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Silent, Silent Night

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks & Talk' started by Mike Verta, Nov 6, 2018.

  1. #1 Mike Verta, Nov 6, 2018
    Tell a story.

     
    Roger Pearson, Jason Watts, Mike Worth and 9 others like this.
  2. #2 Patrick McClanahan, Nov 7, 2018
    Very nice.
     
  3. #3 Eduardo Lopez, Nov 7, 2018
    Is this a teaser for ALL THAT JAZZ 2?!?! :eek::cool:
     
  4. #4 Mike Verta, Nov 7, 2018
    Actually I hope you notice that the chords are really quite simple, written as simply as they can be!
     
    Eduardo Lopez likes this.
  5. #5 Paul T McGraw, Nov 7, 2018
    Mike, that was marvelous! I enjoyed the performance tremendously. The concept for the video of just showing the chords was brilliant and memorable. You hit a home run with this one in my opinion. I loved it!
     
    Rohann van Rensburg and Bradley Boone like this.
  6. #6 Tino Danielzik, Nov 7, 2018
    Like with your "Jingle Bells" video I immediately started to transcribe it and you are right, the chords are quite simple and it never gets totally crazy but stays beautiful and interesting. But for me the hardest part to understand is the voicing. The melody doesn't really change, sometimes it jumps between octaves, but the voicing of the chords and the accompaniment is the real meat here and still hard for me to decrypt during transcription, the choices you made to voice a chord or a phrase in a certain way is what keeps me awake at night.
     
  7. #7 Mike Verta, Nov 7, 2018
    When you play Jazz piano accompaniment, you don't play the bass - in fact you stay away from there so the bass player has full freedom - and you don't play the melody (usually); the lead/soloist does - you stay away from them, too. Instead, both hands work together to play chords, and they don't layer or mirror each other directly, they cooperatively take various chord tones as appropriate. And when they move, they move with minimal motion and efficiency. This is a voicing language and style of playing, and if you do it/study it, my voicings become instantly intuitive and easy to mimic - John Williams', too, and for the same reason. Jazz piano players learn to voice a certain way, and this part of why I'm constantly saying "put it under your fingers," because that's the only way to learn this approach.
     
    Eduardo Lopez, Tino Danielzik and Jure Jerebic like this.
  8. #8 Sylvain Provenzano, Nov 7, 2018
    Thanks Mike, really good video. Adding the voicing on a staff as block chords would have made it perfect.
     
  9. #9 Samuel Diaz, Nov 7, 2018
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2018
    Love this @Mike Verta!! I always enjoy your unique take on melodies and how you revoice them. Random, but I've been on a David Foster kick lately and I've noticed a lot of similarities in the way you both voice certain chords. Has he or his music ever been an influence on you as well?

    -Sam
     
  10. #10 Mike Verta, Nov 7, 2018
    Not consciously, but I grew up in the 80's and played a lot of pop stuff, including his. For sure there's a lot of 80's in my voicings, which mostly means a lot of sus and add2's :)
     
    John Eldridge, Mike Worth, Rohann van Rensburg and 1 other person like this.
  11. #11 Mattia Chiappa, Dec 15, 2018
    John Eldridge likes this.
  12. #12 Francesco Bortolussi, Dec 22, 2018
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2018
    I forgot there was a thread about this specific song! I've made an attempt at the same piece today, I'll share it here:


    Tried to make it as dissonant as possible, really stretching it as much as I can :D
     

    Attached Files:

    Craig Dukerschein, Mattia Chiappa, Rohann van Rensburg and 1 other person like this.
  13. #13 Craig Dukerschein, Dec 23, 2018
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2018
  14. #14 Sylvain Provenzano, Jun 24, 2019
    Here is my transcript of the first minute of the piece. I did my best but from measure 27, it's very difficult to hear what's really going on. Feedback would be very appreciated.

    Silent Silent Night.png
     
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