In light of this mood, jazz vocalist and former WICN-FM disc jockey, Carol Sloane teamed up with trumpeter/vocalist Clark Terry to create a wonderfully enjoyable performance. Their recording is reflective of the light-hearted earlier rendition created by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Keeping to the duet format, three other vocalists managed to capture a similar mood by combining their talents with excellent pianists. Susannah McCorkle’s recording with English pianist Keith Ingham features the latter’s stride piano style during the instrumental interlude. French singer Isabelle Georges offers yet another example in combination with pianist René Urtreger. A more modern version follows this same model: California’s Nina Blade joining forces with the wonderful pianist Bill Mays.

It’s amazing to think that it took the combined talent of many creative artists to provide us with yet another part of Jerome Kern’s legacy. The 1934 musical Three Sisters was a flop despite the fact that it included I Won’t Dance with lyrics by the team of Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. All was not lost however. When it came time to make a 1935 film version of the Kern/Harbach 1933 operetta Roberta, songwriters Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh entered the scene.  They kept the songs Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Yesterdays and replaced the original lyrics of I Won’t Dance with their own. The song became a number one hit and is performed today in this version.

Now that I’ve shared all of this background with you, it’s time for me to come clean. The recording I made for today’s blog was actually the first time I ever performed I Won’t Dance. Not only that, when I looked at the music, I was baffled. It was the opposite of what I’ve been telling you about several of Jerome Kern’s standards: simpler is better. Despite the fact that there are plenty of ii-V-I patterns in the bridge, creating a workable solo piano arrangement for the verse eluded me. “I love this song”, I thought, “How can I capture the energy?” You can ask any of my adolescent or adult students and they’ll tell you what I did.

I looked at the sheet music and took out my pencil. After experimenting a bit, I finally got it. I found my solution! It was as clear as day. Use the anchor bass.  After adding a few chord names above the staff, all I had to do was start practicing. Pretty soon the fun began!

How about you?

Would you like to learn how to look at a piece of sheet music and turn it into a song that you can have fun playing?

Has your high school son or daughter wanted to find a way to personalize his or her keyboard playing?

Is your younger child interested in learning to play the piano, but you want her experience to be more enjoyable than the one you had when you took lessons as a kid?

Now’s the time to take action!

This week, many of your sons and daughters will be heading back to school. This is a great time to get started. Whether the lessons are for you or for one of your children you can find out all about it by taking just 20 seconds to contact us today.

Whether you live near our convenient Natick Studio location or close to our centrally located Hudson Studio spot, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student. Our piano instructors are always delighted to help you learn to play the music you love!

Yesterdays, like many of Jerome Kern’s other compositions, contains a great deal of harmonic (chords) and melodic repetition. As a matter of fact, Yesterdays is a 32 measure song which is made up of two identical 16 bar sections. Because of this, there is an extra measure (bar 33) needed so that the song will actually end on the tonic (principal chord of the key). So as I mentioned last time in my Dearly Beloved post, when it comes to improvisation and interpretation, simpler is better. The great thing about Yesterdays though, is that it is written in a minor key.

One of my adult students and I have often discussed the difference between songs written in major keys (happy in character) and those written in minor keys (sad in character). She has been drawn to learn pieces in minor keys because she senses a depth to them which communicates to her. These have included such selections as Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Autumn Leaves. Yesterdays certainly would fit into her concept of depth.

Written in the key of d minor (the relative minor of F Major with Bb in the key signature), the first six bars of Yesterdays make sure that we clearly hear and know this. The chords are Dmin – Emin 7b5-A7 (i – ii - V) played twice followed by the D minor handi variation (minor line cliché).  So looking at the list of tracks available on Rhapsody Music, it’s no surprise to hear the tremendous variety of styles that performers have selected for presenting their interpretations of Yesterdays. There are so many (10 hours worth of listening) that I hesitate to identify them individually. You may find it interesting to know that among the many great recordings of this jazz standard, there are many more instrumental tracks offered as opposed to the normal number of vocal versions.

As a matter of fact, one of my high school age piano students totally surprised me when he selected Yesterdays as his piece for our Annual Spring Student Recital. It was not so much the song as his interpretation of it. In addition to playing the piano (he’s been taking lessons from me since he was in the second grade) and taking trumpet lessons, Teddy Billings has been active in musical theatre productions for several years. When he told me what he had in mind for his arrangement, I was astounded. He had envisioned an arrangement that not only reflected his versatile artistic background, but one which conjured up images of a one person cabaret performance. Listen to Teddy’s recital performance.

