When one of my students is ready for a change of rhythm, I often introduce the beguine. As soon as I play the rhythmic accompaniment for her, she’s hooked.

As I discovered long ago with my own musical development, becoming comfortable with a new accompaniment style is not always easy to learn. Perhaps this is why I teach the way I do. It’s also why I am so passionate about guiding the Ed Mascari Piano Studio faculty members in the use of my teaching method. By finding ways to simplify the skill of playing songs on the piano, we focus on helping each student learn how to make use of a particular accompaniment style.

Enter the first of our two featured selections, I Love Paris…..

As soon as I introduce a student to the elements of the beguine bass, I then show him how to play Cole Porter’s I Love Paris with the beguine bass accompaniment. Because the melody of this standard is short and rhythmically simple, it provides an excellent contrast for the syncopated rhythm of the accompaniment.

My students get an additional benefit from beginning their beguine with I Love Paris. There is thematic unity between the two sections of this piece. This makes it easier to learn. However, there is something else which provides the song’s colorful contrast. Cole Porter takes advantage of the differences between the key of C minor and its parallel major, C Major.

Not only does the listener get to hear the melody played in the happy sounding key of C major, she also can hear its character change when the melody and associated chords come from the parallel somber sounding key of c minor.  Basically, using of this idea of alternating between the minor and major keys, the pianist can take advantage of the fact that the letter names (and thus the hand position) are the same for both the minor key and its parallel major. Notice that it’s only the change in accidentals (flats) that is needed to create this contrast between the first half and second half of I Love Paris.

You can see this contrast in Example No. 1 in C minor, (Listen)

and then in Example No. 2 in C major… (Listen)

The Summer Knows is another great song that makes excellent use of the minor key and its parallel major key. You can hear my recording of this piece as well as read what I said about this concept in my Summer Knows blog post.

When I found out that Cole Porter composed I Love Paris in 1953, it really caught me by surprise since it had been a quarter of a century since the composer had decided to return to Broadway where his music finally met with success in America. He had immigrated to Paris after the failure of his first Broadway production in 1916. In addition to earning a living as a successful song writer, Porter’s years in Paris also included his marriage to Linda Lee Thomas, his European travels as well as a great deal of socializing. Among the highlights was the opportunity to show Richard Rodgers several of his songs.

Perhaps it was for the same reasons that Cole Porter’s music made an impression on Richard Rodgers, that I became drawn to many of his songs. I can’t even begin to remember when I started playing I Love Paris in a medley with I’ve Got You Under My Skin. But once I began my beguine, I ended up putting many of Cole Porter’s songs together in medleys.

A word about the term medley…

Something that I had to learn when I first started playing G.B. gigs was how to link songs together. Often when I suggest to a student that she put two songs together by having one segue immediately into the other song, she seems bewildered.

I guess that since being able to play songs in medleys is a job requirement for the professional pianist, I’m always looking for opportunities to link songs together. However, I need to constantly remind myself that finding the common ground between two or more songs and playing them in a medley is a new idea for many piano students.

Ironically, when I automatically followed I Love Paris with I’ve Got You Under My Skin, the Cole Porter song segue evolved naturally because I was using the beguine rhythm that I began after hearing Jimmy Lyon play Begin the Beguine.

When you listen to my recording of the I Love Paris / I’ve Got You Under My Skin medley, think about other possible songs that you could put together in medleys.

You may need some help in this area. Perhaps you would like to organize the music from your favorite Broadway show into a medley. As an alternative, you may want to create a set of songs by a single composer. Whatever help you need with your piano playing, remember….

The Ed  Mascari Piano Studio instructors will be delighted to help you Learn to Play the Music You Love!