Overtones

Every once in awhile someone adds a whole new dimension to what you can do with A Capella. How do you simulate wind with a capella? What about rain? Thunder?
Perpetuum Jazzile found a way!

I had to throw these ones in here just for the fun Read the rest…

What Should I Call this Piece?

Okay, you guys, time is running out, and this silly giveaway is still in force - for maybe a week or two.  Only a few people have tried, and even those few haven’t made more than a couple suggestions each!  You can suggest as many names as you want, so your chance of winning increases with each suggestion.  Fifty suggestions is just fine!  And you get free stuff if one of your suggestions is chosen!

Here’s the rules again:

I wrote this piano piece for my second CD, which is coming out this summer, but I haven’t been able to come up with a name for it yet.

I need your help! I need a good name for it.

You can suggest as many names as you want, so any time you come up with one, simply write it in the comments.  Get family and friends to participate, because I want lots of names to choose from.  If it helps inspire any ideas, the CD itself is called The Ancestor, about roots or origins - something along those lines.  You certainly don’t have to base your title on that theme, because there are plenty of other pieces following that theme, but you can if you want to.

So here’s how the giveaway will work. as soon as I see a name I really like, the contest will end, and I will announce the winner - so the more you participate, the better chance you have of winning.  The winner gets a choice of either a free copy of my Dayspring CD, or a free copy of the new CD (You can choose between CD or MP3s) once it’s ready (exact date unknown).  Plus I’ll email you a free copy of this MP3, so you can show off the awesome tune you named

The chosen name will be the permanent title for the piece.

Thanks for your help, you guys!  You’re AWESOME!

Play by Ear, Write by Heart: Part 18

Cautions concerning your mental ear
Your mental ear has a remarkable capacity to remember and bring forth beautiful music from a seeming oblivion.  It collects information from every tune it hears, and binds emotion to any mix of chords.  Using this as a guide to writing music can make it possible to promote virtually any emotion that the human heart can experience.  The mental ear also builds up a catalog of chord usages to draw from for writing music.
I would like to share a couple of cautions, however, concerning the mental ear.  It is so common, and so easy, for a person to write a piece of music by heart, only to find later that the piece already exists.  You may find, after writing a piece, that the melody or chord structure has already been written by someone else.  It is comforting to know that chord structures are not copyrighted, but it is important to also understand that melodies are.  If you find that your chords match some other song that already existed, but your melody is different, don’t worry, that is alright.  There’s nothing wrong with using the same chords that someone else is using.  But if you find that your melody is already in existence, recognize that it is not yours, and you must either give proper credit to the writer, or change your tune.
My second bit of caution is also the more important caution:  if this happens to you (you write a piece only to discover that someone else wrote it first) do not get discouraged by this.  It can be embarrassing if you have publicized (not published) your piece already, only to find that it wasn’t yours in the first place, but do not let this scare you from writing more!  Consider it a great compliment.  Does it not prove that your capacity to write music is great?  Does it not prove that your musical ear is incredibly powerful and effective?  If you can write a melody that is already popular without even knowing that someone else wrote it, does that not validate the talent that you have developed?
Sometime read “The Story of my Life” by Helen Keller.  She went through this on a heavy level.  But with her, it was with writing instead of music.  She was very gifted with words and wrote a beautiful story, only to find out later that it wasn’t hers.  She could only assume afterward that she had heard it years before and forgotten about it.  She was greatly complimented for her work, but when it was discovered that the story already existed, she was looked down upon by some of the people she most admired.  During her recovery period from this most challenging part of her life, she said:

Miss Canby [a teacher] herself wrote kindly, “Some day you will write a great story out of your own head, that will be a comfort and help to many.” But this kind prophecy has never been fulfilled. I have never played with words again for the mere pleasure of the game. Indeed, I have ever since been tortured by the fear that what I write is not my own.

Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, chapter 14

The shock of the whole event discouraged her from writing fiction for the rest of her life.  This is a tragedy.  Don’t let that happen to you!  When you find that a piece is not yours, simply step down and start working on your next piece.  You have infinite music in your heart that has yet to be written, and no matter how good your piece is, your best is not yet written.  Write it, and let no failure or fear of embarrassment hinder you.

