We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Today's song title is one worth mentioning.

I usually don't post on Mondays, but when there's some big holiday coming up like Christmas, you gotta celebrate. There's been a lot of suspense over the past month, and now it's finally here.

Feliz Navidad

(Another note to my email subscribers: Something went wrong again! I accidentally linked to a recording of the wrong song. It should be correct now. Thanks again for taking the time to listen to this one!)

The title of this song is another way of saying Merry Christmas.

We can say that in a lot of ways. There are also many different ways of celebrating at this time of year. There are also different ways to make music in our celebrations, and this song is one of them. 

What Child is This?

There's a question we ask all the time: What?

It turns out that the title of this song, which is often what inspires you to listen to it, is a question. And it does have a song in it - sometimes my posts that have question titles don't have songs. (Just to let you know - I'm not going to share my opinions about song titles in this post. I already did that here, and here, and here, so you can just click those rather than waiting for me to repeat it.) 

You may feel like listening to songs, or reading books, or watching videos, that say, "How Do You Build a Luxury Home?" or "WHAT?! You Played That In Only One WEEK???" or "How Long Does Sunlight Take to Get Here?" 

Things that say "Architecture of Houses," or "Learning Giant Steps Fast" or "The Solar System", might not be as interesting. However, I'm currently staring at the second one - I'll explain in possibly a year when I can play Giant Steps for you. (It's a really really really hard song.)

Coming back to the point, I was talking about questions that get us interested. Here's some you might be asking.

How are you playing this song?

Unlike Angels We Have Heard on High, I didn't do the jazz thing on this one. It's the same way that you have probably heard it before. I thought it wouldn't really sound right jazzed up, but I should try it. However, because I'm the one playing the song, I got to make a few small changes.

How many more of these are you going to keep playing?

Over here, I'm going to have this song plus 2 more (because that will be the rest of the month). In January, I'll get back to my regular jazz stuff.

You can also jump over to my YouTube channel if you want, because I have even more songs there, and I will throughout the coming year.

How do you manage to post all these songs?

It doesn't really take that long. Sometimes I'll just go over to the piano and sit down for a few hours, and record a bunch of songs that I'm going to post that month. I can usually pull together some time to upload videos and get posts ready. 

It isn't really that much work considering that some people post every day!

Are you going to answer my other questions?

Of course! I'll be listening to anything you say to me, just like I'll be listening to songs. You can just throw something in the comment box and I'll be there to answer it.

So, what are you waiting for?

Angels We Have Heard on High

It's December. And that means it's time for a celebration.

Most of us are probably thinking about Christmas right now - or at least were some time in the last week. For me, at least, it's an important holiday. The way we view it can change, but one fact remains the same: it's not going away.

Unfortunately, as I recently mentioned, there are a lot of times when we are worrying instead of celebrating at this time of year. That's why I chose to take a little bit of time last week to play a song.
Because it's December, I'm going to be playing Christmas songs for this month. Sometimes it seems like from November 15th to December 25th, there's a big long countdown to Christmas - and then whoa! Everything stops within two days. But don't tell - I'm going to have a few Christmas songs after the 25th...

"Angels" is a really nice song on its own, but I decided to change it up a little bit - in a way you might not be expecting. I call it "jazzercising."

Why are we doing this?

(Note to anyone who is subscribed to my email list: Something went wrong when sending this post, so it didn't actually appear. Sorry for the confusion!)

It's the first day of December.

Often times, there's one thing that we think about in December: Christmas.

You've seen it everywhere, haven't you? Stores have discounts leading up to this holiday. You can't look anywhere without seeing a red and green sign. Everyone's talking about it. It's a big thing.

But have you ever seen someone who is rushing around in December to buy all the presents, make all the food, and host all the events for the 25th? On top of that, are they rushing so much that they forget that we are supposed to be celebrating?

You may think that this is not connected to music at all. But I'm going to show you why it is.

Blues March

You usually don't see blues and march smashed together, but this song is an exception.

