WanderingSalsero

I Saw Her Standing There (the inside story)

Cover of George Harrison

Check out this video from YouTube of George Harrison and some of his musician buddies doing his song, "I Saw Her Standing There".  That song of course is just one of the many many great songs from the Beatles early years.

What I noticed that I thought was cool about this video is...check out the guy singing and playing keyboard (which you can't see but it obvious that's what he's playing).  At the .52 mark on the video he holds his left hand up.

You know what he's doing?

He's giving chord signals!

There's only 3 chords that make up traditional rock 'n roll.... the I, the IV and the V (or V7).

The chords are often referred to by their numbered order in the scale.  Thus the I Chord in the Key of C major would be C-E-G, Ok?  The IV chord would be F-A-C.....and so on.  Sometimes they'll add an extra note there  called the 'seventh'. ...especially on the IV and V chords.

But anyway....that's what this guy is doing.  Cool isn't it?  He's like a 'drum major' leading his group.

I think the guy in the video also slips a vi (which would be A....it could be A maj or A minor). 

This is all assuming the song is in the key of C of course.  Which it usually isn't.  The reason for that is because most rock 'n roll is based on what's easiest for guitar players.   And the key of A or E is easiest for most guitar players.

I LOVE THE BEATLES!

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Travel restrictions to Cuba further eased....He finally did something right!

Image via Wikipedia

Well, it looks like our illustrious Deceiver-in-Chief, Mr. "Real Change For the Worse" Obama, has finally does something right.  Him and his bunch of otherwise worthless impediments to freedom have eased travel restrictions to Cuba.

"You guys put hippies to shame!"

Image by jitze via Flickr

This is the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band.  I think they've got something to do with Stanford University......in Californai, right?  But I'm not sure.

Who cares?

They're cool. 

Here's their website.

 

Learn piano chords quickly with Duane

Image via Wikipedia

Just as it's always been my believe that almost everybody really would like to learn to dance and that it doesn't have to be complicated.....I also believe that just about everybody is at least curious about music and wishes they knew some of the basic stuff.

Here's a sample of the lesson I got today from that Duane guy's free lesson series on how to play piano.  I think you'll find it especially interesting and rewarding.  Especially if you have a little keyboard of some kind lieing around the house.  If not, you really out to buy one somewhere because you can have a lot of fun with a keyboard.

Check this out!

Today, we are going to show you how easy it is to learn ALL the major chords (there are 12 of them) and be able to play them in seconds -- not hours or days or weeks or months or years. Some people go through their entire lives not being sure about what such and such a major chord is -- and it's all so unnecessary, because you can memorize them in just a few minutes, and learn to play them in 12 seconds or less - one second per major chord. I have had many private students over the years who could play them all in as little as 5 seconds -- one little gal (she was about 12 at the time) had particularly fast hands, and could play them in - believe it or not - 3 seconds! I have slow hands with fat fingers, and yet I can play them in something like 5 or 6 seconds.

You can get this same series of lessons sent to you daily too, just like I do.  The link is on the site when you click through.

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Playing piano......you really always wanted to, right?

Image via Wikipedia

I think that there's lots of people who, even though they'll admit that they don't want to do the work to get the skill, they still wish they could miraculously know how to play piano. 

Well, I found a resource that might interest some of you.  Here it is:

http://www.playpiano.com

I don't know the guy.  His name is Duane something.  He apparently lives in Virgina somewhere (or maybe it's W.Virgiania).  Anyway..........he's got a website that gives away very cool, simple, easy to understand daily free piano lessons.

And since simple keyboards are so cheap at places like Walmart or Best Buy, etc., wouldn't it be a neat thing for you to invest a little time and money in yourself and see if you can learn some piano basics?

I'll bet you can do it and I'll bet you'd enjoy it once you started to get into it.  I think you'll like listening to him to.  I do.

 

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Swing lives.......

Image via Wikipedia

I somehow got to looking at some swing videos tonight.  Swing 'dancing' I mean.

You know....I really think there's a lot of this feel that could be put into salsa dancing.  I'm speaking of 'Lindy Hop'......because according to what I see and hear on the instructional videos on YouTube, Lindy Hop has a symmetrical step.  Just like salsa.  So it would fit into the over all rhythmic structure.

There's lots of really cool videos on YouTube.  Just look under 'swing dancing' and/or 'lindy hop'.  Apparently Lindy Hop preceded the Swing Dancing of the 40's.

 

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More than you knew about Linda Rondstadt

I've been using Grooveshark to find songs from those singers and bands I remember from my early days of getting into music.  One of those singers I remember is Linda Rondstadt.

In this Wikipedia page, you'll find some very interesting reading.  I only had time to read about half of it it but I learned such things as that her dad was a successful business man and also a successful inventor with dozens of patents to his credit.

It's well worth reading.  I'll also mention that I was surprised that Grooveshark only had about 10 songs from Linda's discography.  I found that surprising since Grooveshark has previously had much more content from searches I've done.

Oh.  Next I'm going to see what it's got for Bonnie Rait.  I groove on her too.

New music source on the 'block'?

