Contrary to several of the other American Popular Songbook composers that I have featured in the past (Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, etc), Hoagy Carmichael’s pieces did not originate in musicals. They simply became popular songs and for good reason. When the composer teamed up with lyricist Mitchell Parish (1900-1993) four years after adding the lyrics to Stardust, the magic happened again. The words “love, May, springtime, flowers and heart” all populate the lyrics. Add this to the composer’s usual hope-filled and optimistic writing style and you have an unbeatable combination. In fact, the song is in the key of D major which has two sharps.

For you music students, I have a helpful hand-out on How to Identify Major Key Signatures.  Having the song in D major is unusual for standards for two reasons. First of all, it means that saxophonists and other horn players have to play in the key of E major with 4 sharps (or even B major with 5) which is very awkward. Secondly, sharp keys tend to be brighter, optimistic and more majestic than the flat keys. For some reason, the subject matter and mood of the standards needs more intrigue than this. Nevertheless, One Morning in May works beautifully in the key of D Major, even though it was a bit of a challenge for me to perform for my accompanying recording.

It’s not that I haven’t played pieces in sharp keys before; it’s just that there aren’t too many standards for which I have created arrangements for solo piano. Add this to the fact that I had never heard the song before and you can see the challenge that I faced. As I was just telling one of my adult students yesterday, selecting, arranging, preparing, practicing and performing the pieces for these posts has given me the perfect opportunity to grow musically. When I was working as a solo pianist every Friday and Saturday at the Sheraton Milford Hotel (the final 14 years of my public performing career), I learned lots of tunes, developed my musical style (which is the foundation of my teaching method) and got lots and lots of practice. However, I rarely encountered the unique opportunity that I had with One Morning in May.

As I’ve already mentioned, Dave McKenna’s A Celebration of Hoagy Carmichael” CD became my composer “bible”. No sooner had I heard One Morning in May, that I knew I needed to include it in this series. When you listen to my recording in the blog player on the right, you’ll hear my romantic rubato introduction filled with rich chords and arpeggios followed by a medium tempo rendition of the melody accompanied with a left hand “bass in 2”. I think the couples dancing at the Embassy Club in Dobbs Ferry, NY (my first G.B. gigs) would have felt comfortable dancing the fox trot to this. When I just re-listened to my recording, my improvised spontaneous atmospheric ending caught me by surprise. I think that it reflects the magical mystery of the spring season. Let me know what you think. Just leave a comment in the box below.

Briefly, I’d like to name a couple of my favorite recordings of One Morning in May (in addition to Dave McKenna’s, of course). I was really surprised by Las Vegas jazz pianist Mike Jones’ rendition (first song in a Carmichael medley, because he has captured McKenna’s style and injected his own energy, training and virtuosity. Actually, Jones is so good that I would highly recommending piano students to listen to his solo piano recordings. Years ago, when jazz guitar virtuoso George Benson broke through to the commercial market with his album Breezin’, his band included a fantastic drummer named Harvey Mason. Harvey’s version of One Morning in May has a more modern New York jazz style (my favorite), and so well done I might add. A few more to mention include vocal renditions by Alan Paul, Matt Monro and Jana McCall and piano trio performances by Beegie Adair (slow and romantic) and Eddie Thompson (up tempo and cooking).

Needless to say, when I created my Rhapsody Music playlist, I was amazed at the number of nice recordings of One Morning in May that were available. As an aside, I find it so funny that when I play a song for a student (young or old) that she doesn’t know, she’ll say “no, I don’t know it, but it sounds familiar.” I’m not actually sure what this means. Any ideas? My question is actually, “do you like the song well enough to learn it?”

Our slogan Learn to Play the Music You Love has an unstated additional benefit. We’ll expose you to some wonderful music so that “the music you love” will be a much bigger list.
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If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Piano Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

Although I’m willing to help my piano students learn to play the music they love (from Bach and Chopin to Phantom of the Opera to the Beatles to music from the band Green Day’s show American Idiot), my preference is to focus on the standards from the American Popular Songbook. My own piano-playing preferences require me to dig deep within to find a way to create arrangements that measure up to the level of the musicans that I admire. Let me clarify that a bit. Even though I appreciated, enjoyed and listened to Dave McKenna play Up a Lazy River on his Concord CD A Celebration of Hoagy Carmichael, I neither wanted to copy his arrangement nor play a variation of it.

Dave McKenna was born in the same year (1930) that Hoagy Carmichael and clarinetist Sidney Arodin (1901-1948) co-wrote Up a Lazy River (sometimes titled simply Lazy River). There’s musical history there involving an earlier musical era. So it didn’t surprise me that my mother’s interpretation (emulating what she heard) along with so many performances that I found on Rhapsody Music (e.g. England’s pianist Brian Lemon, clarinetist Pete Fountain, vocalist Rosemary Clooney, etc) captured that style so well. I think that you’ll find that my performance took a totally different tack.