I’m not sure when I first heard and/or started playing Yesterdays myself, but it has always been one of my favorite tunes. Although I never played it as a ballad like Wynton Marsalis does, I have certainly taken advantage of its inherent rubato (literally means “robbing the time”) ad lib tempo possibilities. At the same time, performing Yesterdays as a swing tune at a variety of speeds has been my common practice. Pianist Monty Alexander includes a bit of stride in his arrangement, and his rendition remains a source of inspiration to me. Nevertheless, I’ve also had fun treating Yesterdays as a samba on occasion.

Needless to say, when I made the recording to go with today’s post, I left myself open to the possibilities and went with the flow rather than follow any preconceived arrangement.  So I hope that you enjoy listening to it.

This past week, we began our annual Fall Piano Lesson Enrollment period. Students have already started contacting us to schedule their lesson appointments.

How about you?

There’s no time like the present.

Whether you want to put your own spin on a standard like Yesterdays, get your son or daughter started at learning to play the keyboard or finally take action on one of the major items on your “bucket list”, fall is the perfect time to enroll in piano lessons. Whether you live near our convenient Natick Studio location or close to our centrally located Hudson Studio, you’ll find that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s approach to teaching will provide you with the encouragement and patience to help you enjoy the learning process either as a parent or as an adult student.

So take 10 seconds today and Contact Us to find out all about taking piano lessons at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio. Our piano instructors are always delighted to help you learn to play the music you love!

Somehow, by the time June arrived that year, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I wanted to continue developing as a composer, pianist and teacher, I needed more musical training. One name instantly popped into my head: William Thomas McKinley. About 14 years prior to that, I had heard Tom perform with a jazz quintet at a concert in Worcester. His piano style was so unique and impressive, that his performance had remained etched in my mind for all those years. Knowing that he was also a classical composer, I promptly located and contacted him to inquire about taking lessons.

By now, you are probably wondering what this story has to do with today’s featured selection, Dearly Beloved.

Read on…..

When I first saw the music to Dearly Beloved in the Real Book, I wasn’t particularly excited by the tune.  However, when I started listening to some of the tracks on Rhapsody Music, I was blown away! One after the other, vocal and instrumental alike, each version has something special to offer the listener. In addition to the terrific classic swing style performances by vocalists Nancy Wilson, Ruth Price and Joe Doggs, there is one that stands out.

Boston native, Meredith D’Ambrosio opens her version by singing the introduction in a rubato tempo before launching into a creative up tempo swing flavored with a bebop-like treatment of the lyrics. Husband Eddie Higgins combines his wonderful piano talents with has arranging expertise to make this a memorable recording. Coming from a totally different perspective are the Latin rhythm renditions by Cal Tjader and Don Baaska.  I could go on, but I think that you get the idea.

For you, the piano student, Dearly Beloved is truly a song that offers you the opportunity to personalize your performance.  This is why I shared my Tom McKinley story. A couple of months into my training with Tom, he taught me an important lesson that rings true with Dearly Beloved (as well as with several of Jerome Kern’s other songs). When it comes to improvisation and interpretation, simpler is better. The 32 measures of this standard contain a great deal of literal repetition in addition to the fact the harmony is filled with easy-to-negotiate ii-V and ii-V-I progressions. It’s somewhat ironic that the composer not only disliked jazz, but also thought that his songs should only be performed in the context of the shows for which they were written.

I suppose he wouldn’t have been happy if he knew that two of the songs (featuring Johnny Mercer’s lyrics) from the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier, Dearly Beloved and I’m Old Fashioned served as the subjects of my blog posts seventeen months apart. Fortunately for us, more than 65 years after their composition, we have a new Jerome Kern tradition, because so many great performers have seen the value of the composer’s simpler is better approach to writing.

How about you? Do you need some help learning how to personalize your piano performances of your favorite songs?

The Ed Mascari Piano Studio teaching approach is designed to help you do just that. Whether you live near to our conveniently situated Natick Piano Studio location or close to our centrally located Hudson Piano Studio, you can get the guidance you need.

Contact us today to find out how you can better use your piano keyboard to realize your dream of learning to play the piano.
Remember, each of our teachers is dedicated to helping you learn to play the music you love!

Why is this important?