 

I suppose with jazz, there are a lot of exceptions. I'll explain that later in this post, but first I'll tell you a little bit about the song.

So, this song is, quite clearly, a blues march. I should thank Benny Golson, the composer of this song, for coming up with such a descriptive name. I've already told you what I think about some song titles - in case you haven't read my previous posts, I usually say that titles like "Sonata in A Major," that get used all the time, aren't really on my list of favorites, but neither are things that seem really out of the blue.

Groove Merchant

Groove merchants are people that sell groove. At least that's what I think. But you might not get why they sell this song.

 

This song seems to have a bit of a different feel from the other songs I've played. It's not really out there, but it's different. The backing track software I use for this, iReal Pro, didn't seem to have a track devoted to songs like this, so I just decided to use the regular jazz thing. However, this probably isn't a popular enough song for it to have its own track.

Often times, you might not want to do something, like listening to this song. Maybe you don't even like this style of music. You know that you should - because at Tea with Liya we should always be listening to music - but you don't want to. I'll make sure you do:

Stella by Starlight

It's the middle of November.

And we've got more stuff to try.

But... it could take a while.

 

In case you're wondering why I'm trying to talk about the same topic in every post, I'm trying to make them connect to each other a little bit more, so I don't just make a random post every week. So they'll be similar, but different.

Listen to the song while I continue....

Good Lickin'

It's been a while...

As I've been saying for the past few days, tomorrow is the day when Tea with Liya will have existed for an entire year! So, I decided to celebrate with one of the songs that I wrote.

What just happened?

Some of you might not know this, but Thursday is actually a big day over here. On that day, Tea with Liya will have been around for a year. It might sound like a long time, but really, 10 years from now it won't.

In my last Saturday post, I was talking about trying new things. But it's hard to do that when you don't know what to try. How do you know what things will succeed and what things won't? How do you know what ideas are good? How do you eventually decide something to do?

My answer is: you look back.

Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise

I just have to start this post with an IMPORTANT announcement. It's probably the most important thing that has happened all yea--- oops, I just gave it away! I suppose I'll just tell you now. The important announcement is that next Thursday, November 8th, Tea with Liya will have existed for one year! (In case you don't know, my first post was on November 8th, 2017. I'll be celebrating one year by releasing another song I wrote.) That's a long time - or at least it is from the perspective I'm looking at it now. After 10 years, it won't really seem like a big thing anymore.

Little Boat

This is yet another jazz song that I was learning recently. But it isn't really more than you should be doing. I'm always telling you that you should be listening, and if you play anything then you should be playing too. Which reminds me of something I want to tell you about practicing.

As you probably know, as long as I'm playing the songs, which I am doing, I can't just be churning out songs and have them actually sound right without putting some time into practicing piano. But, I have done it, I have read about it and I have heard people talking about it, and some things seem to say, "You can spend 5 hours doing it this way or you can spend 30 minutes doing it that way, and you'll get the same thing out of it."

La Vie en Rose

La vie en rose... if that means the life of a rose, I've seen it already. I always see it growing leaves in the spring, and then getting some flowers later in the season - but of course these always fall off when winter comes. And every rose has its thorn, after all (there's a song called that). Roses are often used as a symbol of something beautiful, but they aren't really perfect. Nothing is, I suppose.

But this song La Vie en Rose is something different. You can play it whether it's summer or winter, whether you have a rose thorn stuck in your finger or not, whether you even know what a rose is or not, and it will still be a good song. That's one of the things I like about music. It can communicate with everyone regardless of other factors.

Waltz for Debby

Ah. It's October already. Can you believe it? Because it's October 10th today, I thought of giving you a song that had something to do with the number 10. But I couldn't think of any. Maybe I will for December 12th. (Hopefully I do, because for all of 2019 there are no Wednesdays whose numbers match the month number.) So I decided to stick to the good old jazz - and in fact a song that was written by a piano player.

What if...?

Sometimes, we're not sure whether we should try something or not. It ends up going like this...