When you listen to my recording in the blog audio player on the right, you’ll notice that I used a shuffle bass in the left hand accompaniment (for you pianists and students that is Root-5-6-5-7-5) of each chord). Incorporating some bluesy dominant 7^th chords helped to enhance the mood. Walking bass and stop time inspired some vocalizing and from there I simply had fun (complete with tag ending completed with a “Basie” close) playing Up a Lazy River.

I also discovered renditions of Up a Lazy River on Rhapsody Music, which caught me off guard and inspired me. After all, that’s the point, isn’t it? Half the satisfaction in musical growth is ‘hands on”, but the other half is preparing-which for the pianist involves listening.

The first cut that opens my playlist is by jazz vocalist Eden Atwood. Born in 1969, she is the youngest jazz artist signed by Concord Records. Unfortunately, her upbeat, funky and cooking version of the Carmichael classic comes from her recording called “Turn Me Loose”. This mp3 album features the playing of pianist David Morgenroth.

Surprisingly enough, the composer’s own 1956 recording entitled “Hoagy Sings Carmichael” is much more modern than many. At age 57, Carmichael held his own in the vocal department, but the mastery comes from Johnny Mandel’s swinging arrangements played by studio musicians from Hollywood’s Pacific Jazz Label. When Brenda and I saw the film Beyond the Sea staring Kevin Spacey, I developed more of an appreciation of Bobby Darin. So when I heard Up a Lazy River from “Sing and Swing with Bobby Darin”, I could hear more of his artistry. However, I must admit that I preferred Hoagy’s big band accompaniment arrangement done about 10 years earlier.

Despite that, the instrumental arrangement of Up a Lazy River that stands head and shoulders above the rest is by pianist-composer-arranger Roger Kellaway (born 1939). A native of Waban, MA and a graduate of my musical alma mater New England Conservatory, Kellaway is a consummate musician. Little did I know until now, that in addition to his top-notch piano playing and composing the closing theme for the show “All in the Family”, he received an Oscar nomination for the film score of “A Star is Born” and ran a summer music camp called ENCORE in Marblehead, MA. His diverse background extends from there. In the meantime, his trio recording called “Remembering Bobby Darin” with guitarist Bruce Forman and bassist Dan Lutz gives Up a Lazy River a strong swinging groove reflecting the trios of my long-time favorite pianist Oscar Peterson. Quite frankly, the CD may draw its title from Darin, but it’s much more inspiring, energizing and swinging. Check this one out. It’s worth it!

This Hoagy Carmichael blog series is teaching me that I have to dig deeper within to find the best way to bring you his wonderful music. But that’s how I keep my musical vitality-by learning and growing.

How about you?
Would you like to have more satisfaction in your life?
If you are a busy parent, you may be trying to juggle multiple schedules?
Perhaps your children are out on their own, but you have many work and social commitments.
Why not take a little time for re-energizing yourself?

You may be thinking that I’m being overly optimistic.
But then again, music can enrich your life. So many of my adult piano students continue to tell me how sitting down the piano helps them to forget about everything else, gives them a special nourishment and simply makes them feel better.

What about you?
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If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Piano Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

So it may surprise you to know that when I looked up Stardust on the Internet, I discovered that Hoagy Carmichael first wrote this song as an instrumental back in 1927. It’s funny that Mr. Carmichael was at an old hotel in upstate New York and it was their old upright piano and became the vehicle for his composition. Back in my early career, I spent a couple of summers working up in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. I’ll never forget the time that I was busy practicing on you guessed it an old upright piano and was so committed to that that I neglected my ” bandleader – as – social director” role at the hotel. On Saturday night when the owner put on his tuxedo and became the not so eloquent MC, he promptly announced “we didn’t have a shuffleboard torment this week, because a certain somebody (pointing to me) had to practice the piano.” In keeping with this rather humorous situation, my group was often referred to as Ed Mascari and the Boys. When I read about Hoagy’s first recording of Stardust, this no longer surprises me, because the LP of the song was by Hoagy Carmichael and His Pals (the Dorsey Brothers were the pals – can you believe that?).

You may remember in one of my blog posts couple of years ago I told the story of my junior high school students whose criteria for a top-quality song was that it had a good beat. Although this may be true, the thing that catapulted Stardust to fame was the inspirational set of lyrics composed by Mitchell Parish (1900-1993). So in 1929, a rather significant year in American history, the vocal version transformed Carmichael’s composition. With some ideas contributed by the songwriter, Parish put together “a song about a song about love” (Sudhalter 2003). The tempo slowed down, the crooning began and the rest is history. I suppose it was rather serendipitous that this Tin Pan Alley lyricist collaborated with our featured composer. These two only came together on a couple of other songs (Riverboat Shuffle and One Morning in May), although Parish’s work is rather familiar to many of us e.g. Sleigh Ride, Deep Purple, Sophisticated Lady and Volare.