Think about it. When you learn a song, you need to pay attention to the details such as phrasing, the dynamics (louds and softs), and the words. It’s far more than a casual acquaintance with the selection. In fact, you may even be drawn to listening to recorded performances to help your familiarity, memory and enjoyment of the piece you are learning.  After this following this process, you internalize the music. It becomes imprinted in your musical memory. And guess what? Your life is richer as a result of that experience!

I can remember learning and singing The Song Is You during my high school years. The arrangement was certainly closer to what Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II would have envisioned when they wrote it for the 1932 operetta-styled musical Music in the Air. Although my introduction to this great American Popular Songbook standard was through nostalgically styled choral arrangement, my frame of reference has changed dramatically since then.

Most jazz performers treat The Song Is You as a swing tune. As I’m writing this post, I’m listening to pianist Dave McKenna’s distinctive left hand walking bass lines moving easily through the chord changes as he exchanges improvised lines with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. No drums are necessary here. These two know how to swing! Another interesting rendition is a solo jazz flute performance by veteran Sam Most. Unencumbered by other instruments, Mr. Most makes such excellent use of syncopation, rests, dynamics and rhythm that any piano student can benefit by listening to this track.

One of the great things about The Song Is You like so many other of Jerome Kern’s compositions, is that it’s simple enough to allow room for personal expression and yet challenging enough to keep even the most seasoned performer on his or her toes. As I’ve mentioned many times since my blog post It’s All About the DNA, the way so many standards are composed is related to the IV-V-I or ii-V-I chord progressions that are at the core of every piece of music.

That being said, often the bridge (middle section) of a song goes to the key of IV. For example, if the song is in the key of C, the bridge will be in the key of F (although the actual key signature will NOT change). Notice that F is a fifth (five letter names) BELOW C. Here’s where Jerome Kern surprises us. The bridge of The Song Is You is a third above C. Even without a change of key signature to 4 sharps, there is freshness in the sound and some challenging chords for the piano student to navigate through.

This is called a tertiary modulation. What I’ve noticed is that some of the composer’s other standards do the same thing. We’ll feature three of them in upcoming blog posts: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Eb to B[Cb]), Long Ago and Far Away (F to Ab) and The Way You Look Tonight (F to Ab).

When I was studying with composer and jazz pianist Tom McKinley at New England Conservatory, he often praised his former student Fred Hersch. Mr. Hersch, now in his 50s, has managed to combine a concert and composing career which includes piano performances in a variety of settings. His solo jazz piano performance of The Song Is You was recorded at the Maybeck Recital Hall. If you want to be inspired to play the piano in a style that expresses your creativity, listen to how Fred manages to combine his diversified musical background in his unique way. All the while, keep in mind that Jerome Kern’s great standard leaves plenty of room for a variety of vehicles of interpretation.

Now it’s your turn!

During the past year, several of our adult students have taken the first step to realizing their dream: “I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the piano and NOW is the time.” Meanwhile, you’d be amazed to discover that quite a few of our high school students have enrolled in our piano lesson programs because they have become highly motivated to continue (or to learn) to play piano for their own reasons and in their own way (no longer just to please their parents).

Summer is the perfect time to explore your own interests by learning to play the piano. Why not schedule some piano lessons today at one of the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s two convenient locations, the Natick MA Piano Studio and the Hudson MA Piano Studio. There’s still time to enroll in our unique 2010 Summer Piano Lesson program.

You can connect with your piano keyboard while still having the flexibility you need because you’ll be able to select the number, times and dates of your lesson appointments during July and August.

Contact us today to find out how we can help you learn to play the music you love!

When I was an undergraduate music student at the Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA , I took a music history course in 20^th Century Classical Music taught by pianist Susanna Waldbauer. I couldn’t have asked for a better connection with that musical world. Though I had become much more interested and knowledgeable in the earlier periods of music, it was during this semester that my passion for composing was born.

Since I was actively performing as a jazz pianist and organist on campus and around the city, the exposure to Satie, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky had an immediate impact on my writing and playing. Professor Waldbuer’s connection with 20^th century music came through her relationship with two composers from her native Hungary. In addition to having studied with Zoltan Kodaly, she and her former husband had premiered Bela Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in America.

