When I was a student at Stepinac High School in White Plains, NY, my exposure to music increased tremendously due to my participation in the Glee Club. What a wonderful way for your sons and daughters to enjoy the thrill of performing some terrific material as part of their educational experience! Some people (you may be one of them) continue choral singing in college and then later in life as a member of a church choir and/or a community chorus. The great thing is that the process of performing pieces of music requires a deeper relationship with the details of the material.
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!