What if I start playing that style of music? Well, I could lose my skills in this one, or I could start thinking differently about music, or I could.... And then what? So I just won't do it.

What if I go to that recital in a couple weeks? Well, I could mess everything up, or - possibly even worse - I could be told that I just won the gold medal and I'll be in all the newspapers within a week, or I could.... And then what? So I just won't do it.

What if I try taking a solo on that song? Maybe I could try this thing that I learned. Well, I could lose the rhythm that the rest of the band is playing, or I could make everyone think that I'm not a good player, or I could... And then what? So I just won't do it.

I'm not really accusing you specifically of anything. I'm just pointing out that all of us (including me) probably end up doing this at some point. What (will happen) if I do this? Well, I could.... And then what will I do? So I just won't do it.

French Suite in E Major

You might have something to say about the title: ".....in E Major."  Your brain might be hardwired by now to say that if it's something in something major (or minor), then it's a classical song, and if it has some out-of-the-blue name like "Salt Peanuts," or "Cold Duck Time" (that's probably #1 on my list of songs with strange names), then it's a jazz song. You might not have been sure about River, but generally there's a difference in titles between different styles of music.

Of course, you'll find some songs written in different time periods that are similar to a previous one or influential to the next one. Even in a certain place and time, you'll find two or three styles of music that are being played, listened to, and written a lot, and most people involved in that scene will mostly agree. So, the songs would have their own variations based on the composer but they'd still all be connected to each other in some way. There's a lot of influencing happening in music. Older musicians are inspiring younger ones, people want change into a new musical era, songs bring attention back to some composers, and we can probably continue that list for a while.

Rialto Ripples

Most of you reading this post probably don't have exactly the same interests and views on a topic as the next person who is going to come here. Everyone is different, and that's really a good thing in many ways. If every blog you ever found was exactly the same as this one and every post on every one of them was exactly the same, then you could just read the post and then forget about all blogs because nothing would be new. And if everyone was George Gershwin, the composer of this song (I know some of you are starting to say things because I talk about him - and play his songs - a lot), then no one would bother listening to his songs, and no one would think that he was a good composer.

Summer Slides

Today is September 12, 2018. And I sure hit the record books for Tea with Liya with my 40th post of the year! But - there's only 10 days left until a new season is coming.

I still remember writing this song a few months ago, when I listened to Valse Hot and decided to make a song based on its chords. How did it go by so fast? Summer is a time when school ends, temperatures get warm (although sometimes a little bit too warm), and it's the ideal time to do lots of things - do construction, take vacations, play in the park (which is where the other interpretation of "Summer Slides" - the slides that we play with in the summer - came from), go outside, just relax for a while, or anything that needs the sun to be shining for lots of hours - but now, it's almost gone.

But why?

Because of time.

River

Some of you probably came here because you were looking for classical music (like I've been posting for the past few weeks). Unfortunately, this song doesn't meet the criteria needed to be a classical song. First of all, the name. Most classical songs have names like "(type of song) in (key)". There is actually an RCM song called "The River" (which I found while looking for the recording of this one on my computer), but that's not the same song that I'm playing here.

The second giveaway is what the song sounds like - it doesn't have the same structure as the piano sonatas I've learned.

Why can't I be like that....?

You know sometimes, we all get caught up in comparing ourselves to others. I admit that I've been guilty of that sometimes. We all end up thinking things like this:

Whoa, he sure is a really good singer. If only I could....... That video got 100,000 views in only 3 days? I'll never get there.....There's 4 year olds playing ARCT songs. What about me......How did she get the money to buy that car?

There's many things we want to reach, but we think that we can't get there. Sometimes, we really can't get there. Other times, it's because we are stopping ourselves. Still other times, it's because we can't do everything.

Serenade

I'm just going to let you know something now: Now that I have 50 posts, I'm almost done sharing the songs I recorded a few years ago. I played this one for RCM level 10, which is a long time from the earlier songs that I learned in level 7.

