Nocturne in G Major

I know... I'm straying from the jazz theme, but I couldn't come up with another reason not to share with you this beautiful song by Frederic Chopin. This song sounds quite different from the ones I usually play, but every type of music has something in common - that is, patterns of rhythm, melody, and harmony working together.

This piece has two main themes that repeat, but they are played in many different keys. (At least this isn't a jazz song where I would have to improvise in all those keys!)

I've been working with this song for several months, as it's on RCM's highest level list of repertoire. When I finished learning the song, the next stop was my "recording studio" (a.k.a., a computer, an electric piano, and some wires), so that I could keep a record of the song and eventually post it here. Of course, even if I had the highest quality equipment and had spent years practicing the song, it still wouldn't sound perfect. That brings me to a point that might have randomly splashed over the side of my teacup, but it's still important.

Listen to the song here
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O Pato

The summer is almost over... but the ducks are still quacking! This week's jazz piano cover is a samba called "O Pato" (aka The Duck), composed by Jayme Silva and Neuza Teixeira. These kinds of songs make us think about how the boundaries of musical styles change over the years.

When you think of jazz, swinging songs from the '40s and '50s like I've Got Rhythm might be the first ones to come to mind. (Okay, I.G.R was written in 1931.) However, the genre has become further and further spread out over time.

For example, a song might be written that doesn't exactly fit within the jazz genre, but wouldn't be perfectly classified as a rag, either. To try and fix this problem, a new "subgenre" is created. But then, there's the stuff on the edge of the subgenre, and different types of music are subdivided more and more, until the sub-sub-subgenres are splitting up the music of individual bands. So, making subgenres doesn't really work - the only way to describe the song is half jazz and half ragtime. Therefore, it becomes included in both umbrellas, making them grow.

 
The same thing can happen with colors, an example I've been using for my last couple of posts. For example, take a look at these different shades of blue.

You see that big box just above the bottom left, the greenest of these colors? Is it green, or blue? This is the same kind of thing we were talking about on my Scrapple from the Apple post.  Perhaps you could ask the computer used to generate the image, but it would probably respond with "00ffff",

Yeah. That was really helpful...

"Helpful" in the sense that a duck answering this question with "Quack!" is helpful. Image by Thomas B. from Pixabay

*00ffff represents an equal mixture of green and blue. According to the computer, three specific shades of red, green, and blue are the only "true" colors, and everything else is a mixture of these. So, whether you say the cyan box is green or blue, you're technically wrong. Okay, I'm done talking about computers.

So, we invent a new subgenre called "cyan." But then take a second to think: where did other divisions like turquoise and teal come from? Those are made by all those little subgenres.

But, unlike the computer's color system, there isn't one song that defines what jazz is. Therefore the definition of a certain genre of music can change as new songs are written and people's interests change.

Those umbrellas from earlier can move around, get bigger, and start overlapping each other. Maybe instead of trying to define everything, we should accept those cyan boxes and try to work with them, even if it's hard to move with these definitions as they change.

If the edge of an umbrella is directly over your head, are you inside or outside?  Image by Pexels from Pixabay

And, it might be hard to keep filling up your teacup with music, but it's an important thing to do. If you;d like to come back here every Wednesday but you just can't remember, I encourage you to subscribe to my email list. I won't send you anything except the latest posts from Tea with Liya!

~Liya

Scrapple from the Apple

Scrapple from the Apple is a famous jazz standard composed by Charlie Parker. Tea with Liya's topical tale this Thursday at twelve o'clock is a piano cover of Scrapple from the Apple. (Like the alliteration? Let me know in the comments if you can make it better!) 

Yes, that's right. It's yet another jazz song composed by Charlie Parker! If you haven't seen my other posts pertaining to his songs, you might want to know that he was an influential jazz saxophonist in the 1950's and 60's. He was known for playing rhythmic solos at fast speeds, a skill he probably acquired through his solid practicing habits. (Perhaps he would be considered one of the "jazz greats," or arguably the greatest jazz saxophonist of all time.)

By solid practicing habits, I mean over 10 hours a day. Seems like a lot, but perhaps not a lot if you're a professional musician. If, on a particular day, you have no performances, no work-in-progress songs, and no one visiting or coming for lessons, you will probably spend most of the day practicing.

I once heard that Charlie Parker used a plastic saxophone to practice. Considering the amount of time it was used, I'm sure it eventually fell apart. Image by Christoph Schütz from Pixabay

Other songs I've played, such as Billie's Bounce, Now's the Time and Ornithology, were also composed by Charlie Parker. These songs will often be played at jazz performances and thus are expected to be a part of the average musician's repertoire.

The chord progressions for this song were based on two other jazz standards that Parker had known for years, one of which is the famous I've Got Rhythm. The number of songs based on that one is unbelievable, but each new composition gains a reputation of its own.

Mood Indigo

This song is especially supposed to feel blue. Although indigo and blue are technically different colors, they can still refer to the same general feeling.

Maybe blue is the color in the middle of this picture where the bass clefs are, and indigo is the color in the corners.

Mood Indigo is one of Duke Ellington's many innovative compositions, and it is especially known for exactly what the title describes. We seem to have had a hard time describing those "down" feelings, as well as many others, so we assign colors to our emotions instead.

