Ed Mascari

Conversations at the Piano

During my final year at Holy Cross College, my deepest desire had been to perform full-time as a jazz musician. However, due to my need to make a living, I pursued what I then thought was my secondary career, that of working as a music teacher. In order to continue performing with the Ed Mascari Jazz Quartet as well as hosting my jazz radio show on WICN-FM (both based in Worcester near the college), I accepted a teaching position at Clinton Jr. Sr. High School. Little did I know at the time that I would later establish the Ed Mascari Piano Studio’s Hudson Studio location just a few miles away from there.

Interestingly enough, it was during my first month as a brand new teacher, that the music of the Charlie Brown television programs became the way that the junior high school students related to my jazz piano playing. During those days, jazz education was in its infancy and there was little interest on the part of students for this style of music. However, when I played Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man on the piano these young people immediately and enthusiastically responded “That’s Charlie Brown music.”

Since teaching General Music to 7^th and 8^th grade students was clearly not my calling, I transitioned into full-time performing and touring with groups that included among others, jazz guitarist John Dougherty, Stevie Wonder’s former drummer Keith Copeland and vocalist Rebecca Parris (who actually introduced me to my wife Brenda). In fact, it was through my step-son, Kevin, that I re-encountered Charlie Brown a few years later when he used the Peanuts characters as models for his artistic development.

Other than the song Linus and Lucy, Christmas Time Is Here is probably one of the most recognizable songs that Vince Guaraldi composed for the Charlie Brown shows. I truly enjoyed preparing and playing this tune for the recording I did to go with today’s blog post. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the composer makes such great use of the motive (short-short-long-short-long) by repeating it so often that you can’t help but keep hearing “Christmas Time is here” in your head over and over.

It just occurred to me that Christmas Time Is Here this is actually a sarabande. This musical form was usually one of the movements of a Baroque Suite (there are plenty of examples that you can find in the music of Bach and Handel which actually bear the title of Sarabande). Although I suspect that Vince Guaraldi must have used this musical form intuitively (rather than thinking about it consciously) when he composed this song, its sensitive mood and waltz meter (3/4 time) certainly fit the form and capture the character.

Another reason that I found Christmas Time Is Here so enjoyable to play is that its harmonies are so rich: (there are several “jazz” chords that include the upper structure tones: 9^th, #11^th and 13^th. Besides that, there are chord progressions that descend chromatically (by half steps). These are the types of things I use to modify standard songs when I am working with my adult piano students. This song has them built right in!

So often in my efforts to help students learn to play music from the American Popular Songbook, I make changes to the chords that are shown above the melody in Fake Books and other sheet music. Not only is my goal to help pianists learn to play music they love with skill, smoothness and self-confidence, but I also want to help them understand how music works.

In the case of Christmas Time Is Here, Vince Guaraldi has provided piano students as well as professional musicians and listeners with a rich palate of harmonic color and a musical form that connects with centuries of music history. All of this in a familiar song that children of all ages so easily recognize. Wow! What a contribution!

Well, Christmas time is actually here. Before I sign off I would just like to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and wonderful holiday season. After all of the festivities have finished, it may be just the right time to plan to go after your long-desired goal to learn how to play the piano. January is a great time for you to get started with your piano lessons.

Whether you live near our centrally located Natick Studio or close to our convenient Hudson Piano Studio location, take 20 seconds now to contact us today. All of the piano instructors at the Ed Mascari Piano Studio are knowledgeable, patient, encouraging and always delighted to help you or your son or daughter Learn to Play the Music You Love!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 am and is filed under christmas, keyboard, music theory, piano lessons, piano playing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.