There's a reason why I liked this song. It has a lot of smooth left-hand runs that make the song calm and peaceful. I suppose a serenade should be like that, though. I usually like songs like that more than those which have a lot of loud, banging chords. Of course other people will have their own opinions about what songs they like, so I'm not saying those songs are better, I'm saying that I like them more.

Polonaise in E Major

Yeah. I know the jazz fans out there are starting to lose confidence in this blog. "You said that you'd post a song once every week. But this doesn't seem to be the variety we're looking for. You have, like, 30 jazz songs and now you've decided to abandon the genre of music entirely." Please tell me: When did I say that? Some people seem to assume things that aren't really true these days. In fact, one page I read about making good videos said that the average person in 2015 had an attention span of about 8 seconds. (This is not in any way saying that your brain is malfunctioning or filled with rotten eggs. I said some people, and the average person, not you.) Technology might be having a positive impact on this world, but it can also have negatives. Many of us have heard about global warming and radio waves and deforestation. So, back to the topic of music, I've decided to take a break from the modern, jazz music and move back to the old.

Little Prelude in E Major

So.

For all of you that are hoping for some more jazz, you're unfortunately not going to get any for a while, probably not until October. I recently used up all of the jazz songs I've recorded so far (except for two more of my compositions, which I will release later), although I am in the process of learning more.

So Danco Samba

I know that it's only been a month since I posted Summer Samba, but this was the song on my Posting Schedule, so I had to do it, right? As I've stated before, it's hard to have a successful blog if you don't do any planning. (If there's anyone reading this who is pulling their hair out because they don't write their blog posts until two days before, don't worry - by no planning I mean literally not even thinking about your post until the day before or even the morning of.)

Especially with this kind of blog where significant time must be spent before each post. Even for a simple jazz standard, it takes a few weeks to get it prepared, and several months or even a year for RCM level 10 songs like this rondo (okay, that might be an exaggeration because it's 7 pages long, but you get the point, it takes time).

So if I completely ignore all the things I've written down about my plans and goals for learning, recording, and posting songs, combined with having the completely wrong mindset about blogging that I certainly don't have, then look below for what's going to happen.

Note: I suggest you scroll down and start playing the song before you begin reading the post, because it's going to be quite long.

To the Lute

You know those days when you're feeling really sad, or really stressed and worried, or really angry, or really anything that doesn't feel good? Then this song is probably for you. It might also be for you if you play a stringed instrument, because that's what a lute is. But I'm playing it on the piano because that's the only instrument I'm proficient at playing right now.

As I was saying, this song might be great for you if you've been having a bad day. It seems like a "relaxing" song (probably because of the pedal and the runs in the left hand). I think that this is a song that would brighten your day. I guess lutes are pretty good instruments, huh?

What if it's raining.....?

Hmm..... it's been a while since I made a post that wasn't the title of a song. But I was thinking that you might want one for a change. For those of you that haven't been reading my blog for months, these are posts where I'm telling you something related to music that I know or think, and I don't actually have a song attached to it.

You might notice that the title says "rain," and you might be wondering if this blog is really about music after all. But the title, "Tea with Liya" has nothing to do with rain, unless I'm sitting inside my house drinking tea and waiting for the rain to stop so I can go for my walk. I suppose the title has nothing to do with music either, but that's why I tacked on the "A Blog about Music" part.

Now let me get down to the point.

Mixed-Up Rag

Yeah, I know. I haven't published a song like this in a while. I've been busy with jazz and my 5-month-old YouTube channel (I gave you a button redirecting to it, right?) and have forgotten a little bit about variety on my blog. You might be looking for something different and you're getting a bit tired of the tags saying "Jazz" for weeks on end, so I've decided that I'll give you something different.

(I didn't actually decide that today - I wrote down my posting dates for these songs a few months in advance. It's difficult to run a blog without a schedule.)

So, you're wondering why this song is supposed to be so mixed up, right?