Read more articles about writing music by ear

If you have ever performed in a talent show, concert, or recital, you know how much stress it can be.  And if it’s scary for adults, imagine how terribly frightening it must be for a child.  They take piano lessons, practice their little hearts out, and then do what few adults will agree to do – perform.
That’s the subject of Alison McGhee’s picture book, Song of Middle C, illustrated by Scott Menchin, and published by Candlewick Press.  It is about a little girl preparing for her first piano recital.  The poor kid works her heart out committing the music to memory, and prepares in every way she can imagine, including bowing in front of the mirror and wearing her lucky underwear!
Then when she gets up to play, she freezes – the whole piece erased from her mind.  She sweats, she worries, and she nearly panics.
Perhaps the story would have come to a rough ending if the girl didn’t have such a fantastic piano teacher, who taught her to not be concerned about length of time, to recognize the value of middle C, and to use her imagination.  With these tools, the little girl finds that the music itself can carry her through – even if the music she plays isn’t the music she planned!

One of the unique things about this book is that it goes into the more enjoyable parts of music.  Rather than simply following the typical pattern of ‘learn your sheet music and then play it right,’ Alison McGhee illustrates the value and power of improvisation, and how music itself can be the guide in deciding how to play and what to play.  This is a great lesson to learn - and the earlier a person can learn it the better, because when your memory fails you on stage, your emotions are still in tact (though seared slightly!), and can guide you to still make beautiful music.  Music is a thing of the heart, and Song of Middle C demonstrates that well.
Song of Middle C is a fun read, and a must have for parents with young children in piano lessons.  It will help them prepare for their own recital, and teach them the power of music itself when guided by the imagination.

Even Lunch Bucket, who is only three years old, loves the book, and insisted after our first reading of it that she needs her own pair of lucky pannies!

Learn more about Song of Middle C at http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763630136&pix=n

I’ve finally completed my first music video.  I guess it’s a little more like a music slideshow, but the piano piece is from the CD I’m planning on releasing at the end of July (If all goes well - and so far so good!) and it’s called, The Fourth Day, referring to the fourth day of creation.  That also means that this is the first time the piece has been published anywhere.  What do you think?

Copyright ©2009 Chas Hathaway, Willowrise LLC

And in case that version doesn’t work (some people’s computers don’t play it right), here’s a link to it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/chashathaway

If that doesn’t work, you can also watch it at Exposureroom.com

By the way, the giveaway where you help me come up with the name of my piano piece is still active!  Just comment with a name suggestion for the piece.  If one of the names you suggest is the one I decide on, then you get a free copy of my Dayspring CD.  It really is as simple as that, so just comment on that post with as many name suggestions as you want.  You can’t lose!

I don’t know if playing music by ear is a gift that can be inherited, but if it is, I can’t take full credit for what I have learned.  I have a long ancestral line of musicians, including trumpeters, harmonica players, singers, band leaders, songwriters, whistlers, and of course, piano players.
My Grandpa Hathaway played the piano by ear.  I never asked him what kind of technique he used to learn what he played, but I have vivid memories of watching his fingers dance across the keys as the sounds of Beautiful Dreamer and Memories filled my grandparents’ living room.  Their house always had a classic, well-cared for style, with curio-cabinets and intricate mementos of their lives and era.  The piano was situated in the tightest corner of their beautiful living room, with only enough room for the piano and a player, but the music carried throughout the whole house.
Not only did Grandpa teach himself to play that piano, he essentially put the thing together himself – at least after taking it completely apart.  When he and Grandma bought it, they wanted to put it in the downstairs living room, but their stairway was too narrow for a full-size piano.  So Grandpa disassembled the whole thing – with every key removed, and took it down into the living room in pieces.
Grandma hassled him that he would never be able to get the thing back together, but he did, and it is still there today.  I suppose that piano will stay with the house forever.
We had a piano in our living room, too, though we didn’t have to take it apart to get it there.  I was fourteen when I decided I was going to really learn to play the piano, and that year Grandma and Grandpa Hathaway came for Thanksgiving Dinner.
During those contented hours between the feast and the serving of pie, I found myself Read the rest…

Play by Ear, Write by Heart: Part 17

The Choice

Now, just because you recognize what your ear is trying to tell you doesn’t mean you have to follow that advice.  Play your first chord, and then listen for your metal ear’s advice.  When you know what it wants you to play, you are then left with a choice:  you can follow it or reject it.

