My contribution to the Showoff section:

[Enigma™]

To fill in - I've been working on a new CD with my band, and I just finished this keyboard solo as a part of it. It's actually a piano solo, but I wanted to get a few opinions on it. It's very short, it's meant to be an 8 bar tradeoff type solo with the guitar, and the guitar just finished.
We're not actually done the song, the vocals and guitar tracks need to be completely re-done however... The keyboard parts are done and this is just a little snippit of the song ;)

Hope you enjoy.

http://www.matrixscreensaver.150m.com/files/laughsolo.mp3

[merijn]

Hey Dave, thaw was great! That is ALOT JR inspiration there!

[Alucard]

Really catchy!

[ktriton]

Great stuff! Those are some great chops, too :)

I'd have to hear the whole thing, but just hearing this clip it seems like 0:24-0:26 was kind of a cop-out. You do the repetition thing early on and it works great, but you sort of become static in the middle of a dynamic section. My two cents are: try having motion up to that last run up instead of that repetition.

P.S. Another random idea is to do a slide instead of doing the trill at the end. Although that's just a minor thing lol Either way your solo sounds great!

[Ael]

Sounds good, I would only suggest that those double note thigns you do - do them once, either save them for the end, or the just use in the beginning and use another "technique" or approach for the other part of the solo (I think I mean those fourth sections, im pretty sure those are fourths).

[ffox]

that was awesome! how did you do the fast run in 0.15 - 0.19. It's crazy!

well done

[Liquid Shadow]

I'd have to hear the whole thing, but just hearing this clip it seems like 0:24-0:26 was kind of a cop-out.



That's the only part I didn't like all that much...the rest was great. Miles ahead of what I could ever do with that type of piano playing.

[ffox]

That's the only part I didn't like all that much...the rest was great. Miles ahead of what I could ever do with that type of piano playing.

Definitely. It's good inspiration.

Cheers.

[Talantante]

very cool !

[ZuL]

Very good technique!!

lol, sounded good on the ears and very inspiring! great playing!!!

i think at the 0:29 portion onwards....the guitar will join in again?? just my assumption

but if it isn't suppose to be......it's a good suggestion tho.. ;)

[Enigma™]

After really taking a listen, I agree that the 3/4 2 1 section mentioned is kinda... weak. Actually it's REALLY weak, but I was thinking "how can I wind this down without it sounding weak" lol
I'm totally open to suggestions - if anyone even wanted to go as far as to write a bar that would fit better, be my guest. I'll play it :)
I'm just trying to find something a little bit better.
Here's by biggest issue: Single notes in the mix sound really thin and weak compared to the rest of the solo... I want to avoid playing single notes if possible which is why I did what I did there as well.

Oh, and that fast run mentioned is actually VERY simple. It's basically a 2 handed run where I play A3 A3 A4 for example. My RH does the last 2 - A3 and A4, but my LH does the first A3 note. LH RH RH in triplet fashion. Simple, effective and sounds REALLY FAST lol ;)

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! Keep it up!

[synthz]

Very nice lead Enigma.. it's very melodic.. and i didn't hear the middle messy part you mentioned..

Very nice piano patch from the Extreme!

[Enigma™]

Very nice lead Enigma.. it's very melodic.. and i didn't hear the middle messy part you mentioned..

Very nice piano patch from the Extreme!

Nice try, but no. It was a piano patch from the Piano rom in the Kurzweil 2500X... I don't have an Extreme. I DO have a Triton LE however ;)

[Georges]

I actually think that the solo is quite good playing and nice to hear.

If you insist nonetheless on a point for improvement: try to play less, that is make the solo shorter (half the length); maybe cut away those octave interval runs, for they do not really fit in. However, while making the solo shorter, try to get out more of the comping section which follows the solo. Add ghost notes, rolls and other "decorations" to the comping section, otherwise that would be like cutting away the climax right after having it built up - so give the climax more time to release instead.

N.B.: I like to think of a solo as being a song in itself, having an intro, a verse/bridge, a chorus (the chorus being close to the song's theme) and an outro. With that in mind, writing solos should be easier to structure...

[ZuL]

here's me with another newbie question.....

what are ghost notes actually?

[lighthouse]

Nice work Dave!

Juan Pablo

[ktriton]

here's me with another newbie question.....

what are ghost notes actually?

They're kind of hard to describe, but the best way to explain it is that they're notes that are felt, but not heard. They're played light enough that you know they're there, but not consciously heard. Does that make sense?

[ZuL]

They're kind of hard to describe, but the best way to explain it is that they're notes that are felt, but not heard. They're played light enough that you know they're there, but not consciously heard. Does that make sense?


so is it the same as playing these notes in pp?

[Georges]

Ghost notes can be heard but it may be either very short or low volume, depending on their use. They may have many functions:

- as an ornament, in which case they are played very fast in to flow over to the next chord/note, etc. => e.g. Rootbeer Rag by Billy Joel; in this case, the notes will be heard
- as a help to orient yourself on the piano or within the rhythm pattern => check out "Memphis Stomp" by Dave Grusin (The Firm); in that case, it can almost only be felt, not really heard
etc.

Side-slipping is a technique in blues which makes uses of ghost notes as a means to play the blue note - Jordan calls it the way to bend pitch on the piano.

Ghost notes are shown in parentheses normally, traditional pitch bending transcription also makes use of parentheses, which shows the link between the two.

The most common "decoration" in a solo or a comping part such as the one by Dave are rolls though.

[ktriton]

Hah! Georges, you're right on, but I don't know if Zul will get all that.

so is it the same as playing these notes in pp?

Yeah, kind of. But whereas pp is a dynamic level for a melody, this is only a note or a few. It's like if you were playing a really fast melody and some notes were pp in between mf/f/etc notes. Like Georges posted, if you're familliar with written music they're usually smaller than the normal notes and are in parenthesis right before a normal note.

[ZuL]

alrite thanks alot!! now i know what those small notes in scores are....lol sorry guys, i have no training in piano whatsoever...struggling to learn on my own tho.....lol

[Semmi78]

Very cool piece of pianowork. Still I don't get used to that Kurz pianosound...

[Axe2Grind]

I really enjoyed this (shame it was just a snipet)...excellent piano playing and look forward to hearing some full songs from this CD...:)

[Limited]

This was killer! Nice work. :)

[Phred]

Wow - great job... Will try the ascending technique...

[Taurus]

Enigma. You're are really doing a good job with this. I not only listened to -what- you play but also noticed how perfect you play it in timing. Great man.

[wicke]

well.. quite cool :)

very much Rudess style.. great technique there :)