When you listen to my recording of Stardust, you’ll hear the rubato introduction which is part of the song. Fortunately, Dave McKenna’s recording of the song serves as a reference since the fake book version did not have the correct introduction written out. During this time that I’ve been practicing, arranging and recording all of the songs for this series, I’ve become very moved by the sincerity of Hoagy Carmichael’s music. Getting back to my performance of Stardust for second, I stick pretty much to a medium ballad tempo after the opening section. This allows me some room to be both expressive and heartfelt. As I said at the outset of this article, a sense of nostalgia permeates this wonderful standard. At the end of my arrangement, the rubato tempo returns along with a sense of romance.

When it came to selecting tracks for my Rhapsody Music playlist, the variety of interesting performances runs the gamut of styles in a variety of tempos (slow to medium that is). Harry Connick Jr. opens his CD entitled 25 with a wonderfully expressive version of Stardust. Although the remainder of this recording includes his terrific piano performances, this track incorporates the marvelous keyboard stylings of Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton). Another well-known pianist, Dave Brubeck made several recordings of this standard with his longtime partner alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Opening with an improvised section, these two effortlessly exchange musical lines with the expertise that made them famous. Just to show you what a vast musical vocabulary these two had, I heard a quote from Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. This seamless integration of styles is quite amazing. A think it would surprise one of my adult students who recently attended a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance of the Stravinsky piece (which he really didn’t care for very much) to think him of how beautiful the composer’s opening theme could work with one of his favorite songs: Stardust. Another beautiful and unique version of our featured selection features and Arco (bowed) bass interpretation of the melody by musician, educator and bandleader Don Wilner. In fact, his CD entitled Mysterious Beauty features interpretations of several classical pieces as well as standards. Along with highly proficient pianist Mike Renzi and drummer Grady Tate (who recorded many albums with jazz organist Jimmy Smith), Wilner makes a marvelous contribution to the vast collection of recorded versions of Stardust.

How about you?
Are you interested in making a musical contribution?
You may be thinking that I’m being overly optimistic.
But then again, music can enrich your life; thus contributing to your mood which then affects those around you. In fact, so many of my adult students continue to tell me how sitting down the piano helps them to forget about everything else, gives them a special nourishment and simply makes them feel better. Our high school and even junior high school students also continue to come to their piano lessons every week and work on the music that gives them a sense of accomplishment.

What about you?
Getting started is the hardest part and that’s where we can help.
Don’t let another week go by.
Now is the time to act!
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If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Piano Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

Now that you are completely aware of today’s very special standard, I’d like to tell you a little bit more about the piece and its composer. Hoagy Carmichael (1899 – 1981) was a songwriter, a pianist, a singer, an actor and believe it or not, a lawyer. His full name was Howard Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael and among his many compositions there are four of them that are among the most recorded songs of all-time.  Heart and Soul is one of these hits. Published in 1938, this standard features lyrics by Frank Loesser (1910 – 1969).

As I’ve mentioned many times, I learn so much from teaching. My students often bring material that challenges me, expands my horizons and often inspires me. Several years ago, one middle school girl brought in a recording by none other than Livingston Taylor, and she said that she’d like to learn how to play Heart and Soul. Believe it or not, this was the first time I had ever heard the bridge of this long-time favorite standard.

Like all of those who have played Heart and Soul as a duet, I had never heard the bridge before. “How is this possible?” you might ask. I think it’s just because the duet works so beautifully. The chord progression, I-vi-ii-V is one of the most popular, usable, variable and musical in the entire genre of song writing. I talked about this in my post that featured Blue Moon which to some degree might be considered a “sister song” to Heart and Soul. The fact is that many 50s groups only needed these four chords, some typical lyrics and a popular presentation to move their song from obscurity to the top of the charts.

In contrast to this, composers of standards from the American Popular Songbook included this series of chords with in a much more interesting and rich harmonic language. Since it’s such a familiar song, I actually cited Heart and Soul in my website music theory lesson, Walking Bass. When you listen to my recording in the blog audio player on the right, you’ll hear how I took advantage of the I-vi-ii-V chord progression by first playing it with the “bass in 2” followed by choruses in walking bass.