I'm always iterested in finding new sources of music online both live streaming and for download.  And I also remembered hearing in the past that Salsa Eddy (AKA: Eddy Deynes) was doing some DJing in the Houston local salsa scene.

So today I was reminded that most websites are not optimized for convenient viewing over smart phone.  Smart phone screens are simply too small thus requiring the viewer (and potential customer) to do a hell of a lot of scrolling to find the info they're looking for.

There's no way all that stuff on a regular website could be crammed into the comparatively small screen of a smart phone.  

Sure, you can scroll around and eventually get what you're looking for.   But who's gonna get more views in the long run.....(a) somebody with a site designed to display everything with a minimum of scrolling and distraction or a site that's like looking at the Milky Way at night through a straw?

You also need to remember, and carefully consider that the viewer looking at your site on a PC or laptop is often looking for more, or different, information than the person looking for you on his/her smart phone.  Whereas the PC user might even be looking for entertainment and have lots of time to search for and enjoy it, the smart phone user very often is looking for very specific who, what, where, and when type information.  And doesn't have a lot of time.

Anybody on the web today who isn't maximizing the viewer experience for smart phone users is missing a significant opportunity right now and one that's only going to get bigger real soon.

So anyway....I'm checking some sites out and I decide to look at some of the sites Salsa Eddy has (he's got several).  I first tried www.salsaeddy.com and, for some reason, it wouldn't display on the tool I was using.  http://salsaeddy.com wouldn't come up either.  But http://salsaeddy.org did.  And it turned out to be playing streaming music. 

The music was very good. 

I was also surprised at the variety.  I don't know if Eddy always had that diverse a taste in music or if it's something he's just grown into lately.  Either way, it was good stuff.  He even had some bachata.  And some more 'pop'-ish tunes too.  But all good.

I'm sure there might be other DJ's who dance.  For example, Antony Parsaud, AKA: www.addicted2salsa.com (as I recall) used to have a podcast of salsa music.  But I haven't seen it around in a long time.

So it's nice for salsa dancers to have somebody who really knows how to dance spinning some tunes for them.  Salsa Eddy, of course, has been around for a long time and not only has one of the most successful studios in Houston and, in recent years, has done some successful competition too although 'competition' hasn't been his primary focus  over the years.

I also notice that his websites currently use the www.wix.com platform.  I'd say that's pretty good validation for Wix too.  Actually, you can do even more with Wix than Eddy has.  Check it out if you've been considereing a site.  Or if you're looking for some kind of supplemenary site.

Last but not least, if you've got a website that you'd like to have optimized for better smart phone viewing, let me know and I'll tell you what I can do for you.  If you'd like to see what your site looks like now in a smart phone, go to http://iphonetester.com .  You'll see what I'm talking about.

Great quote from Sade

A day or two ago when I wrote about her for entirely different reasons, I didn't know that Sade has recently come out of retirement and has a new album out.  For that reason, I had some further thoughts about her today.  And I did some research.

Here's a great quote that I found.  It make me regard her even more highly:

"[I resist] the myth that I'm a shy, reclusive diva. I'm not shy or reclusive. I just spend my time with people rather than journalists." -Sade

Way to go, girl!!  It's nice to see that somebody can be famous without it going completely to their head.

Yeah......she's still gorgeous.  I'll never forget that concert I saw her at at The Summit in Houston, TX. (back before Lakewood Church bought it).  It was so cool because there must have been 1000 black chics running around trying to look and dress like Sade.  Not many really did.

Also for your reading pleasure, here's an interesting Wikipedia link for Sade's band.....also known simply as 'Sade'.  I was especially curious to know more about their bass player. 

Sade's music (at least, what I heard) never was high energy, high tempo stuff but it was still very good music within the parameters of it's style.  And I thought their bass player layd down a very solid groove. 

In the Wiki article it eventually tells us that their bass player (and guitar player) is a guy named Paul Denman.  And another interesting thing.....e.g. that they actually were a spin-off from another, earlier group, a Latin-soul band called 'Pride'. 

Hmm!  Interesting. 

 

 

Clarinet and Aaron Copland

I'm doubt that any of you readers have ever heard of the Aaron Copeland  but that doesn't make his music any less beautiful.  Just do a YouTube search and you'll find many examples of his work.

I'm assuming that he's dead now because he was world famous even when I was in college (63-67).  I guess he's what you'd call a 'modern' composer but his music isn't (and never was....to my knowledge) dissonant or squawky.  It had a beautiful freshness and clarity to it that was remarkable.  He was known as one of the first symphonic composers to have a truly 'American' sound.  Him and a guy named Charles Ives.

And he wrote a piece for clarinet called the Concerto For Clarinet .  I played it in a recital in college although I'm sure I didn't sound nearly as good as Benny Goodman for whom it was originally commission (he paid $2000 for it...a lot of money back then).

Anyway, since I'm in a music mood tonight, Copeland's name crossed my thoughts.  His music is something that even today I could enjoy listening to all night.  Although I don't have a libray of any of his stuff.  Maybe one of these days I will again.

But his Concerto For Clarinet is very beautiful.  Especially the first part.  I found several YouTube videos of various parts and here they are.  First Part 1, then Part 2, then Part 3.  Enjoy.