Summer Samba

There was a change of times and a change of seasons a few months ago, so I decided that this would be a good song to share with you today.  As usual, I probably found this song while listening to the jazz radio. I liked it, wrote it down, listened to it again on YouTube at a later time, learned it, recorded it, and finally posted it today. (Actually, there should be listening in between each stage. Are you listening to a song now? You know that I'm the one to tell you that you should always be listening to songs. If there's no music around you, take a second to go down to the play button for the song, click it, and come back right here.) Sometimes the songs don't make it through all these stages, but you'll see the ones that do in future posts.

Now's the Time

.....for what? Depending on where you live, the past few days might have been some of celebration for you. So you could say that now's the time to celebrate, if you wanted to. If there's flags to be waved, fireworks to explode, and money to be made by the city hosting the party, then why wouldn't now be the time?

Rock Zone

Woo-hoo!

Today's a great day - because it's the day when I've posted my 35th song. This post has a song that you might consider "new and different", but I need to put something here other than just classical and jazz music. If you've looked at the archives on the bottom of this page, you might say that I have 41 posts, but 6 of those were Heads Up posts which are just talking, pretty much. They don't have any music to go with them, although they often tell you to listen to music.

But we'd better get back to the topic of the song itself. You think it will be about a place that's filled with rocks, right? You'll see piles of them wherever you walk, from pebbles to mountains. You'll always be running around so you don't get caught under an avalanche of rocks. And it'll really hurt under your shoes, right? When you finally smash your way through the stone door (while this song is playing), you'll remember to never come to Rock Zone again.

Well, I'm talking about a different type of rock.

Summertime

This.

This is the moment you've all been waiting for. (drags out the "all" like one of those announcers on TV)

Especially since - oops - I missed last week's post.

You've been waiting for this since Somebody Loves Me.

Now I'm going to give you the really big cliff-hanger (especially if you're reading this on my website, because you'll have to click the keep-reading button). You've been waiting for one of the greatest composers in history (at least that's my opinion, but others will disagree).

You've been waiting for.....

I Want.....

You might think that I'm being delinquent on giving you the old songs - but when I played them 3 years ago, it's hard to think of something to write about them. And today, I didn't even have an old song on my Posting Schedule (which reminds me, I should start planning out my posts for the next few months). And last night, I was already in a pinch. I either had to record and post a song in the last two hours of my evening, or the first two hours of this morning. So, I decided to just throw in one of the songs I'd already written and get on with it.

Old Adam

Hmmm... if you've heard this song before, you might think that the title doesn't fit the song. Although the composer of this song, William Bolcom, seemed to know a thing or two about jazz. I can see a lot of ii-V-I's and triplet sixteenth notes....oh, yeah. You might not know what those are. But you'd think that if this Adam is so old, he wouldn't be bouncing around so much, right? But if you haven't heard the song, I'll need to tell you a little about it first.

All Blues

I decided to post this song today....because I know you're lookin' for some jazz after all this time. Actually, how long has it been since I posted a jazz song? Oh yeah. It was only a week ago.

Joy Spring

It's time for another spring song. After the Red Ball surprise, you're probably wondering who wrote this song. (Maybe I should have given that song a different name. When you search for it on Youtube, you get a bunch of results about a game called Red Ball - which I've played before.) Joy Spring was written by a trumpeter named Clifford Brown, which is interesting because brown isn't usually a color you see a lot in spring. (Except on trees.)

When looking for things to add to this song, I found a recording of Oscar Peterson playing it on the piano. He said that Clifford Brown wrote the song and had died recently, which is why he was playing the song. But I knew that already because I had listened to Clifford Brown's recording of the song so I could learn it, and because listening is good for everyone.

Also, you might know now that I'm trying to learn songs by listening instead of just reading them off pieces of paper. It's better to use your ears instead of just your eyes.

Which is why I present to you...... Joy Spring!