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun playing the tune. You’ll hear some rich right hand chords, a bit of stop time, a few bluesy licks and some vocalizing. If you’ve only heard  Heart and Soul in its popular duet version, you might find my rendition a bit surprising. Although this special standard has been recorded hundreds of times, I only found four tracks by jazz players on Rhapsody Music. This doesn’t really shock me in one way, because you might say that the tune has been “overdone”.

If you listen to vibraphonist Milt Jackson’s recording, you’ll know that when it comes to swing the tune works big-time. Pianist Dave Brubeck incorporated some interesting compositional ideas of his own in his Latin rhythm arrangement. Jazz vocalist Joe Williams teamed up with pianist George Shearing for a medium tempo swinging which is smooth, catchy, heart-felt and will have you tapping your foot. The fourth track on my list, however, features two of the finest New York jazz players. Recorded under bassist Ron Carter’s name, pianist Cedar Walton is actually an equal partner. These two seasoned pros display virtuosity, musical taste, expertise, outstanding interplay and utmost respect for this marvelous standard by Hoagy Carmichael.

Over the next few weeks, I will introduce you to some marvelous music by this talented composer. In addition to Heart and Soul, this series will include the other three most recorded songs of all-time by our featured composer along with several songs that may be less familiar. If today’s post perks your interest, I’d recommend that you listen to Dave McKenna’s Concord CD entitled, A Celebration of Hoagy Carmichael. I’ve been listening to it in the car on the way back and forth to work, and I can tell you that Hoagy’s music puts me in a great mood every time.

What about you?
Are you tired of the rat race of running from here to there while listening to talk radio, news programs or mundane music?
Isn’t it time that you stopped to enjoy great music that makes you feel good?
The best way to do this is to start connecting with your keyboard (and I don’t mean your computer QWERTY). Our students find that by getting to the piano on a regular basis something magical happens. Moods, cares, concerns, stresses and worries seem to vanish. By concentrating on the learning process but calmness and focus takes over.

Getting started is the hardest part and that’s where we can help.
Don’t let another week go by.
Now is the time to act!
Find out all about how easy it is for you to get started.
Just take 20 seconds to contact us today.

If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Piano Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

Despite this fact, I do remember finding the music in one of my Fake Books and figuring out how to play it. Once I did that, it joined the ranks of the songs I simply enjoy playing. It seems to me that like so many of the other tunes by this wonderful songwriting team, Have You Met Miss Jones? has a rich sense of harmony, an interesting melody, a solid structure and offers the opportunity to use the anchor bass in conjunction with walking bass lines.

Written in 1937 for the musical comedy I’d Rather Be Right, it’s not surprising that given the experience of these collaborators Have You Met Miss Jones?  is such a solid piece of music. If you’re interested in a much more in-depth commentary about the background of the tune, I would suggest that you take a look at Sandra Burlingame’s informative article.

When it comes to the music though, the variety of interpretations moves me. If you listen to my recording of Have You Met Miss Jones? in the blog post audio player on the right you’ll notice how I savored the richness of the harmonies in my ad lib tempo introduction. After that, the natural evolution for me was to move into the “bass in 2” followed by the walking bass. I then took the opportunity to do something I haven’t done for a long time, and that was to emulate the flavor of a solo that would be played by an upright bassist.

Although some pianists might be able to do this with their left hand, I discovered that if I put my right hand over the left I was able to think more clearly as I was improvising in this style of someone like Ray Brown. As I have told my students many many times, it was those 14 years of playing every Friday and Saturday night at the Radisson Hotel in Milford that my piano style and skill developed and evolved. Nothing happens overnight. So the best advice I can give is to enjoy the learning process.

Interestingly enough, I just realized that Have You Met Miss Jones? was the lead song on Dave McKenna’s solo piano recording entitled Left-Handed Complement. Having seen Dave perform many times at the Copley Plaza hotel in Boston when I was working as solo pianist next-door at the Sheraton, I bought the cassette tape and listen to it in my car often. In addition to this wonderful recording, I found several others.

I mentioned Ray Brown earlier in this article, and his trio rendition featuring Gene Harris at the piano is upbeat, bluesy and really swings. An ensemble called Hofferquattro took a totally different approach to Have You Met Miss Jones? It’s really a samba and boy you can’t help tapping your feet! I like to hear more from these folks. It might surprise you to hear the track by Brazilian pianist Eliane Elias. Rather than give the tune a Bossa Nova treatment, she and her trio play this standard with in a swing tempo.

Of all of the tunes that I featured in this Rodgers and Hart blog series, it seems that my playlist is longer for this great song than any of the others. Perhaps because of the fact that Have You Met Miss Jones? is so inspiring to jazz musicians, it’s less well-known to most of my piano students. It certainly has its challenges to someone learning to play the standards on her keyboard, but it is well worth the effort.