Although Bartok’s musical language is very different from that of the French, I have watched our Hudson Piano Studio and Natick Piano Studio students benefit from studying the first volume of Bartok’s Mikrokosmos. In addition to my association with this composer, I can see how this book helps beginning piano students to develop their music reading skills, prepared for learning to play the music of J. S. Bach and gain some exposure to musical styles that influence jazz pianists.

As I’ve previously mentioned, Jerome Kern preferred to hear his music played within the context of the Broadway Shows and films for which he had composed the song. I suppose there is an exception to every rule. Even though he was working exclusively in Hollywood by this time, the situation surrounding the writing of The Last Time I Saw Paris was unique for him. In my April 28, 2009 post featuring My Favorite Things I mentioned the fact the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II often had an underlying purpose of teaching audiences about social justice. In fact, The Sound of Music (composed several years later) was a commentary on the takeover of Austria by the Third Reich. Perhaps the memory of Paris prior to the German occupation of the city gave Hammerstein’s 1940 lyrics a very subtle way to express the world’s outrage. In the meantime, between the lyricist’s way with words and the political situation, Jerome Kern broke his own rules. He not only wrote the music for a pre-written lyric, he also accepted the fact that this song was not a part of the score for a show of film.

It’s a good thing that he did! The song became a hit for Tony Martin and later Noel Coward. A year later, it was included in the film Lady Be Good which resulted in an Oscar for best song being awarded to Kern. Ironically, I found very few recorded performances of The Last Time I Saw Paris on Rhapsody Music. However, in addition to tracks by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins and pianist Michel Legrand (more well known for his great songs, including The Summer Knows, Theme from the Summer of ’42 which I wrote about last August), there were three that featured jazz pianist Bud Powell (1924-1966).

Powell, a native New Yorker came from a musical background. His grandfather was a flamenco guitarist and his father a stride pianist. So it is no surprise that despite his early classical piano training, Bud was drawn to jazz. Influenced by Art Tatum and Fats Waller, he then became a student of Thelonious Monk. The older pianist/composer became Powell’s mentor as well as a close friend for life. Bud became a master improviser as he matured and made his mark as a bebop pianist.

One of the techniques that Powell used to provide freedom for his right hand melodic lines is quite familiar to many of my piano students. Rather that play the more traditional left hand stride piano style, he favored the use of the 10^th system.  You’ll also find that Bud Powell’s recordings are well worth hearing, including his three versions of The Last Time I Saw Paris.

If you have a favorite standard on the theme of Paris, please feel free to share the title in the comments box below. If you would like to avoid the typical piano student’s pitfall of saying “the last time I saw the piano” when September rolls around, contact us today.

Now that you have finalized your vacation and other summer plans, there is still time to schedule some piano lessons at one of the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s two convenient locations Natick, MA and Hudson, MA. Our unique 2010 Summer Piano Lesson program can keep you connected with your piano keyboard while still providing you with the flexibility you need.

Why?

Because you’ll be able to select the number, times and dates of your lesson appointments during July and August

Contact us today to find out how we can help you learn to play the music you love!

I feel fortunate to have personally seen, heard, met and even spoken with some of the great performers of music from the American Popular Songbook. Let me roll back the clock to 1972 for a minute. Here I was a young keyboard player working as full-time professional musician six nights a week. As you can imagine, I was wide-eyed and enthusiastic. One of our gigs was at a club called Yesterdays in Kenmore Square in Boston. On our breaks, we’d go next door to the large lounge where we’d watch the show bands perform. One time, we saw Herb Reed and the Platters. Boy was I impressed! Five stylishly dressed soulful singers backed by an ensemble of seven musicians singing none other than Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.

Despite this encounter, I have never been overly excited by the Platters’ rendition of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. So when I heard pianist Keith Jarrett’s trio recording nearly 20 years later, I began to appreciate the beauty of this Jerome Kern classic. As I mentioned in my recent All the Things You Are post, Kern’s compositional writing favored a more classical style. As a result, it’s no surprise to discover that Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was written with lyricist/librettist Otto Harbach (1873-1963) for their 1933 operetta Roberta.

As many of my piano students will tell you, uncovering and often adjusting chord patterns in standards, as well as in classical pieces from Chopin to Clementi, (though keeping these as written) along with identifying the ii-Vii-V-I chord progressions and is an important aspect of my teaching. As a result, discovering that Smoke Gets in Your Eyes actually modulates (changes key signature) from Eb Major (3 flats) to B Major (5 sharps) and back was quite a revelation. If you are like many piano students, you may find it challenging to remember how to figure out the key of a piece. My students, young and old, continue to find this hand-out on how to identify the key of a song helpful.