Sonata in A Major #2

I know what you're about to say. "Isn't there already another Sonata in A Major?" It turns out that in the list of RCM songs I had for grade 9, there were two Sonata in A Majors - and I liked them both. (Usually, when I need to pick songs to learn from the RCM book, I listen to them all and write down the ones I like - which are usually several songs, with the exception of this year - and then pick a song from those. But this year when I'm picking ARCT songs, there's way too many songs for me to listen to them all, and I haven't found that many that I like.)

Take Five

Some of you might think that today is a special day if you do one of these 2 things: watch Star Wars, or play jazz. Instead of saying "may the force be with you," you say "May the fourth be with you." That applies to the first thing, which I've never done, but you know that I do the second thing.

Colors of the Wind

Finally, I've given you the old songs that you were asking for before! I learned this song when I was in grade 7 piano (which was 3 years ago). I'm pretty sure that you've quickly added 7 and 3 and guessed that I was in grade 10 piano. If you did, then you've just won the lucky ticket for guessing right. How much money do you win? Z-E-R-O.

Are you using.....?

Ah....once again, a question mark post. Actually, the first since Seven come Eleven, which was 6 posts ago. I said back in my Maybe post that I would give you the songs from a while back after 25 posts. Seems like I don't keep my promises, huh? I was only one song over the mark, though. So you can expect the old songs (hopefully) a week from now. I'm hoping that you haven't decided not to trust me with any future plans I reveal.

Red Ball

This is the first of my many (actually, four) jazz compositions. This one was written based on I've Got Rhythm by George Gershwin. Can't forget about him, right? You're probably wondering, "How come you haven't gotten really famous if you're writing songs like Bach and Beethoven?" I'd better confirm that these aren't the same types of songs as Beethoven's. These are jazz songs. They are quite short and the harmony is a big part of the song, as well as the solos.

Rondo in D Major

I didn't know that there would be something interesting about this song....until I started playing it. When I got through a couple pages, I realized that the song changed keys a lot. I think that the song has parts in the keys of D major, B minor, A major, G major, F major, D minor, Bb major.........

Perdido

Hey, remember back on Blue Bossa when I promised you that I'd post this song? If you don't remember that, check it out here. If you don't want to click that, I'll just tell you that I had said something about Perdido in that post, and I told you to either listen to it or wait for the post to appear. And now today, it's appeared.

Up Jumped Spring

Hmmm... time for a change of times and change of seasons. For those of us that are looking forward to summer, unfortunately it takes time. That reminds me of a podcast I listened to on Monday, which was talking about composing songs. It said that if you want to compose, you have to do something. Things don't just happen.

Etude in Ab Major

One of the most important things about compositions is putting some element in them that makes people like listening to it. When Giuseppe Concone wrote this song, he might have been thinking about dancing - that's what it sounds like when I listen to it.

Seven Come Eleven

Hey look, I posted this song on March 7th at 7:11.....maybe I should have waited until July 11th. Then the date would be 7/11. There was no internet in the year 711, though (and I wasn't alive yet), so I couldn't have posted it then.

When do you stop....?

You might notice that I always start my Heads Up posts with a question. That's to get you asking, ".........what?", and then you might read the little piece of musical advice I have for you today.

Now I'm sure you want to know what it is, so I'll tell you.

Have you ever gone to a concert with someone you know who plays music. You both sit down in row J and you're having a nice time. Then, about 15 seconds after the second song starts,

Maybe

Hey look, we're at 20 songs!

That's right, I'm taking a break from jazz songs for a while..but you know, that's not the only thing that you can learn. There's many different varieties of songs and this is one of them.

Somebody Loves Me

Hey look, did you notice the title of this song? Just in time for Valentine's Day, huh? Did Gershwin decide to write a song about his female admirers? And no, don't say that this is the 5th time that I've told you about George Gershwin.

So What

Many times when we're faced with a difficult decision, question, or statement, we don't think of just saying these two simple words: "So what?" We could do it for lots of things.

Your hair is too long. So what?
You're not a very good piano player. So what?
You just took away my solo. So what?
I just don't like you. So what?

Why does it really matter.....?

