You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘The Piano Guys’ tag.
One of our authors in residence just happens to by a huge bat-fan. So, a big hat tip to the Piano Guys for making Mystro’s day. :)
Ask any cellist. They’ll tell you about what’s it’s like to play the cello part of Pachebel’s Canon in D. It’s the same 8 notes over and over and over again. The good news is, it’s easy to memorize. The bad news is you don’t know when to stop. There’s a rumor floating around that says Pachelbel either died while writing it, never finishing the cello part, or that he dated a cellist and it did NOT go well. This arrangement is dedicated to all the cellists that have fallen asleep while playing this song…or at least wanted to fall asleep. Steven Sharp Nelson actually began writing this arrangment while bored at a wedding.
Ahem…all the bitter cello-malice aside, Pachelbel’s Canon in D (written in the 1600’s) has stood the test of time — celebrated as the most recognizable piece of classical music. We like to call it the “one-hit wonder of the 1600’s.” It really is an amazingly-catchy piece of music. It demonstrates the musical form of the “canon,” when a melody is played and then repeated in a round by other voices. (watch how the melodies are passed from one cello to the next — right to left)
ALL THE SOUNDS YOU HEAR WERE CREATED BY THE CELLO — bowing, plucking, strumming, and beating the cello any way possible.
The bane of many musicians gets the Piano Guys tender treatment. Enjoy. :)
Story behind the song:
There are few “hooks” in the movie-music world that are as grabby as the Bourne Identity Soundtrack riff (starts at 0:29). Like the movie series, its intensity commands attention. We just had to figure out a way to use it. In our usual style, we thought we’d create an “action movie soundtrack” that combined this and a piece of classical music. In the early 1700’s Antonio Vivaldi wrote a concerto for an instrument that was then largely “undiscovered” by the music world — the cello. Among the first cello solo pieces ever written, Vivaldi was gutsy enough to write it for not only one, but TWO solo cellos and string orchestra. With no “action movies” in the 1700’s, this piece was probably the closest you could get to one. It has intense and exciting moments between beautiful lyrical moments. It was this piece, among others, that got Steven (the cello guy) excited about classical music—it was one of the first pieces he played with orchestra.
90% of this tune was written in 3 days. We worked on it day and night because it was so enjoyable to write.
Skydiving with a cello = Awesome.
“Happy Together” is a 1967 song from The Turtles‘ album of the same name. Released in February 1967, the song knocked The Beatles‘ “Penny Lane” out of the #1 slot for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] It was the group’s only chart-topper. “Happy Together” reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1967.[2] The song was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, former members of a band known as The Magicians.[1] The song had been rejected a dozen times before it was offered to The Turtles, and the demo acetate was worn out.[3]
The Turtles performing “Happy Together”, on The Ed Sullivan Show, May 14, 1967.
The song is in chromatic-minor.[4]
It has been a long winter here in Canada. Not particularly cold, but the washed out monotones of the season begun to wear on even the most sturdy of us by March. The answer, the magic tonic, is great music, great musicians and verdantly great scenery from Hawaii, no less!
Often here at DWR CMI Fridays we see the classics being performed by serious musicians doing serious things and it is majestic and wonderful, but it’s not all there is. Far from it. Steven Sharp Nelson, a cellist and member of the Piano Guys represents, for me, what being a musician is all about. He is living completely in the moment, through his 10,000+ hours of practice he allows himself to be; simply – just there, a conduit for the music he creates. The energy and emotion expressed is amazing, you can take a small part of his quiet mastery and bring it inside yourself and let the music, the joy of creating, the joy of sharing encompasses you.
This video should be a part of every music curriculum. It lends inspiration, hope and wonder. Keep in mind this is a youth orchestra backing him up, 13 – 18 years old, making and contributing to brilliant music. If they can do it, so can we.
Don’t only practice your art,
But force your way into its secrets,
For it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.
-Ludwig Van Beethoven
*There are 5 motifs from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in this piece, can you parse them out?*
Silly. Oh so silly.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…