The great thing is that the music of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes moves seamlessly from the verses (Key of Eb) to the bridge (Key of B) and back without a hitch. After being continuously inspired by listening to Keith Jarrett’s beautiful ballad rendition for many years, I have been blown away by the number and variety of other interpretations that I found on Rhapsody Music.

Here are but a few of the highlights among the four hours’ worth of tracks. Pianist Thelonious Monk’s solo version echoes his famous solo Ruby My Dear. Drummer Philly Joe Jones sets the song in an up tempo frame and boy does his ensemble swing. Pianist Bob James (you may remember his popular theme song from the TV show Taxi) teams up with drummer Harvey Mason for a tasty medium tempo track offering. As you probably know by now, my performing experience includes a decade of playing the Hammond B-3 organ. Having been inspired by the instrument since I was 16, the sound and style always catches my attention. So when I heard British guitarist Jim Mullen’s group, The Organ Trio, performing a smoking version of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, I was thrilled.

Needless to say, a picture (or a performance in this case) is worth a thousand words. So you may want to make up your own playlist and start listening for yourself. Jerome Kern may not have liked such “out of context” renditions, but his musical legacy has provided us with many treasures that might have otherwise disappeared. If you’d like to learn how to play your own version of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, another Jerome Kern standard, a selection from the American Popular Songbook, or another one of your favorite songs, summer is a great time to sit down at your keyboard while life moves at a slower pace.

As you finalize your plans for traveling, family visits, vacations, summer camp, concert going and even educational activities, remember that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s unique 2010 Summer Piano Lesson program can keep you connected with your piano keyboard as well. Rather than returning to lessons in the fall and spending the entire month of September refreshing your knowledge and skills, you can get the best of both worlds. You’ll be able to select the number, times and dates of your lesson appointments during July and August

Whether you are an adult beginner, the parent of a high school student who wants to make a change of piano teachers, an adult piano student who wants to return to taking piano lessons after a long hiatus or the parent of a young child who just got her first keyboard, taking piano lessons at one of the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s two convenient locations the Natick, MA Piano Studio and the Hudson, MA Piano Studio is the best way to for you to get started.

Contact us today to find out all about taking piano lessons at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio. Our piano instructors are always delighted to help you learn to play the music you love!

You’ve probably noticed that I often comment about how much I continue to learn both as a piano teacher and in conjunction with writing these blog posts. Capturing my thoughts about, and recording my solo piano rendition of All the Things You Are to share with you today, has been no exception to this process of musical growth. Whether your creative process involves photography, landscape design, writing poetry, gourmet cooking or playing the piano, you’ll notice how much enthusiasm, excitement and energy you have as a result of investing your time in your avocation. Why Jerome Kern disliked having musicians embrace and personalize his songs is beyond me. I certainly never gave it a thought when I featured I’m Old Fashioned in a former blog post.

Nevertheless, for as long as I can remember, All the Things You Are was considered one of the most popular and important standards for the aspiring jazz musician to learn. Over the years, I’ve heard it played and performed it myself in a variety of musical styles. For some reason, this time I was spontaneously drawn to treat it as a jazz waltz. You may find it helpful to revisit last year’s jazz waltz blog post series if you want a bit of background on the subject. Anyway, little did I know that between the time I did the recording of All the Things You Are and the writing of this article, I would experience a wonderful breakthrough in my efforts to help my piano students learn how to play a jazz waltz.

About two weeks ago, while I was giving a piano lesson to one of my adult students at the Hudson Piano Studio, I was struggling to figure out how to help to him go from playing his jazz waltz pieces with chordal accompaniment to the more professional sounding 10^th system in the left hand part. In order to help you understand what I mean, I have included a few measures of All the Things You Are with chordal accompaniment employing the jazz waltz rhythm.

One thing that keeps me passionate about teaching piano, even after 32 years, is my desire to discover definite methods for communicating musical concepts in the clearest and most effective manner to my students.

And so here I was, giving a lesson to an intelligent and disciplined adult pianist and all of a sudden, as Chef Emeril LaGasse would say “BAM!” it hit me. In that very moment, I knew exactly how to create a jazz waltz accompaniment using the 10^th system. I have been searching for this seemingly simple solution for students for more than a decade. You can see how you can enrich your own keyboard playing of All the Things You Are in the jazz waltz style using the 10^th system:

Needless to say, I began showing this technique to other students as well. Just the other day at the Natick Piano Studio, another pianist benefitted from this breakthrough as we used it to enhance I Feel Pretty from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story.