As musicians, we often wonder if our audience really likes our playing. If we're playing in a band situation, the comparison levels just go up.

Did those people like my solo?......Uh-oh, the drummer is looking at me like I did something wrong......What does that person over there think of my song?......Gulp. I think I just made myself the worst player out of everyone in the music contest. 

Paper Moon

I remember seeing the moon from my window last night....but I don't think it was made of paper. Of course, as time passes, we keep figuring out new things - what the moon actually is, why apples fall to the ground, what electricity actually does, how to write a song, etc., and that means that songs are changing, too. The 12-bar blues songs that we played in the '20s aren't going to be the same as the latest pop song. And, the songs that you've listened to before aren't going to be the same as this one.

This song was originally sung, but I'm just playing it on the piano.

So, the button's there. Just do it. It doesn't matter what other people think.

Maybe if you click here, the song will be recommended to someone else and they'll get to listen to it, too.

Blue Bossa

This is different from the other songs I've published, because its rhythm is more straight like Latin jazz, instead of the swing songs that I usually publish. Although this isn't the most common jazz style, I know other songs that have a similar rhythm, such as Caravan and Perdido (do you want to look those up now, or wait for the post to appear? You should do one of them - remember, never miss an opportunity to listen to a song.)

Salt Peanuts

I think that the inspiration for this song came from people who were trying to sell their fresh salted peanuts. They'd probably walk around holding up bags of them, saying, "Salt peanuts! Salt peanuts for sale!" As you can hear in this recording on YouTube, someone keeps yelling "Salt Peanuts!" through the whole song (and even during the solo!).

Why am I always hearing.....

If you've seen my I've Got Rhythm post, you might want to know that, in jazz, there's no way of leaving behind the two G's. I think you could probably say about at least 50 songs, "A standard by George Gershwin." Of course, we usually just say, "It's a Gershwin," even though that doesn't make grammatical sense.

Maple Leaf Rag

When Scott Joplin wrote this famous rag, he said, "This song will make me the king of ragtime." He was right, because now he is known among the best composers of all time. However, ragtime music is often difficult to play if you have small hands(like me!), because as you can hear, the left hand has to play big chords and bounce around the piano for the whole song.

I managed to get away with it, though - probably because I like this song a lot. Anything can be accomplished with enough practice.... right? They always say that if you're passionate enough about something, you can accomplish it with enough time.

2018 recording:


2022 Update! Did 2018 Liya know that this page was still going to exist in 4 years? I don't know about her, but I've made a new recording of the song. (This is one of the many results of going through a binder filled with sheet music, looking back on songs I played years ago.) Hopefully this will be a quality improvement from the 2018 one... but the only way for you to know for sure is to listen to it.

Can't believe I made the original post before I even set up my YouTube channel. Time sure does move faster than you think.

Valse Hot

I now know that "valse" means "waltz," but I don't know what the "hot" is for. This could have been a red-hot popular song back in the '50s. (Not that I was alive then, of course, otherwise I would be heading towards age 75.) Sonny Rollins, the composer of this song, was still performing in 2011! Many other famous jazz musicians of the 20th century had short lives or were no longer active in the 21st century.

I've Got Rhythm

....Who could ask for anything more? That's part of the lyrics to this classic jazz standard by George Gershwin. Many songs have been composed based on this (they are called "rhythm changes", since they have the same chords), including one I played with my community band called "Red Cross".



I used to think that "rhythm changes" meant changing up the rhythm, until my teacher told me what it really meant.

As for recording this song, it took a LOT of attempts to line up tracks, convert audio files, and plug in wires until I finally figured out how to make it work. I used a program called iReal Pro that can generate backing tracks based on the chords you give it. Of course, it doesn't substitute for the melody that you'd play on your instrument, but it's really helpful if you want to practice "with the band".

Now I have a question for you: Who could ask for anything more than taking a listen to this song?

Jan. 24: I've recently heard that Duke Ellington was a better musician than George Gershwin. I'm not in agreement with this. Are you?