How High the Moon

Welcome to August! "How High the Moon," composed by Morgan Lewis, is a jazz song so popular that at one point, it was competing for titles like "National Anthem of Jazz" and "Most Recorded Jazz Song." While originally composed as a slow ballad, musicians like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane were quick to play the song, well, quickly, and write their own melodies using its chords.

While I probably should have posted this song on the week of the Moon Landing's anniversary, I can still inform you how far away the moon is from the Earth.

In your head, they probably look like this:

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay 

However, most images of "celestial bodies" are not to scale. Here's the actual distance between the Earth and the Moon. It's probably hard to see either of them.

You can probably see this more easily


You may have noticed something interesting. What appears to be right in this picture is actually up from the perspective of the Earth. If the moon rotated 180 degrees, it would also be above the Earth.

So then, is the moon really high after all, if up is any direction away from the Earth? What is 'up', and what is 'down'?

Answer: There's lots of things we don't know about the universe.

Here's another interesting brain twister about directions. Suppose you were driving a car at 60 kilometers an hour. According to the car, you yourself are not moving, but according to the road, you are moving.

Then, you stop the car. But have you really stopped? After all, the Earth is rotating, and it's moving around the Sun, which is moving around the Milky Way, which is moving around relative to other galaxies....

So, you don't really know how fast you are moving. You don't know which way is down, or left, or backwards. Sometimes, our view of the world can change when we look at not the things we know, but the things we don't know.

When you only think about the things you know, you start to feel like you are the center of the universe. But when you look at the things you don't know, you realize that the world is much bigger, and you are much smaller, than you once believed.

But, don't be disappointed. Those thoughts can also remind you not to worry about small failures that really don't matter anymore. You still have a purpose in life, don't you? And every second counts towards fulfilling it. Now it's your turn.

If you're worrying about failing or not being important, let this song remind you to take a look at the moon tonight. Then, try counting some stars. Five? Ten? Maybe three billion more that you can't see?

Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

When you're done counting all those stars, go and fill your teacup with music!

~Liya

Stolen Moments

Hmm... I wonder where the name of this song came from. I wasn't able to figure it out by looking at the lyrics this time. However, regardless of the title, this piece still made it to the top of the jazz charts.

Maybe the name of this song came from outer space. That's why Stolen Moments was able to reach for the stars and become popular. By the way, the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing was about a week ago. Image by Pezibear from Pixabay

In fact, according to AllMusic.com, "Oliver Nelson's composition "Stolen Moments" would likely have assured him a place in jazz history even if he had never composed or performed another song. Although Nelson was a gifted writer, none of his other works ever came close to matching the appeal of Stolen Moments."


 

This song could be placed in the same category as the famous jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's compositions. One of these is the ubiquitous "Giant Steps," known as one of the hardest jazz songs of all time due to its crazy chord changes.

Stolen Moments was nowhere near as difficult to learn as Giant Steps, partially because of its much slower tempo, and partially because it's based on a simple chord progression most jazz musicians are already familiar with.

While this song is incredibly famous, it often isn't played in small ensembles because there are a lot of harmonies going on underneath the melody. (This is especially easy to hear in the original recording.) But, as a piano player, I can play up to 10 notes at the same time.

Here's a picture of my hands. I know that when you listen to piano performances, it sounds like there's more than 10 notes being played at the same time, but here's some solid evidence that these are all the fingers we have. 

What can you do with the moments you have today? You might be spending these ones listening to this song, and unless you have wireless headphones or something, you won't be able to do much else away from your computer.

But, all the time after that is sitting in front of you. Surfing the web can be dangerous - wasting many hours you could spend on the list of tasks that a magnet is tired of holding on your fridge. You can steal back those moments and put them to good use.

“Our greatest currency is our time and we cannot save it [i.e. keep it in a jar for a rainy day]. Spend it wisely and never waste another's or your own.” 
― Kyle Barger

"Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time." 

“You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.” – Tony Morgan

Wasting your time is wasting your life. Everyone has 24 hours in a day; the question is what you will do with them.

Life isn't a chance. It isn't a flip of the coin where heads mean you will be rich and famous, and tails mean you'll be living on the line. You can't become a famous singer unless you learn to sing. You can't become a CEO unless you learn to run a business - and, of course, put in the work.

Right now, you are deciding your future. You get to decide what kind of life you want. And once again, if you don't decide, others will decide for you. You only have one opportunity to live, so be thankful for what you have and use it to make other people's lives better.

Don't let those stolen moments go to waste!

---

By the way, for some reason this song seems ... blue. Maybe it's because it uses that blues chord progression. But I think it has something to do with the way I see colors along with numbers and musical scales. Maybe it happens to you, too.

Although we all perceive things differently, no matter what color it is, keep filling your teacup with music.

~Liya

Pennies from Heaven

Many times, you can find meaning in music by listening to it and seeing what emotions your brain generates. But sometimes, you can find meaning in music simply by looking at the lyrics.

For example, the lyrics to this song talk about a time when the best things in life were free. Blue sky, shiny moon, bright yellow flowers, just enough rain to keep plants growing.

Perhaps if you hate pulling dandelions out of your lawn, bright yellow flowers aren't too appealing. Image by pixel2013 from Pixabay

But eventually, people settled down in their satisfaction, and forgot to give thanks for and appreciate all the things around them. Why appreciate a sky that is always blue? They thought that they had everything they needed, that life was perfect, that they had nothing to worry about.