| | | |
Bob Elliott
|
9/12/2009 7:23:25 AM
Writing On Piano...
...is a different world. Different kind of ideas come from it, and I haven't done it for a long time. I suspect it'll still be a long time before I get to it again, but I can't wait.
Can't wait to get into all of it again. New recordings of new material...nothing like it...
|
|
Steve Ison
|
9/12/2009 8:15:27 AM
Been doing that a stack Bob-as my girlfriends got this beautiful 1890 made piano at hers...Its a whole new world i agree...Magical strange chords and different root notes so easy to find..Plus the feeling of instant 'space' you get with the piano over the guitar..
Writing more on there than on guitar now...
|
|
Hop On Pop
|
9/12/2009 5:42:01 PM
I'm just playing AT the piano now. (Just figured out the Looney Tunes theme!), but I see myself trying to pound out some melodies for vocals over the chord changes that I come up with on guitar.
I am looking forward to it, at any rate...
|
|
|
9/12/2009 6:05:45 PM
Piano is my most accomplished instrument as I took lessons for about 6-7 years in my youth. I don't write on it that often but the last song I wrote was on it cause I couldn't play the chords I heard in my head on guitar. heh
I would probably write on it a lot more if I had a real piano. My keyboard has piano keys but the F# below middle C is out and it's just not as much fun as a real piano. I housesat a house one time when I was young that had a white grand piano and that was really fun to play.
|
|
Sly Witt
|
9/13/2009 1:15:27 AM
I'm kinda upside down from you Bob. Keys are my main instrument, but I've been trying to spend a lot more time with my guitars lately. When my writing's getting more stale than usual, I pick up a guitar and it opens a different world for me. The tune I'm working on now is one of my 'guitar tunes'.
re Steve's gf's piano... mine is from the same era, and I swear there's an orchestra hiding in there that only I seem to hear when I'm playing it. It's the same one my folks bought when I was 9 or so... I can't quite tune it up to A440 because the strings are so old, but man can that instrument sing!
|
|
|
9/14/2009 2:38:55 AM
---- Updated 9/14/2009 2:40:28 AM
Interesting topic! I am discovering the clavinova at the moment and looking forward to recording with it. Easier action and a more consistent tone than the real thing, but could never fully replace it. My real piano was made in 1906 and while it may be past its prime it always attracts compliments and comments about how they don't make 'em like they used to from the piano tuner.
On the guitar front I'm very inspired by a recent songwriting retreat I attended with Donovan and Maria McKee as the workshop leaders, and playing with open tunings on my new blue Tanglewood (a very fortunate charity shop find).
To my ears there is very little connection between what I'm writing on each instrument at the moment, though possibly other people might be able to hear more stylistic consistency. The piano stuff is jazzier and the guitar stuff is folkier - that's what's coming out right now.
Writing for pianos is as individual as writing for guitars and as the person doing the composing - each one has its own voice and will suggest different ideas accordingly. I think this can sometimes be one of the downsides of digital instruments - however brilliant they are, a homogenisation of tone has taken place that will never allow the result to sound as unique as it can on an analogue instrument.
|
|
Sly Witt
|
9/14/2009 4:39:04 AM
---- Updated 9/14/2009 4:57:09 AM
A new instrument is a great inspiration.
I recently bought a used variax modeling guitar on ebay. It's got a knob that will allow you to make it sound like a number of different electric and acoustic guitars and related string instruments.
One of the settings does alternate tunings without having to actually de-tune the strings. I took one of the open D tunings and set it up with an acoustic dreadnought sound and wrote the tune I'm working on now. I also used a " '29 tricone" (another setting) in standard tuning.
Here it is..it's still a bit of a work in progress... more on that in a bit.
Insurance
I agree somewhat about digital instruments BUT without them I wouldn't have been experimenting on adding a tuba and digeridoo part to the song late on a Sunday night.
I seem to be more of a 'rocker' on the guitar.
|
|
Nadia Cripps
|
9/14/2009 6:56:26 AM
I love composing on the piano and both, traditional and digital are a great inspiration. It's nice to see that other songwriters are inpired by the piano, it's my favourite instrument.
Nadia
|
|
| |
©2015-16 IndieMusicPeople.com All Rights
Reserved
| |