Te Olvidare

[sergio]

This song was very popular in Cuba in the 50s and 60s, interpreted by various artists. It was written by a Mexican composer (Yucatan), and the music is glorious. This is my interpretation of a song I love.

 

 

 

 

[m10538]

Very nice! This is my favorite of yours that I've heard so far. Playing solo piano without accompaniment reveals how good a player really is. 👍!

[sergio]

I'm glad you noticed that I'm back to playing plain keyboard...  It's a deliberate move on my part and I'll try to explain.  And thanks so much for the feedback and comments;  they mean a lot to me.

 

I play by ear and my only music training was some guitar lessons for a year or so as an adolescent, but they taught me about chords, etc., which I transposed to the piano later (long story). But I had/have a problem with playing rhythms and always had a conflict with how to use the "left hand".  Anyway, probably none of this makes any sense, but the rhythm accompaniments on the Casio PX-780M opened up a whole world for me, and it facilitated composing and arranging songs.

 

And I learned a LOT using those tools, but I now felt a need to sharpen up my plain keyboard techniques, which I recognize are lacking but slowly improving. This particular song is great for expressing emotion, which is something I like, and with each song I learn something.

 

BTW, I'm now watching some YouTube videos to learn something about music theory, the "modes", the roman numeral depiction of scale degrees, how it all fits together, etc.....  Oh, I wish I had studied music!!!

 

So, thanks again (what's your name, if it's OK?)!

[m10538]

You're welcome Sergio. I'm not playing keyboards anymore, for various reasons. In the late 80's and 90's I played three keyboards just for fun. I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about music technically. Scales? Notation? Modes? Not a clue.

Music is a major part of the enjoyment of life for me though. That's why I'm on YouTube and here on the CMF.

If you want to refer to me by name you can use my nom de plume Zaphod Beeblebrox III. As you can tell humor is something I enjoy too. 😀

[sergio]

I like that, a sense of humor...  😁  So you play by ear as well?  Just curious...  I know that folks, including myself, don't like to share personal info in cyberspace, but I just find it interesting how different people approach music.

 

The thing about theory is that I just let myself be guided by "sounds", but I know that there's math behind it, that there's a LOT of theory that has evolved over centuries, and I'm totally ignorant of it.  It's hard to explain, but when I listen to one of my favorite pianists, Beegie Adair, I can "feel" how she can access these awesome and wonderful chords or sounds that I can only aspire to learn some day.  I feel that understanding the music theory opens up your "palette" enormously, much as I found that the rhythm accompaniment opened up windows for me.

 

Like you, I just do what I do because I love what I do.  Being able to express my emotions through a melody is what life is about for me.

 

Sergio (real name)

[sergio]

BTW, I'm only getting marginal knowledge from the videos so far, but it's early.  They tend to confuse issues (from my perspective) that may be useful for others looking for becoming a pianist or whatever...  Have to keep looking.  I still want to understand what those "modes" are all about and how they function practically.

[m10538]

I bet learning more would augment your natural talent. But, you either got talent or you don't. And your brain can only do what it can. Another interest of mine is physics. But I can only understand so much. Physics equations and music notation are meaningless hieroglyphics to me. I know they represent SOMETHING, but what?!

As far as music goes I like what sounds good to me (like your lovely piano playing). When I used to smack my Casio's I'd write down what I came up with and try to develop it. I used numbers instead of A, G...because the first thing I played was an old Magnus plastic air organ with numbered keys. I still refer to the note C as #1!😂

[sergio]

Thanks for liking my piano playing...  I'm my worst critic, so I find it lacking, but improving, and that's all that matters:  the direction.  Yours is probably an interesting story, I bet.

 

Physics is also fascinating to me, specially astrophysics, as we have learned soooooooo much about our universe in such a short time.  It's amazing!  I'm not a physicist (just regular Electrical Engineer - retired, thank God), but I have enough tech background to follow the discussions at 50,000 feet.  I'm just in awe.

 

I also don't care about notations...  In Cuba they use the "do re mi" method, so I had to translate, but I don't play thinking about sharps and flats and how many in a scale, etc.  I do think in general about "major" "minor", etc., but only generally.