Posted on 08/13/2012 11:46:54 AM PDT by Absolutely Nobama
Also solo (or nearly solo) piano -- Ludovico Einaudi, Jennifer Haines, Phillip Wesley, etc., etc.
The Russians also did well with Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto (and I was enjoying Van Cliburn's great recordings of them for at least ten years, courtesy of my mother, before I read The Fountainhead...).
Can't get into Rachmaninoff's Liturgy, though -- I enjoy about five minutes of it at a sitting, then start looking for something else.
Cello -- Pablo Casals, Jacqueline Du Pre, even Wispelwey when I've had a couple of drinks...
"Modern" stuff, from the sixties -- Ian and Sylvia, We Five, early Jefferson Airplane, also Van Morrison.
Some "older" (a decade or four, or more) country -- Highway 101, Patsy Cline, Hank (Sr.), Ray Price, Tom T. Hall.
Bluegrass -- lots of it, old and new. My Alison Krauss and Union Station playlist is about five hours long, and I have a lot of the Rice brothers and really old Bluegrass.
Unclassifiable -- I have everything Townes Van Zandt recorded, and all the [original] Clandestine CDs (a Texas Celtic group). I love the Quebe Sisters, and Mrs. U and I drive quite a ways to hear them sometimes. Raul Malo is another contemporary favorite (really great live).
Gipsy Kings -- have all their CDs, and caught them live at Austin City Limits' new venue a while back.
20GB of music on my 32GB iPhone -- I'm always having to find something to do without for a few months to make room for new acquisitions...
Forgot Kate Bush (have all her CDs), Vonda Shepard, Amanda Marshall, Petula Clark, and Buddy Holly — There’s just so much good music out there that I feel sorry for folks who get stuck in one or two genres.
I had to learn another lesson first the hard way LOL. I can tell you a few things I learned. When you have a guitar even a new one take it to someone who works on them and let them check it. Starting out have them set it up for Light Gauge Strings. Start out on an acoustic though. You can pick up a good used beginner guitar for about $100 at a music store. I only payed about $200 for the 12 string used. The neck and frets and how the strings themselves are sitting in relation to both are very important. So is how your hand fits to the neck.
I had an old Harmony six string my dad got me when I was about 12. I tried and tried to learn to play it but could not get it. I lugged the darn thing half way around the world literally LOL. It did two Med Sea deployments.
My first wife had uncles up near Roanoke, VA who were musicians. They couldn't play it but didn't really explain why. Finally a few years later I borrowed one from my cousin that had been set up correctly. Within a couple of months I had a few songs playable. Within a couple of years I had about 20 something chords down. That's more than anybody needs to play and enjoy playing. Lot's of players even lots of popular ones don't go above the third fret usually.
I can pick it up at anytime and play. I've gone several months without playing. Within a few minutes the fingers are working a few days I'm back to where I was before. I don't use a pick. I started out using only my thumb to pick with and could do so real fast. Generally I use my thumb, index, and middle finger. That's plenty to keep up with. I play by ear and don't read music.
If you want to play a guitar and get the basics fairly fast buy what is called an easy play book of a group you like and and songs you know. It should have the chords drawn out. If you learn C, C7, F, G, G7, D, & D7, that makes most songs possible to play. They are the simplest also. But don't let very hard chords throw you off. You can change the key {starting chord} and play in a different key that is easier to do. Any song can be played in any key all you are doing is changing the chords that you use.
I tune my guitars two frets below standard. To explain it as simple as I can standard would mean if you played the chord C on the guitar and a piano player played C chord from middle C they should match and be in the same key. But tuning two frets lower is a lot easier on the fingers and the guitar as well especially if you don't play often.
When I play with other people and they are tuned standard I put the Capo on the second fret. A Capo is a clasp that holds all six strings to the neck. It's a fast easy way to change pitch without retuning.
I was looking through my music collection and the only thing the music has in common is strong melody lines. It might be due to me being partially tone-deaf. I’m afraid the finer nuances of music expression are lost on me.
Classics, FRiend! Just thinking of them has me back on my Steve Caballero Powell Peralta skateboard (with Independent trucks and Hosoi Rocket wheels)!
Life was certainly easier when I was a kid!!
“20GB of music on my 32GB iPhone — I’m always having to find something to do without for a few months to make room for new acquisitions...”
My wife is the same way. I call her phone the “World’s Most Expensive Walkman”. (She had to have the first iPhone. “Matter of life and death” as she put it.)
:)
“I play by ear and don’t read music.”
A lot of musicians can’t. East Bay Ray of the Dead Kennedys couldn’t, if I’m not mistaken. (Since you’re not a punk rock fan, he’s like the Jimi Hendrix of punk rock. A great, great bass player.)
“I’m afraid the finer nuances of music expression are lost on me.”
One of my all time favorite musicians is Sid Vicious. The same could be said about me, I suppose.
LOL!
I wonder if there is enough interest for a classical music section on FreeRepublic. I’ve found some terrific bargains over the years and people could also discuss equipment, etc.
That’s okay. I have a tin ear and couldn’t carry a tune with a fork lift.
But I do love to sing along when no one’s listening, and even I can hear when my notes are sour but can’t seem to be able to correct them.
Any and all types of music please me to no end, and I so admire anyone who can sing on key. Sigh...
And now for something completely different, Jeff Driskel got hurt in practice today. Hurt his shoulder in contact drills.
I’m hearing it’s not serious, and he should be back at practice tomorrow.
“But I do love to sing along when no one’s listening....”
Me too, in front of a mirror. What can I say ? I haven’t grown up, I never will, and I don’t care to. Been a legal adult for quite a while now.....can’t say I care for it much.
:)
Thanks! Good stuff!
Oh, you must be pretty easy on the eyes, too! [smiles] ;-)
I’ve gone back to listening to stuff I heard years ago...
listen to this guy play the guitar...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tWyIug2qP0
I always liked this one my mom had when I was a kid
Kay Starr Bonaparte’s Retreat
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJg5SjJa4TVQ&v=Jg5SjJa4TVQ&gl=US
The tune was featured in Ziegfeld Follies of 1909. Billy Murray, one of the biggest recording stars of the time had a smash hit with the song in the spring of 1910. You can hear it here.
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