During the coming weeks, we’ll get to know more of Jerome Kern’s music. Although I can’t promise you that each of the next eleven selections will deliver such delightful discoveries, but I can tell you that Kern’s contribution to the American Popular Songbook repertoire will enrich your musical lives in one way or another.

Just a reminder, my wonderful website consultant and long-time musical collaborator, David Summer, and I have made a decision regarding the schedule of these blog posts. You can now look forward to seeing a new post every other Tuesday. So on Tuesday, June 22^nd, on the first day of summer, our scheduled selection will be Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.

Speaking of summer, as you finalize your plans for traveling, family visits, vacations, summer camp, concert going and even educational activities, remember that the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s unique 2010 Summer Piano Lesson program can keep you connected with your piano keyboard as well. Rather than returning to lessons in the fall and spending the entire month of September refreshing your knowledge and skills, you can get the best of both worlds. You’ll be able to select the number, times and dates of your lesson appointments during July and August.

So whether you are an adult beginner, the parent of a high school student who wants to make a change of piano teachers, an adult piano student who wants to return to taking piano lessons after a long hiatus or the parent of a child who just got her first keyboard, taking piano lessons at one of the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s two convenient locations Natick MA Piano Studio and Hudson MA Piano Studio is the best way to for you to get started.

Contact us today to find out all about taking piano lessons at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio. Our piano instructors are always delighted to help you learn to play the music you love!

Needless to say, I’ve Got the World on a String proves once again that a terrific tune can transcend music’s and society’s transitions for decades. After all, it still swings nearly 80 years after its debut at New York’s Harlem Cotton Club in 1932. Like so many other classics by Harold Arlen, you can’t help but feel good when you listen to a great performance. In the case of I’ve Got the World on a String, you’ll probably be tapping your feet, bobbing your head or simply swaying to the beat as well. As soon as I start listening to pianist and vocalist Diana Krall performing her version of this Arlen classic, I find my mood transformed from the mundane to the optimistic image of “sittin’ on a rainbow.”

Music can be so important in our everyday lives. Whether you’re hearing loud car radios blaring sounds out of open windows with pounding bass vibrations almost shaking the vehicle or watching young people dance down the street in their own world as they listen to their iPods, people are partial to their personal musical preferences. That’s why I’m grateful that the songs of the American Popular Songbook re-emerged in popularity more than 20 years ago. As a teacher who is committed to helping students increase their musical knowledge as they learn to play the piano, I can think of no better material than these timeless standards.

When I was enrolled in the doctoral program at Boston University, I taught the undergraduate music theory students chord progressions on the piano. The purpose of this was to help these young musicians internalize their knowledge of music theory through the hands-on keyboard training. Though these young people were less than enthused about being pulled away from focusing on their attention on their primary instrument, I came away with a teaching technique that transformed my approach to giving piano lessons.

Whether I’m working with a young adolescent on a Clementi Sonatina, teaching a ten year old how to play one of her favorite Disney songs or introducing an adult beginner to the playing piano, I make every effort to help each student develop his keyboard skills by connecting his playing with his chord knowledge. After all, whether you are playing Bach, Beethoven or the Beatles, chord progressions provide the key that opens the door to understanding what’s going on in the music.

You may be wondering what this has to do with standards like I’ve Got the World on a String. Basically, you’ll find that the music of the American Popular Songbook is richly rewarding, in part because its filled with lots of ii-V and ii-V-I chord progressions which create a colorful harmonic pallet along with wealth of musical examples. These in turn open the student up to a vast musical vocabulary. You can also be sure that this repertoire has had a significant impact on some of the more solid music of today. For example, Randy Newman’s theme from the film, Toy Story, You’ve Got a Friend in Me is a very jazzy kind of tune with a bridge that is made up of many repeated melody notes. Perhaps he was influenced by the bridge of I’ve Got the World on a String which contains a similar repeated note melody to his piece.

As I’ve mentioned before, this Harold Arlen featured composer blog post series has given me (and I hope you as well) the opportunity to look well beyond Over the Rainbow to see the variety, quality and legacy of music that this wonderful composer has contributed to our culture. Perhaps we’ll return to him in the future. However, our next featured composer will be Jerome Kern. I’ll be switching to an every other week schedule for summer blog posts, so you can look forward to hearing about Jerome Kern’s marvelous music right here starting June 8.

