[Monday Notes no.165] Many of Gino Paoli’s songs are based on a chord sequence that is known in harmony as a turnaround. This is the case for example in Il cielo in una stanza, Sapore di sale and La gatta, probably his most famous songs. Che cosa c’è also employs the turnaround, but in a…Continue readingChe cosa c’è, Gino Paoli and the turnaround
In his Treatise on the Hexagram, the Chinese musician Wu Dao-Gong proposes the adoption of a music notation system alternative to the pentagram. The idea is very ingenious, let us see how it works.Continue readingWu Dao-Gong, Treatise on the Hexagram
Categories
Is studying piano on your own possible?
Studying piano in your spare time, with no commitments and no stress, is definitely a good idea. However, in some cases it may be a good idea to have a teacher take you. In this article I will try to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of “do-it-yourself piano,” to try to answer the question: is…Continue readingIs studying piano on your own possible?
Beyer’s Opus 101, the Bastien Method for piano study, the Musigatto and Bela Bartok’s Mikrokosmos are very popular methods for learning to play the piano. I analyzed their merits and demerits, here is what I found out by comparing the piano methods, Beyer vs Bastien vs Musigatto vs Mikrokosmos.Continue readingBeyer vs. Bastien vs. Musigatto vs. Mikrokosmos, piano methods compared
[Monday Notes no. 164] Reginella is a Neapolitan song composed in 1917 by Libero Bovio and Gaetano Lama. The song is therefore more than a hundred years old, but has not lost its charm. We analyse the interpretation of Reginella by Roberto Murolo, the greatest exponent of traditional Neapolitan song.Continue readingReginella, Roberto Murolo sings of an ended love
Categories
Comparing classical and jazz piano
The history of the piano begins long before the history of jazz. However, the jazz piano represented a real revolution, greatly expanding the limits of the instrument and bringing new impetus and new styles. Therefore, I have tried to discuss the relationship between classical piano and jazz piano. At the end of the article, I…Continue readingComparing classical and jazz piano
[Monday Notes no. 163]Nicola Arigliano was a great lover of jazz and contributed to its diffusion in Italy, already his first recordings from the 1950s have a clear jazz flavour in their arrangements and in his way of singing. Below we listen to and analyse one of his latest hits, presented at the Sanremo festival…Continue readingNicola Arigliano, guilty… of loving jazz
[Monday Notes no. 162] Franco Califano was a singer-songwriter and poet and wrote dozens of songs, often for other singers. Among those interpreted by him personally, we analyse Un tempo piccolo, a song very refined both in its lyrics and music.Continue readingFranco Califano, Un tempo piccolo. A popular poet out of the mainstream
[Monday Notes no. 39] Many songs in the jazz repertoire derive from musicals and films, and cartoons are no exception. In the 1937 cartoon, Snow White sings Someday My Prince Will Come to an audience of dwarves and forest animals.Continue readingSomeday My Prince Will Come, from Snow White to Jazz
What is the blues? The answer to this question is not as simple as it may seem, in fact the term ‘blues’ refers to many different things, all of which have to do with music, but the point of view can be very different. In this lesson we will discover different uses of the word…Continue readingThe blues: musical genre, blues scale, blues progression