What style of music is Jim Brickman? And how do you learn that from lead sheets?

[Bob]

&feature=related

&feature=related

Something like that.

What style is that?  Kind of  a plain pop piano style?  It's not jazz or it's smooth or lite jazz.


I have some lead sheets for this type of music but when I play through them with the chords written out it doesn't sound like this and how I'm playing doesn't sound right. 


So I'm wondering what style that is exactly and you learn to play that style from leadsheets.  What I'm coming up with sounds a little plain.

[mistermoe]

I think it's called "uninspired, unimaginative cliche pop on basic harmonies found in every other piece of that genre".

[Bob]

Yeah, but how do that?  There's something about it I'm missing.  I've got the melody and chords.  It must be my voicing.  And maybe the form -- I doubt what I'm looking at is just one verse and one refrain.


*Bob considers pouring some type of syrup over the music to make it more sappy.*  I need a fireplace, some hot chocolate, lots of furniture made of wood, snow outside....

[oxy60]

Check this out, it might be more to your liking and he gives lessons. I heard him live at ATL International Departures. They have a nice grand set up there right in the center of things. He put a shuffle together that was spectacular and did some show tunes. It's a wonderful way to relax while waiting. And as a fellow pianist I wasn't distracted by all the usual mistakes one normally hears from these players..

www.michaelbmusic.com

[birba]

Well, the first guy has his macho good looks going for him.  Other then that, it's pretty crappy.
The second I found quite sad.  I listened to some of those demos, and first of all, there was always this buzzing in the bass, which I assume was the bass fiddle, right?, which really made it dull.  And it all sounded like some piano background music at the corner dive.  I suppose it might go well at an airport.
I feel sort of awful saying these things - but it's all SOOOOOOO mediocre.  Like that Erika Herzog chick that was posted here recently.

[oxy60]

Those clips on Michael's web site were terrible, I agree. That out of tune bowed string bass made everything sound awful. Bob's question was about playing from lead sheets and that type of music goes perfectly in airports. Which Michael does. I hoped he put up some some of his "airport" stuff some where I hadn't looked.

Personally I don't want to be mentally caught up in a Beethoven Sonata while relaxing before a nine hour flight. People loved it and the tip jar was filling quickly.

When I next see him I'll ask him about putting up some of his "airport" stuff.

[nystul]

I'd call it a ballad.

Why don't you take a few recordings you like and try to put them to paper?  It might help get an idea of what is going on.

I think you get a lot of open voicing.  Left hand arpeggio with root, fifth, octave (but sometimes more).  Often one harmony note in the alto below the melody.  Occasional running lines shared by the hands when the melody is at the end of a phrase.  I wouldn't expect to play something off the cuff and have it sound polished.

[mistermoe]

I'd call it a ballad.

I feel, one must be careful with the use of this word in this forum...

[nystul]

I feel, one must be careful with the use of this word in this forum...

Perhaps, but it seemed a more useful classification than "unimaginative cliche pop". 

[Bob]

I see Brickman stuff is listed as "new age" on Amazon.

[birba]

New Age?!  I don't hear any new age in this stuff.  Steve Roach is a new age composer.  Boring to me, but still THAT'S new age.

[oxy60]

Hey Bob,

learning how to play this type of popular piano music is very difficult to do by yourself. Find a teacher who plays the styles you like and take a couple of lessons. It shouldn't take any more time than that to learn the tricks to play songs from lead sheets. 

Good luck and when you land a solid gig at an airport, let us know and we'll come by and put $10 in your tip jar..

[Bob]

I'm surprised there aren't more books and materials about this.  It's a hole in the literature.

[oxy60]

There are probably not enough tricks to fill a book. Once you learn a few ideas you apply them to all songs of that genre. As you play more you expand your improvising. At a certain point you close the fake book (lead sheets) and four hours of material is memorized.

The one thing a book can't teach you is how to have a total concept of how the song SHOULD sound. If you don't have that idea then your interpretation will be dull.

[Bob]

Yes, I think my interpretations are dull.  There's something I'm missing.


I checked at the library.  Brickman was listed under "new age" again.  Strange.

[pianisten1989]

I'd call it a ballad.

I'd simply call it Lame.

[pianist1976]

Typical corny pseudo-romantic work. I admit that in this style I prefer Clayderman

[Bob]

I'd simply call it Lame.

Or what people want to hear and are willing to pay for.

I just hate when someone asks me to play something or expects me to play something.  Then I start wondering/thinking if it's something I really should be able to do as a well-rounded pianist.

[birba]

But do they expect you to play this stuff?  If people ask me to play something I do the regulars: fantasie-impromptu, liebestraum, some Gershwin songbook tunes, clair de lune, etc.  I don't think they want to hear me play "new age". 

[oxy60]

Of course this is a classical piano board and I too think this stuff is just filler material.

If you are going to play popular music, it must be something in which you are REALLY interested. Those songs should mean something to you. In my case they mean nothing. There are no "special lyrics" from the past or the present that cause me to dream off.

In matter of a very short time I heard three different versions of the main song from "Fantom." Two were played live in piano lounge settings, and one was from a CD. A while back I saw the London production. If I were asked to come up with MY piano interpretation I would draw a blank. If I needed to play it I would refer to the original piano reduction and learn that.

In college I played in a piano lounge. I didn't do anything fancy. The customers sung and loved every minute. Never had to play true lounge without the singing. That was a lucky break..

These days when asked about my playing, I plug earphones into my MP3 player and let them listen to rehearsal recordings. There are never pianos around and nobody pays attention for more than a minute, tops. Then they start to talk..

I wouldn't bother to learn anything you don't love!

[birba]

Right on!  I was going to say before that life is too short to learn something YOU don't really want to learn, just to learn it for others.  When I was young (-er) I used to feel the same way.  Like I had to play some of this stuff so others would admire me.  Also, it would happen that I would hear someone do some incredible jazz arrangement, and I would think I'd like to do that too!  But it ended there.  I would never have the ambition to sit down and waste my time learning something like that.  It was only fantasizing.  I was listening to the "effect" of that music, and not the music itself.  Know what I mean?

[Bob]

The other part I like about it is being able to think about chords that way.  The jazz side has that emphasized a lot more than classical, or at least I've heard more jazz people talking about theory ideas than classical piano people I've run across.

[birba]

I've met some great jazz pianists, and I really don't think they rationally know what they're doing.  Only if they're playing with a group.  But it's like they have the chords and modulations under their fingers and it comes second-nature.  Just like playing a mozart sonata can become second nature.