going to get you to the
same spot but you know if you can spend some really quality set time hammering through
stuff you enjoy, then you kind of have these burst of, Wow I'm finally getting this underhand
which is great. Not that I am anti practice but sometimes I think is kind of just a different
focus, instead of sitting down and oh I've got to play it x number of minutes. It's like
no, no, no, sit down and enjoy your time at the piano you have and do it that way.
Yea, that's the idea. Yea my daughter is taking a susuki violin lesson and so she's in book
3 now and all the piano accompaniments are all written out note for note and some of
these I really had to sit down and practice, I'm not used to that like, all this left hand
sixteen note against the right hand like oh my lord.
Now just to not get to far off the tune, but take it the next step, now you are a working
professional musician obviously, a lot of hit records and playing in LA and all of that
when you go into a studio, what tunes do they normally throw in front of you or what style
they give you lead sheets, right?
usually that's what we work from in the studio. Almost always, its very rare to have everything
written out. the only time that might happen is some of the studio musicians are playing
on the movie sound tracks. A lot of times that's written out
The scores is all written out.
yes, the score. The musicians that are playing on those really have to have a classical back
ground, as I sort of found out the hard way.
But if you are sitting with a band and you come in and you have your trio and you are
rehearsing for a record or whatever you are gonna give these guys lead sheets, here's
the arrangements.
And most of the times the guys will read off the same part I do, which is basically here
is the melody and some chord changes and we come up with the arrangement in the studio.
Alright, back to The Song for my Father. So I think the super signature easy fun thing
for people who are watching the show to start on this tune is the left hand part. Go ahead
and give that wary if you will.
And all it is, is a bossa nova beat. You know root 5th
So you are just playing an F and a C
That's it
Which reminds me of Ricky don't lose that number. Steele Dan, exactly
And of course Steele Dan themselves have publicly said yea we ripped it off from Song for my
Father
Interesting, So the first chord in this tune is a Fminor, Fminor 7th. So you are just literally
playing the root and the 5th meaning and by 5th what we mean there, if you are starting
on a F, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 this one up here
Ok just making sure everyone understands what we mean by root and 5th. Then the next chord
goes to an Eflat and you are going to do the same darn thing
yeap
Next chord, and then there's a little break after the
(music)
Ok, that's really a tune you can get by with doing that and I think that maybe an advantage
for some of our viewers that are saying Oh I'm sort of struggling at the very beginning
level with getting all the notes underhand, that's not too tough to sit and do that and
just you know do that root and 5th kind of bossa beat.
So you are basically just doing the root and 5th and in the right hand just spelling out
the melody really its
(music)
And again you have to, there is a little bit of this going on, (pat you head and rub your
tummy kind of thing) so you sort of have to get this thing. Sometime it's just playing
it a few times letting it really get into your brain so that it almost plays itself,
so you can concentrate on your right hand
Nice, I always find that the slower I do it the quicker that comes to me. When I have
those rub your tummy pat your head kind of thing, I mean really slowing it down, that
to me comes from my old drummer days, there will be a point in slowness where you can
do it and whenever that happens you can finally get it put together and then you can pick
it back up. It's kind of like breaking through a wall, its not as though you have to slowly
ramp it up once you get it, all of a sudden, hey I can do it and then you can do it faster.
Well that's universal in music and that's what a lot of people forget about it, even
my daughter when she is practicing, slow it down, almost any of that classical any of
that difficult Rachmaninov, Chopin, Liszt same thing.
You know that's what you hear, slow it down. Until you are where, you know
(music)
And it will be different for everybody. But there will be that moment of ah ha, oh well
that goes with this one and that goes with that one and the minute you do it, you know,
you got it. It's like all of a sudden you can walk and chew gum at the same time and
you are off to the races.
Ok, go ahead and play through the first couple of measures of this and then we will get down
to where the next break thing happens.
That's a Bflat, Dflat, what are those two chords?
This is a C, like a Bflat in your right hand, the root position Bflat and you have the C
It's a slash chord, a Bflat over a C or a Csus or a C11. Sometimes a C11 you see a lot
which is a little confusing cause it doesn't but if you were to count from say here, 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 that's the same as a 4th only an octave up.
And then the next one, This one is Fminor9. Ok, now play through the, if there is a second
bridge, the second 8th I should say
Still a Bflat, back to the Fminor
(music)
Now this ones a little different or you could do this either way and this is kind of hard
this one this is with the melody so you have to stretch a little bit just now,
that's with a different substitution than I use, what is that a...An Fminor11
So this is your 11 up here by going, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and then so we
have a, its an Fminor9 but now you are adding the 11 up here and getting the melody right
on top
Alright, you know whats kind of fun about a lot of these tunes we were talking about
the genres they are not incredibly long they usually have, sometimes they are AA tunes
instead of a typical AABA, so its just less chords less everything this is kind of a good
simple one for a lot of beginners to work on
yea it is
Who want to get their Jazz tune, so
Ok, well listen lets hear you play the whole tune, I would love to hear you just work through
it this is a Song for my Father by David Beniot
All right
(music)
(music)
(music)
All right, Thanks David
It was a pleasure
I really appreciate it
This excerpt from the television program The Piano Guy has been brought to you by the Roland
Corporation, International manufacturer of the finest keyboards, organs and digital pianos.
To find out more log on to www.RolandUS.com