A Minor Major

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a jazz song that I composed called "A Minor Major." (That's an indefinite article, not a key.) It has some chord patterns that you might not expect (but, of course, there's still minor and major ones). That's because I wrote the song differently than others, where I used the chords from an existing song. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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Toccata in G Major

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a classical song by J.S. Bach called "Toccata in G Major." A toccata is defined as a piece of music that is written to demonstrate the dexterity of the performer's hands. It's usually written for the piano, so I suppose this was the perfect song for me to play. It also served as a reminder of how composers sometimes make their songs hard to play! Or perhaps these difficult lines actually help musicians develop their skills. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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Joe's Avenue

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a jazz song called "Joe's Avenue." This one was composed by Wynton Kelly as part of his "Vee Jay Studio Recordings." While learning the song, I was also able to transcribe his solo, so that I could play it myself. It reminded me of the importance of learning from other musicians. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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St Louis Blues

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a song called "St. Louis Blues." Composed by W. C. Handy in 1914, this was one of the first blues songs to succeed in the realm of popular music. That makes it a bit different from the blues I posted last week. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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D Natural Blues

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a jazz song called "D Natural Blues." The composer of this song, Wes Montgomery, decided to write the song in D, because that would work better for him as a guitar player. Maybe learning about how a song was written can increase our perspective on different instruments. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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The Old Rugged Cross

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a hymn called "The Old Rugged Cross." This is one of those classic hymns that I've known about for years, but haven't actually started playing until now. I decided to put a bit of a swing in my piano cover, to make it sound different. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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Hosanna

Today's video is my piano cover of a hymn called "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna." Earlier this week, I was considering how the things we think about are reflected in our actions. Maybe that could also apply to the songs we're listening to. Hopefully a song of rejoicing like this one will be something that you remember!


Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on teawithliya.blogspot.ca, you may need to try a different browser.)