And so at this point, it is with gratitude and perhaps a touch of sadness that I am closing this series of sensational standards created by one of the most wonderful songwriting teams who contributed to the American Popular Songbook: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. I’ve learned a lot, and I hope that you have enjoyed experiencing all of this wonderful music as well. My next series will feature the standards of yet another wonderful American composer of popular song, Hoagy Carmichael.

What about you?
Aren’t you tired of sitting on the sidelines and letting everybody else have all the fun playing the piano?
Isn’t it time that you took the bull by the horns, stopped procrastinating and went after your long-awaited desire to play the piano?

Get the guidance you need to help you really play the piano (or keyboard).
Don’t let another week go by.
Now is the time to act!
Find out all about how easy it is for you to get started.
Take just 20 seconds to contact us today.

If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson MA Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick MA Piano Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick MA piano instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

Back in the days prior to World War II, things were a bit different. When Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart composed I Didn’t Know What Time It Was in 1939 for the show Too Many Girls, life in America moved at a much slower pace I think. The type of love described in this wonderful standard is really timeless. Whether you fall in love in 2012 or your great-great grandfather was falling in love in 1912, time stands still.

What a marvelous feeling it is to meet someone and fall in love! As usual, the music and lyrics are perfectly matched, and I found it a joy to play this tune. Despite the fact that it is written in 4/4 time, I found myself drawn to playing I Didn’t Know What Time It Was as a jazz waltz. The waltz has always been associated with romance, and as you probably know by now I prefer to make a jazz waltz out of almost every piece in 3/4 time in addition to converting many others. So needless to say, when you listen to my recording in the audio player on the right you’ll hear the optimistic, joyful, upbeat and lighthearted treatment that I gave to a song that that has become one of my favorites.

Before I mention a few of my favorite recordings, I can’t help sharing something with you. Being a baby boomer, I remember the jazz-rock group Chicago that was popular during the days I was in college. One of the songs that made them famous was called Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? Since this tune has been on my mind ever since I started planning to feature I Didn’t Know What Time It Was, I decided to look up the words. What a different era these lyrics describe. It was more of a “protest song” or At least a comment on the turbulent times we experienced in the late 1960s. Quite frankly, I think Rodgers and Hart’s message is much more universal and much more optimistic. I’m with them! How about you?

Interestingly enough, one of the tracks on my Rhapsody Music playlist is from an album that came out around the same time that the Chicago song became a hit. The title of the LP is Time for Tyner. I think I wore out that record. The music combined the talents of pianist McCoy Tyner with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Needless to say, I had no recollection of the fact that I Didn’t Know What Time It Was is one of the selections on the recording. However, it still swings and stands up with the best.

Another track that caught my attention features the vocal talents of Jon Lucien. His marvelous Bossa nova arrangement reflects his heritage as a native of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Speaking of Latin rhythm arrangements, one of my classmates from New England Conservatory (now a professor at Berklee College of Music), jazz vocalist Kris Adams offers yet another wonderful upbeat version of this great standard on her CD called This Thing Called Love. The list goes on as you might imagine. And whether play or sing I Didn’t Know What Time It Was as a jazz waltz, a Bossa nova, a ballad or a swing tune, its message is timeless and its music is terrific!

How about you?
Are you so concerned about the time that you are forgetting about quality of life?
Are you thinking to yourself that you have too much to do, too little time or too many distractions?
If you talk to many of our students, especially the adult piano students, they’ll tell you that they enjoy playing the piano so much that time stands still. Keeping this in mind, it certainly seems like the message of love described in , has a piano parallel which is absolutely apropos.

Why not get the guidance you need to help you really play the piano (or keyboard)?
Don’t let another week go by.
Now is the time to act!
Find out all about how easy it is for you to get started.
Just take 20 seconds to contact us today.

If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Piano Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

After a couple of years of studies, the one thing that had been missing was the technique of putting words to music. This had always been a challenge for me. Fortunately, Charles Fussell was a master at this. In our lessons we talked about the mastery of American composer Virgil Thomson. Charles even recommended Thomson’s book Music With Words. In his humility he never told me that he had been practically the co-author.

If I had to boil the book’s (and Charles’) lessons down to one concept, it would be this: speak the words and set them to the music in the same way that you would imagine them sounding. Since that time, I’ve had the experience of noticing how incorrectly words are set to music in a variety of styles. Nevertheless, when it comes to how composer Richard Rodgers put music to the words of Lorenz Hart, There is no one better.

Can you think of a better way to set the words of today’s featured selection, Isn’t it Romantic? Not only are the first four syllables of clever pick up phrase, but putting “man – tic” at the beginning of the new measure is simply perfect. I suppose that if we look back through all of the songs in this long composer blog series featuring Rodgers and Hart, we’d find this perfect word/music match to be on the same high level. After all, 1932 (when this song was written for the film Love Me Tonight) was 13 years into their prolific partnership. No wonder their craft was so finely honed!