In the meantime, it may very well be time for you deepen your own musical connection. Whether you are an adult beginner, the parent of a high school student who wants to make a change of piano teachers, an adult piano student who wants to return to taking piano lessons after a long hiatus or the parent of a child who just got her first keyboard, taking piano lessons at one of the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s two convenient locations (Natick, MA and Hudson, MA) is the best way to for you to get started.

Our unique 2010 Summer Piano Lesson program is designed to provide you with maximum scheduling flexibility. You can schedule the number, times and dates of your lessons during July and August and still enjoy your vacation, summer camp and family as well as all of your other seasonal leisure activities.

Contact us today to find out all about taking piano lessons at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio. Our piano instructors are always delighted to help you learn to play the music you love!

Despite this fact, Harold Arlen once again created a musical masterpiece that provided a wonderful vehicle for yet another songwriter’s lyrics to transcend their theatrical context. As I have shared with you over the course of these Harold Arlen featured composer blog posts, the composer so well known for writing Over the Rainbow had a unique writing style. So it came as no surprise to me to discover that the musical score for House of Flowers was praised for its mixture of blues and calypso elements in conjunction with its dance oriented rhythms.

Speaking of dance rhythms……

Yesterday, when I was working with one of my adult piano students on how to play a jazz waltz, we discussed the importance of rhythm. Needless to say, like most piano teachers, I am a strong believer in helping students to play evenly and smoothly with a consistent tempo. However, when it comes to bringing vitality to your piano playing, counting with consistency is simply not enough. If you want to play a standard, a pop tune or a song from a Broadway show, you need to develop the ability to hear bass and drums in your head while you are playing. Mind you, I’m not suggesting that you go from being a keyboard player to becoming a one-man band. However, rhythmic energy and feeling do require some musical imagination.

So here I was yesterday, trying to communicate this concept to a conscientious and more than competent piano student who practices consistently. First of all, as part of his preparation for yesterday’s lesson, he went to YouTube and checked out several examples of Bluesette, and so he had a better idea of what I meant by a jazz waltz. But he still needed to get to the next step. In order to do this, we used the drum component on the Hudson Studio’s extra keyboard while he played our principal keyboard, the Yamaha P60 digital piano. This gave him a better sense of the direction to take. I strongly suspect that this strategy will have a significant impact on his piano playing style from now on.

Getting back to A Sleepin’ Bee; I found it interesting to read that Arlen’s musical score for House of Flowers has been identified with the calypso dance rhythm. As you have seen from both my Bossa nova blog post series and my Beguine bass blog post series, I truly enjoy playing pieces with Latin rhythms. However, there wasn’t one Latin rhythm performance of A Sleepin’ Bee among all of the versions that I found on Rhapsody Music.  No, on the contrary, pianists including Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Rowles and Hank Jones all treat this standard as a swing tune. Whether up tempo, moderate or even slower, A Sleepin’ Bee is clearly not a calypso. Nevertheless, you can hear the bass and drums accompaniment enhancing every performance.

Do you want to bring vitality to your piano playing? Then taking piano lessons at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio will bring you to your desired musical goal at just the right pace. And you’ll enjoy the learning process as well.

So whether you are an adult beginner, the parent of a high school student who wants to make a change of piano teachers, an adult piano student who wants to return to taking piano lessons after a long hiatus or the parent of a child who just got her first keyboard, taking piano lessons at one of the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s two convenient locations (Natick, MA and Hudson, MA) is the best way to for you to get started.

Our unique 2010 Summer Piano Lesson program is designed to provide you with maximum scheduling flexibility. You can schedule the number, times and dates of your lesson appointments during July and August and still enjoy your vacation, summer camp and family as well as all of your other seasonal leisure activities.

Contact us today to find out all about taking piano lessons at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio.  Our piano instructors are always delighted to help you learn to play the music you love!