If you reject the chord given to you by your mental ear unintentionally too often, you will likely dull your capacity to find the chord that your mind suggests.  This will make it difficult to write by heart, because rather than writing music by heart, you will be left to take guesses and choose chords either randomly or by knowledge alone, neither of which are very effective.
The best way to prevent this is to pay close attention.  If you play a chord and it doesn’t match the note or chord suggested by your mental ear, stop and try another chord.  If you find that you’ve already forgotten what that chord was supposed to sound like, start over with the first chord again.  By paying careful attention to the notes or chord that your mental ear suggests, you will find that your metal ear has a great memory, as well as good taste in music!
If you are given a note by your mental ear, you can choose to reject it.  It’s okay to use a different chord than what your mental ear suggests, as long as you are doing it knowingly and intentionally.  Rejecting a chord intentionally will, to some extent, re-configure your mental ear to listen for that different chord or note.  In other words, any time you begin writing a piece of music for the first time, as you approach the time to play a new chord, your mind will tell you what chord to play.  If you choose those chords as your mind tells you, you will be able to write your piece quite easily.  If you choose a different chord, you may be able to find a chord that you like even better.  The bottom line is, you must have your mind, heart, and fingers trained to be able to play a chord that you hear (audibly or mentally) so that you can choose whether or not to use those chords or notes.
The great thing about choosing a different chord than your mental ear suggests is that in finding new chord progressions, you create for yourself a whole new library of possibilities for your mental ear to draw from.  The more you try new things and learn to work with new ideas, the more you will have to build with.  This becomes a remarkable adventure.  You will find that most any two chords can work together if you take time to discover when and where and how to play them.  With your mental ear and your creativity as your guide, there are very few limitations to your potential.

Read more about playing piano by ear and writing your own original music

Play by Ear, Write by Heart: Part 16

The Mental Ear

Inside your mind, there is something I call a mental ear.  It is the part of the mind that processes and predicts music.  When you hear your favorite song on the radio, your mental ear tells you what to expect as your listening.  You have heard the song before, and although you probably don’t consciously recognize the chord patterns that are used, your mental ear recognizes them very well.  So if you went to a concert where the musician was playing your favorite song, and a wrong chord was played, you would know immediately that something was wrong.  Your mental ear would alert you of the mishap immediately.  You may not instantly recognize what it was that went wrong, but you would hear and feel a difference.

Writing music uses the same principle.  Your mental ear is so used to hearing  and predicting music that it becomes your primary source for coming up with chord progressions and melody ideas.

That ‘ear’ has collected so much data over the course of your lifetime, and is so full of chord progressions, that when you sit down at a piano to create a new piece of music, and you play a chord or melody for the first time, your mental ear will tell you what the next chord should be.  It may take a little while to fully recognize what your metal ear is trying to tell you, but you must practice in order to become familiar with it’s messages.

In learning to hear your mental ear, it is helpful to remember how you have been already using it thus far.  Turn on the radio to a familiar song.  While one chord is being played, listen to the part of your brain that tells you what the next chord will be.  I’m not speaking of the chord names, but of the way the chord sounds and feels.  What is the feeling that you get when the music changes one this chord to the next?  You know what’s coming, you know how you’ll probably feel when you hear it.  You can thank your mental ear for that.

Now, transfer that recognition to your own music writing.  Play a chord – play it in what ever style you would like, but then pause for a moment.  What does your mental ear tell you the next chord should sound and feel like?  Find the chord.  You may have to pluck around a bit before you find it.  If you lose your train of feeling in your attempts, start over.  Keep doing this until you find the chord that your mental ear is trying to encourage.  Once you find it, play it a few times with the original chord.  Then, play the that far again but stop and try to feel what your mental ear is trying to tell you the next chord should be.

This is the basic procedure for writing music by heart.  It is important to recognize what your mental ear is trying to tell you to play.  Your ear and your feelings must be your guide.

Read more of the series, Play by Ear, Write by Heart

I’ve been on the lookout for other musician blogs. It’s fun to connect and get to know how other musicians are doing with their music, and how they are using the blogosphere to share what they have discovered.

Many musicians have family blogs, religious blogs, and so forth, but there are some who’s blogs are focussed on music. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Paul Cardall: AMAZING musician.  I’m linking you to his website, because he has links on his front page to all five of his blogs - one of which is a music blog. All of his blogs are fantastic - check them out!  And what an incredible guy.  He’s now awaiting a heart transplant, too, and blogs about it.
• Career Songwriter Blog: Andrea Stolpe does a great job explaining the ins and outs of both songwriting and the music business.  A must subscribe for music and especially lyric writers!
• Piano Musings: If you would like to learn to play the piano by ear, Edward Weiss knows his stuff, and even offers classes.  His blog is very insightful and goes into detail about the intricate skills required for one who is learning to play the piano outside of the traditional sight-reading piano lesson style.
• Sher the Love: I just discovered this one last week, and love it.  It’s a fun blog about the life of the musician Sherrie Shepherd, so check it out!
• Solo Pianist for Peace: Louis Landon shares his thoughts and feelings in a very unique and personal way that makes his blog thoroughly enjoyable to read.

There are loads of others, but these ones are fairly regular in their posting, and are probably my favorites that I have found so far.

I would love to find more. Help me out and tell me in the comments about any musician blogs that you know of!

- Chas