Today we celebrate Valentine’s Day. And even though romance is in the air, flowers are sent, candy is given and couples go out for dinner, there is more to a perfect match then these trimmings. My mother and father were married for almost 58 years, and it seems fitting that three weeks now since my father passed away I should talk about another kind of match. My parents met on the seventh of the month. Every seventh of every month for all those years my dad gave my mother a card in honor of their anniversary. All I can say about that is Isn’t it Romantic?

My wife Brenda and I will be celebrating our 32nd wedding anniversary this month. The longer we’ve been together the more I think about how romantic the simple things are. I tried to follow in my father’s footsteps even though it took me many years to understand what being romantic was all about. For instance, I make Brenda a pot of tea every morning. I guess I’ve learned that it’s the small things that make a difference. The other thing that I’ve learned about romance is that sharing a history with someone over many years is really a treasure. Perhaps I’m talking more about love than romance, but nevertheless when a person shows love in the simple things, your comment would still probably be Isn’t it Romantic?

Although Lorenz Hart’s lyrics seem to be more pensive than practical, they still express the wonder, mystery and excitement of love. With these terrific lyrics, Richard Rodgers created yet another musical masterpiece. Once again he manages to keep to the 32 measure form so common among standards. The structure of the song is ABAC. This means essentially that the last part of the song is different in a way that brings it to a special conclusion. When you listen to my recording in the blog audio player on the right, I hope that you can hear the contrast built into the song. Starting in a romantic mood, I played the beginning in a rubato style before bringing the tune into tempo with a “bass in 2” accompaniment. Needless to say, as usual, the wonderful chord changes, marvelous phrases and lyrical feeling inspired by the melody make Isn’t it Romantic? a delight and fun to play.

As I listened to the various versions of Isn’t it Romantic? in my Rhapsody Music playlist, I would have to say that all of the performers sound like they are having a wonderful time. Pianist Bill Evans in his live performance seems to be more straightforward in style than most of his later trio recordings. I wonder if this has anything to do with the tune? In the meantime, one of my favorite singers Betty Carter teamed up with another marvelous vocalist of equal stature, Carmen McRae. Their terrific duet is not to be missed! There were many other tracks among my relatively short playlist that are worth hearing, including one by jazz harmonica master Toots Thielemans that really swings.

What about you?
Isn’t it time to render your rendition of Isn’t it Romantic? or another one of your favorites?
Is the complex looking sheet music or Fake Book chord notation stopping you?
Wouldn’t you like to break down the musical barriers that are standing in your way?
Why not get the guidance you need to help you really play the piano or keyboard?
Don’t let another week go by.
Now is the time to act!
Find out all about how easy it is for you to get started.
Just take 20 seconds to contact us today.

If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

With that auspicious history, it’s amazing that I had never heard There’s a Small Hotel before. Yesterday, I was having a conversation with one of my adult students. He’s an avid photographer and spends a great deal of time preparing for his photographic projects. One thing he said really struck me, and this was the fact that part of the excitement involved in creating something wonderful involves study, research and a variety of other explorations. These are critical in bringing the artistic work to life. I saw this to be the case when I was composing classical music, and I have certainly also found it to be true in writing these blog posts for you.

So after I looked at the sheet music of There’s a Small Hotel, I somehow needed to hear different versions of the tune. Even though I could easily play this song as a ballad or perhaps as a medium swing, I wasn’t quite sure about the best approach. My Rhapsody Music playlist came early in this process. Even though this was somewhat unusual for me, it seemed absolutely necessary. Despite this, it may surprise you to know that there are only 10 tracks on my list and three of them are by Oscar Peterson.

“So what kinds of styles are on your playlist?” you’re probably asking. Needless to say, there are ballads and medium tempo versions by pianists Art Tatum and Erroll Garner as well as by Oscar Peterson. In addition, there are two wonderful renditions by guitarists Joe Pass and Charlie Byrd. Joe Pass recorded an outstanding solo swing version complete with his trademark walking bass lines. In contrast, Charlie Byrd created a Bossa nova small-group recording. Perhaps this is where my own interpretation came from.

When you listen to my recording in the blog post player on the right, you’ll notice that I immediately moved into a Latin rhythmic feel after my very brief introduction. For those of you who have listened to many of my performances you will immediately recognize the Beguine bass. In fact, if you talk to any of my piano students from age 12 and older they’ll know exactly what you mean. Once I had a sense of the potential for There’s a Small Hotel to work in this style, my performance fell into place very naturally.