Although I can’t remember the source(s), I have often read that what is most personal is most universal. I do recall (and you may have seen this too) noticing the bumper sticker a few years ago that said: “think globally, act locally”. After reading some of my blog posts that featured songs with words by Johnny Mercer, you may have noticed that this lyricist was extremely sensitive to his surroundings. Perhaps this is why he liked to take the composer’s music with him to work on in private. Like most creative artists, he had his own way of working. And boy, was it successful!  Recently, I was listening to an audio book by Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) called How the Mighty Fall. Jim spent several minutes drawing parallels for how companies can be great; then descend into the depths of near failure and finally rise up again to excellence. One of his examples is that of Sir Winston Churchill’s life and career.

It’s funny how life works, because this week’s featured selection turned out to be My Shining Hour. Read on and you’ll see what I mean. When Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote this standard in 1943, World War II was at the midway point. According to the Wikipedia article about this song, there is a theory that the title My Shining Hour as well as the opening phrase of the lyrics, “This will be my shining hour”, was inspired by Winston Churchill’s famous quote, ´This will be our finest hour.” As I mentioned above, there is an inherent relationship between the personal and the universal. As a result, it would seem that Johnny Mercer had the Churchill reference in mind when he wrote lyrics with a very personal message. Yet, you could imagine that a soldier away from home during the World War II could have certainly related to the words to this very timely standard.

My Shining Hour was written for the film, The Sky’s the Limit, and received the Academy Award nomination for Best Song. You may remember reading in my Sinatra Summer Wind blog post last June that I mentioned my mother’s uncanny ability to pick the hit songs that would be selected on the Lucky Strike Hit Parade TV show. Interestingly enough, My Shining Hour did become a hit after a long four month ascent on the charts. I wonder if my mother could have picked this one before it was recognized on that same TV show in 1944.

Despite the fact that this tune escaped my musical radar-until now, that is. My Shining Hour has clearly established itself with jazz instrumentalists and vocalists. You may have noticed how often I cite musical performances running the gamut of tempos and styles of many of the great standards. What I find a bit unusual about the sheet music editions of My Shining Hour though, is that there are differences in tempo, expression and even meter among editions. For example, 2/2 meter with a direction to perform the song in a tenderly manner is a somewhat different recommendation from that of casting the song in 4/4 meter with instructions to play it as a medium ballad. If these two seem too similar to you, what would you think about the suggested speed and style to play the song as a medium to up tempo swing?

Perhaps that’s what struck me about the tracks on my Rhapsody Music playlist. Most of them tended to be swinging vehicles for vocal and instrumental improvisations. For example, an incredible singer from the San Francisco Bay Area, by the name of Jeff Oster, captures the stylistic nuances of one of his idols Jon Hendricks. His partnership with the Peter Welker Sextet makes for a perfect match. The virtuosity of this ensemble truly parallels the excellence of this vocalist. There were several other swinging renditions among the recordings on my playlist. Among these, one by one of my favorite jazz vocalists, Betty Carter, is true to form with her interpretation of My Shining Hour.

Among the pianists, I found interesting interpretations by the trios of Tommy Flanagan (familiar to many of you as the performer of the theme song for the long-time WGBH-FM jazz program Eric in the Evening), Chad Lawson and Bruce Barth (who was one of the few to play My Shining Hour as a ballad). There was one outstanding solo piano track by the young lion Geoff Keezer (he’s 40 years old).  His recording captured my attention immediately. It displays his expertise, inventiveness and his authentic connection to musical style of the well-know American jazz musicians twice his age.

For all of you piano students and aspiring pianists, take a look at My Shining Hour. Then give some of these recordings a good listen. Before you know it, your keyboard skills will start to skyrocket. This standard is only one example of course. You may want to learn to play your favorite pop tune on the piano instead or perhaps select a song from your favorite Broadway show.

If you’re a parent, you undoubtedly know how much taking piano lessons will benefit your son or daughter in many areas of life. As a result, you’ll appreciate our Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s patient and encouraging approach to introducing your child to the joy of music making.

Whether you are an adult beginner, the parent of a high school student who wants to make a change of piano teachers, an adult piano student who wants to return to taking piano lessons after a long hiatus or the parent of a child who just got her first keyboard, taking piano lessons at one of the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s two convenient locations Natick, MA and Hudson, MA is the best way to for you to get started.

Our unique 2010 Summer Piano Lesson program is designed to provide you with maximum scheduling flexibility. You can schedule the number, times and dates of your lesson appointments during July and August and still enjoy your vacation, summer camp and family as well as all of your other seasonal leisure activities.

Contact us today to find out all about taking piano lessons at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio. Our piano instructors are always delighted to help you learn to play the music you love!