I want the songs!

Maybe you've once gotten tired of scrolling down through three-quarters of a page - full resolution pictures and all - before you find the actual content at the bottom. You might not want to know the full details about the darkness of the green color of the 8.2333 x 7.9867 inch pan that was used in the recipe. On the other side of the spectrum, there will be a button that says "Skip the pictures." What a relief!

Since I know what it's like, I decided to set up my posts differently and put the song at the top. Less time looking around, and more time to listen!

O Christmas Tree (jazz version)

I'm in such a rush to get this song up before Christmas comes, that I'm literally posting this song THE DAY OF. Record it, then post it right away.

You're probably wondering why I keep trying to jazz up my songs all the time. In fact, jazz is the most popular music genre in the teapot as of now. (You get the pun? It's Tea with Liya.) Why? Because I want to make my songs different, that's why.

And of course, there's one thing that's never left behind in a jazz song - the swing!

It Don't Mean A Thing

If it ain't got that swing.......
Looking for some rock-hard swing? Here it is! I heard this song at the beginning of this year, around the time of a music event where I got to perform. I then had to try and pick out the name so I could look for a recording. It all starts with a good listen!

Blue Monk

You might be able to guess that this song was written by the jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. (An interesting name, huh?)

I also noticed when I heard the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"- just in time for Christmas - that it was very similar to this one. I wonder if one song was based upon the other in some way. Blue Monk also follows a 12-bar blues progression, which is quite common among this genre of music.

Now anyways. I know you want to actually listen to the song now, so here it is.

The Christmas Song

The time is finally here.....isn't it better to sit down and listen than to get stressed out by the busyness of the season? Yeah, I don't like it either. And you might not like it either when Jack Frost is nipping at your nose. I know, it's winter already...

But it's a lot harder to worry when we have music to listen to, right?

Especially Tea with Liya music.

Autumn Leaves

Technically, it's still autumn.....right? It's December, and I have snow on the ground and below-freezing temperatures where I live, so it seems like winter. But theoretically, the first day of winter hasn't come yet.

I'm in a rush to get this song posted now so I don't have to do it next year. I try to time my posts based on the time of year related to the song. I also have some other seasonal music that you can look at if you want songs related to the coming seasons.

Update in October 2018: I now have a YouTube channel where I post videos of the songs I play here. I just made a video for this song (I started the channel in February, so I wanted to wait until it was actually autumn before I uploaded it). I've replaced the audio track in this post with that video. Hopefully you'll like this bigger and better version of this song. Listen to it!

Ornithology

Have you ever wondered what song is on the background of my blog? Well, this is it. There's a reason why this song is called Ornithology.

Did you note?

Listening to music is SO important if you ever want to play it well. It improves your ear, makes you familiar with the music, lets you analyze it and SO much more. In fact, this is how I usually learn music(which I summarized in a recent post):

1. Listen
2. Start learning the song
3. Listen
4. Continue learning
5. Listen
6. Memorize/Work on details
7. Listen
8. Review
9. Listen

By the way, about the title. I was supposed to type, "Did you know?" I guess I've got music on the brain. Although something you could "note" is the amount of "Listen"s up there.

Sonatina in E Flat Major

This song is a good example of the commonly recurring patterns in sonatinas. Often, there are one or two short melodies, or ideas, that are repeated and expanded on throughout the whole song. This helps to provide a sense of connection as it continues.

I remember writing on the sheet music for this song: OANO (Ornaments Are Not Optional!) In this song, I especially liked the left hand part (although it is fast-paced and can get tricky sometimes!)

2016 (!) recording - the new recording is below


Returning here in 2024, I've made some major improvements to this one. In the original recording, the left hand was very loud compared to the melody.

It sounded almost like I was "swinging" some parts, especially the left hand ostinato at the beginning. I'm disappointed. I used to think I always had a good sense of rhythm. Maybe my hands were too small back then. I don't have a video from then.

Once again, I was preparing for an RCM exam, so I didn't play the repeats as written in the score.
I even stopped and corrected in the middle of the recording. These days, if I had done that, it would've been a write-off for the recording and I would've made a new take. My teacher always told me to try and keep going after making a mistake, rather than stopping and correcting.

Thankfully, the original recording has good dynamics, and I didn't hold notes longer than written. I must have spent time practicing this.

I'm suspicious the tempo wasn't consistent.

Either the G major section was too loud, or I didn't set up my piano well so the loudest notes were "clipped" off.

I had one too many repeats on the trill section right before the second theme returns in Eb major (2:27 there, 3:48 here), but I think that happened on this new one, too.

New recording (2024):

Mercy Mercy Mercy

I wouldn't have learned this song if it hadn't been for one of the main principles in jazz: Listen, listen, listen! I haven't learned many songs without listening to them before, during and after learning them.

Golliwogg's Cakewalk

This is a nice, bouncy song that I learned last year. In fact, when I listened to it, I imagined these six-legged "Golliwoggs" dancing and playing outside. This is one of my favorite songs I've added so far.
Creativity is an important thing to consider when writing a song that will be enjoyable. (Although this would not be considered an appropriate song in the Classical period!) You can really see a picture when you hear this one. Listen to it, below.

Boogie Woogie Stomp

Listening to songs is a good way to inspire yourself to learn them on your own. That's what happened to me when I heard this song on YouTube.

I then decided to learn this bouncy song on my own piano. However, this wasn't the first of my jazzy songs, which you can hear more of soon. I also made some modifications to the original track, which appear especially after 1:50.

Boogie Woogie Stomp - composed by Albert Ammons

Sonata in A Major

Time for the first song……

I remember playing this song a few years ago for RCM grade 9, and there was also another song with the same title. (You can find that song here in a few weeks!)

I liked the idea of playing two songs with the same name, so I chose them both. If there wasn’t other information associated with the music (composer, date etc.,) then we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. In this song, I especially liked the E minor section at 1:00, and the part after the transition to A major at 1:50.

2017 recording:

 

Returning here in 2024!

Listening back to some of my oldest recordings, I decided they needed some polishing. This one, in particular, has almost no dynamics. I missed a lot of notes, and I had some issues with playing staccato eighth notes in one hand and legato eighth notes in the other. Looking back, I don't understand why I didn't sync them up. That was when I was still doing my RCM exams, too. To be fair, I went back and recorded this in 2017 after I was done my RCM exams, so maybe I wasn't as concerned.
 

Thus, now I bring you my latest version of
Sonata in A major
composed by Domenico Scarlatti