I Get a Kick Out of You
When I was 30 I had come to a point of crisis in my career. I had already been teaching piano for a couple of years, but I knew that I needed more knowledge. At the same time, I was performing 3 to 6 nights per week as the keyboard player and leader of my commercial trio, Synergy. Although we had started the group for the purpose of playing my original jazz compositions, the need to make a living required us to think much more pragmatically.
As a husband and step-father to three young boys, I was concerned about providing for my family. Nevertheless, it was clear to me that somehow I had to persevere in my career path as both a private piano teacher and a professional pianist. Since I had to make some major changes to manage this somewhat ambitious goal, I consulted my closest friend, jazz guitarist John Dougherty. Previously, John and I had spent a year working together in his quartet which traveled from gig to gig along the East Coast. Since he had always shared his musical knowledge, training and experience with me, I trusted his recommendation.
What did my friend think I should do? You guessed it……..Take piano lessons!
A big part of my philosophy about teaching piano came as a result of following this sound advice. Rather then send me to a concert pianist, John recommended a rather unusual teacher who provided me with a high level of diversified musical training that included classical piano technique and literature, piano pedagogy, church music, jazz composition, music theory, ear training and of course solo jazz piano playing. The great part of all this was that I was able to develop my skills and knowledge in these areas as a result of taking a private music lesson once a week. My piano instructor was a professor from New England Conservatory by the name of Joseph Gabriel Maneri. Despite the fact that he was a jazz saxophonist and a classical composer, Joe had spent many years studying piano, music theory and composition in preparation for his own professional career.
Due to the fact that my wife Brenda was working full-time, I was able take advantage of Joe Maneri’s incredible training by practicing several hours per day. One very important part of my studies focused on learning to play solo piano versions of standards from the American Popular Songbook. Among the many pieces that I explored was Cole Porter’s I Get a Kick Out of You.
As we move forward in this new year I want to devote more of my blog posts to the music of this great American song writer. Recently I was listening to an audio program called Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham. The author caught my undivided attention when he cited Cole Porter as an excellent example of someone who had not only discovered his strengths, but as an individual who had used his strengths to overshadow his weaknesses.
According to Buckingham, Cole Porter’s characters and plots were weak. However, he used his strength as a song writer to not only eclipse his weaknesses, but also to make an outstanding contribution to the repertoire of American popular songs.
Wondering how much truth there was to the author’s viewpoint, I discussed this assessment with one of my Hudson piano students.
As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, I continue to learn a great deal from my students. Since this adult student is a vocalist, teacher and actress as well as an experienced director of musical theater productions, I was confident that she would be be able to tell me whether or not there was any truth to Marcus Buckingham’s hypothesis. Sure enough, she validated the author’s point of view for me.
Cole Porter composed I Get a Kick Out of You in 1934 for what has been identified as one of his best Broadway scores, Anything Goes. As I mentioned in my blog post that featured, Night and Day, Cole Porter was far from being an overnight success. How could he be? Unlike most of his fellow songwriters, he did not collaborate with a variety of lyricists. Instead, like Irving Berlin before him, Porter wrote both the music and words to his 800 songs.
On one hand, he was not required to compose his songs according to the standard formats used by his peers. But on the other, he did not have the advantage of working with a musical collaborator.
Despite that fact, in order to communicate his lyrics more expressively, Porter adds variations to the structure, melody, harmony and/or rhythm in many of his songs. I Get a Kick Out of You is no exception to this. The half-note triplets that are a major part of each of the three verses increase in number as the song progresses: verse 1 – 5 triplets; verse 2 – 6 triplets; verse 3 – 7 triplets. In addition to associating this great standard with my lessons with Joe Maneri, I also recall how Frank Sinatra’s arrangers emphasized the word kick in their accompaniments of his swinging vocals. The bass drum kick recurs several times during the recording because each verse ends with the phrase “I get a kick out of you”. Do you think the composer planned that ahead of time?
Last fall, when I recorded I’ve Got You Under My Skin for my beguine blog post series, Sinatra’s definitive version of this other Cole Porter standard came to mind because of a similar connection between a word and the music. In fact, this seems to have been intentional on the composer’s part. Following the words, “But each time I do, just the thought of you makes me stop” there is an 8th rest.. How many songwriting teams could have so perfectly interwoven melody and lyric?
During the next few weeks, I’ll share more of my solo piano recordings of Cole Porter songs as this blog series continues. As with I Get a Kick Out of You, some of them will remind me of personal experiences that I’ve had along my musical journey. Perhaps you associate one of Cole Porter’s songs with something that happened in your own life? Please do share this with your fellow readers. Simply leave your reply in the comment box below this post.
With the first week of the New Year behind us, we’re beginning to move forward into 2010. If you’re getting anxious to achieve your long-awaited goal of learning to play the piano or if your son or daughter has been asking about taking piano lessons, now is the perfect time to act! Simply contact us today and we’ll help you figure out if taking piano lessons is right for you.
Nervous? Not to worry. Our piano instructors are patient and encouraging, our studio atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable. And more than anything else, when it comes to your piano lessons, we’re always delighted to help you Learn to Play the Music You Love!
January 12th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
This song is used often in movies, to establish a time period as well as to add a touch of class. I just heard it again this past weekend in the background track of “Random Harvest” (with Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, one of those good old movies).