Complete with vocalizing, to this I simply had fun playing this song. The melody of There’s a Small Hotel is very lyrical, and yet there are so few eight notes that popular songwriters today might be unimpressed. This is precisely the reason why playing the standards leaves so much room for interpretation. Remember what I said about simpler is better in one of my articles some time ago. Richard Rodgers knew this only too well.

It doesn’t take complexity to make a great song. Music requires three elements: melody, harmony and rhythm and this composer knew exactly how to combine them. In fact when I was improvising on There’s a Small Hotel, I simply did not feel the need to play lots of virtuositic runs. Why? Because embellishing the melody and drawing upon its character was quite sufficient.

Before I sign off, I just wanted to mention another very interesting recording. It’s by pianist Hank Jones (1918 – 2010) and the Meridian String Quartet. Hank Jones had a marvelous method of playing swing and needless to say the trio session with bass and drums would have been sufficient. However, the rich chords, contrapuntal lines and colorful sounds of the string quartet make the performance of There’s a Small Hotel simply magical. If you get a chance, look it up and take a listen. It’s worth it.

Now it’s your turn.
Would you like to enjoy playing popular song sheet music on the piano?
Would you like to break down the musical barriers that are standing in your way?
Why not get the guidance you need to help you really play the piano (or keyboard)?
Don’t let another week go by.
Now is the time to act!
Find out all about how easy it is for you to get started.
Just take 20 seconds to contact us today.

If you live in or near anywhere in the Worcester MA area, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick piano instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

What I saw instead was a variety of mixed bag interpretations ranging in style from crooner to punk. Unfortunately, there were very few in the main stream. When you listen to my recording of Blue Moon in the blog audio player you may better understand where I’m coming from. Here’s a brief description of what you’ll hear. After a brief rubato introduction which concludes with some atmospheric whole tone improvising, the tempo launches into a “bass in 2” medium swing followed by some blues influenced improvisation over what has become my trade mark anchor bass line. After all, how could I resist?

The I-vi-ii-V chord pattern long associated with Hoagy Carmichael’s Heart and Soul was a no-brainer. And so Rodgers and Hart’s 1934 classic Blue Moon (which by the way was written four years before its I-vi-ii-V counterpart) became my vehicle for variations complete with vocalizing as well as some right hand chord solos. As you may also notice, following my return to the melody played above the left hand “bass in 2”, I couldn’t resist the temptation to play an extended vamp out over the “famous”chord pattern while decreasing my playing volume in the final moments of the performance. It had a ball playing the piece. Some songs are just plain fun to play and Blue Moon is certainly one of them.

Although I don’t want to overdo the comparison between Blue Moon and Heart and Soul, I do think that the bridge of Blue Moon is much more memorable. But this may only be due to the fact that two kids sitting at the piano prefer to play the verse of the Carmichael piece and so the bridge is very rarely heard. In contrast, our featured standard is always heard as a complete song. Despite all of this, I was very surprised to discover (thank you Wikipedia) that Richard Rodgers’ music had two prior titles and sets of lyrics by his famous collaborator.

It’s a good thing that Blue Moon became a hit, because Lorenz Hart must have become exasperated when version one Oh Lord, Make Me a Movie Star and version two It’s Just that Kind of Play failed to succeed. Think about it. Here were two successful collaborators with a 15 year track record and something just wasn’t working. Thankfully for us, Jack Robbins, the head of MGM’s publishing division believed that the song still had potential for commercial success. He thus requested that the somewhat reluctant Lorenz Hart write a new set of more romantic lyrics and give the tune a catchier title. The rest is history.

Recalling my opening statement about interpretations, you may now have a better idea of why I thought there would be far more recording performances to pick from. Certainly, I found inspiration in the medium swing version by jazz organist Richard “Groove” Holmes. His walking bass lines brought him notoriety in the 1960s when his recording of Misty sold over a million copies. Since then, I can’t help but recall his playing every time I create a left hand bass groove. Another performer who came to the forefront in the jazz world was guitarist Joe Pass.

Although he recorded albums with various ensembles prior to and afterwards, he became known for his solo guitar performing. His version of Blue Moon is perfect example of why. All by himself, he manages to coordinate melody, chords, some improvisation and a walking bass line. The performance is intimate and at the same time complete. It’s pretty amazing. However, I learned a valuable lesson when I saw Joe Pass perform in person. Although I don’t refer to my experience when I discuss the issue with my students, I may start including this experience in my narrative.

It involves the issue of performance anxiety. Having held many annual student recitals during more than 30 years of piano teaching, I have encouraged students to focus more on sharing the music they enjoy with their listeners rather than playing perfectly. I confess my own nervousness and how important it is to keep the music flowing despite mistakes and mishaps. However, the real lesson is that it’s just plain tough to play by yourself.

