View post (My New Piano Playing Friend)

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u10ajf
Registered User
Joined: 10/31/01
Posts: 611
u10ajf
Registered User
Joined: 10/31/01
Posts: 611
03/04/2003 10:41 pm
Piano's a wonderful instrument. I especially love stuff like Rachmaninov and Chopin. I regard there being an axis on which instruments lie, on the one hand is the violin which, having no premade notes and requiring both hands to produce the tone (bow as much as fretting hand)is exquisitely expressive but it's hard to play multiple notes or to do so independently. At the other extreme is the piano where notes are premade (you just have to press the keys) but has a many notes immediately available and tremendous potential for separation of melodic parts.
In between lies the electric guitar. Guitar's a great instrument, not only are our notes premade but there's plenty of scope to manipulate them too ,wah, volume control, bends, whammy bar even e-bow if you want it.
Yet there are people out there who can sound like pianists, have you heard of Stanley Baxter? He's a jazz guitar/ex pianist, he taps out big chords and all sorts of crazy stuff, he used to be a pianist.
If I couldn't laugh at myself how could I laugh at someone less ridiculous?