What I witnessed with Joe Pass is that he needed someone else to partner with. Yes, his music is complete, but there was no conversation to energize him. I found that the wonderful solo pianist Dave McKenna had the same issue in performance settings. So while I find that playing the piano alone is tremendously satisfying (as do so many of my students), when you get up to play in a recital or concert situation, the tables are turned.

Duets between two performers shift the focus away from impressing your audience and toward creating a musical conversation with your colleague. In fact, every year I love playing a duet with my student Ken Taylor at the end of our Adult Student Recital. Last June, I had also got to play a duet with Hudson Studio Piano Instructor Erika Hirsch (who also plays flute) at the end of the Hudson Studio Students Recital. So I guess from now on when I have the opportunity to play musical duets, I’ll think of Blue Moon: in the words of Lorenz Hart, “Blue Moon, now I’m no longer alone…..”

How about you?
Do you get to the piano once in a blue moon?
Are you still procrastinating about getting the help you need?
Isn’t it time you act on your long-held desire to get better at playing the piano?
Why not get the guidance you need to help you really play the piano (or keyboard)?
It’s a new year and the holidays are over.

Now is the time to act!
Find out all about how easy it is for you to get started.
Just take 20 seconds to contact us today.

If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!

In contrast to the atmosphere surrounding the creation of the standards from the American Popular Songbook, Let There Be Peace on Earth had much more humble beginnings. This husband and wife songwriting team had a dream for world peace. They believed that as individuals, we can each have a part in achieving this universal desire. To emphasize their personalization point, the second line of each verse is either: “And let it begin with me.” Or “Let this be the moment now with every step I take.”

An interesting fact about the premiere of Let There Be Peace on Earth is that it took place on a summer weeklong retreat for 180 California high school students of all races and religions. What a contrast from New York’s Broadway stage or from a rock group’s world tour. Nevertheless, from its humble yet spirited beginning, Let There Be Peace on Earth went on to achieve international notoriety through word-of-mouth. The teenagers shared it with friends and family who introduced it at schools, churches and community organizations until finally it was recorded and performed by professional singers. What an amazing story!

After researching and writing this narrative to share with you today, I find it interesting that including Let There Be Peace on Earth in my holiday blog series this year was an afterthought. Since this is my fourth season of selecting songs to feature in these seasonal posts, I had a bit of a challenge to select pieces to perform for you. A couple of times in the past, there was an opportunity to complete the Christmas song selections with something for New Year’s. One of these was That’s All, though not limited to this occasion, did fit the bill and then there was the very traditional Auld Lang Syne.

So after I recorded the songs for the previous three posts, I decided to record what I thought would be a fitting tune to introduce 2012. When you listen to my recording in the audio player on the right, you will hear my soft rubato tempo introduction. The chords are very rich, and took the opportunity to embellish them with some added tones e.g. 9^ths, 11^ths, etc. (familiar to many of my students). After basking in the lush sounds of the harmonies, I moved into tempo and brought a jazz waltz flavor to the ¾ meter. After returning to rubato near the end, I quoted the opening melody in the high register of the piano at the track’s conclusion. Speaking of tracks, I unfortunately did not find anything that would energize and inspire my piano playing performance for this post. Although this was my personal experience, you can certainly find many moving renditions of Let There Be Peace on Earth in a variety of genres on Rhapsody Music, iTunes and/or YouTube.

So as you begin this New Year of 2012, remember the story and aim of Jill Jackson and Sy Miller’s special song Let There Be Peace on Earth. The couple’s heartfelt desire for peace for mankind, though far from a reality today, was begun by 180 individuals. And so whether you remember the phrase “and let it begin with me” or “brighten the corner where you are” or even as the bumper sticker says “think globally-act locally”, the message is the same: we can each make a difference.

Are you up for the challenge?
Music is the universal language.
Do you want to use your piano playing to “brighten the corner where you are”?

The New Year is here. “Think globally-act locally”.
Isn’t it time you took action on your long-awaited goal of taking piano lessons?
Just think of it, you have the golden opportunity at your finger tips.Let There Be Peace on Earth and let it begin with the music you make on your keyboard.

Why wait? Get the process started now.
Just take 20 seconds to contact us today.

If you live in or near Hudson, Stow, Bolton, Northborough, Marlborough, Harvard, Berlin, Clinton, Lancaster or Shrewsbury, you are just minutes away from our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio location. You can choose to study there with one of our terrific piano teachers. If you are close to our Natick Studio location, you can take lessons from one of our Natick instructors.

In either case, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience you’ll need to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our personalized piano lessons are always focused on helping you learn to play the music you love!