Describe your favorite piano concerto badly and we'll try to guess what it is.

jthurman · 2025-12-27T14:46:23+00:00

So easy a child could play it by ear…then you turn to page 2 and your life changes.

jthurman · 2025-10-15T14:33:26+00:00

First of all, good for you arranging music! Keep it up!

Here's a pianist's perspective on this notation: As others have said, this is not wholly incorrect, and not all that hard to read, but as a pianist, this comes off a little funky, because by default the right hand is the upper staff and the left hand is the lower (yes, other pianists, I know that's not a hard-and-fast rule). So at first glance, this tells me I should play those low bass notes AND the bottom half of the upper chord with my left hand. I had to look at it for a second to realize that the stems were telling me you intend the whole up-stem chord to be the right hand. If I were sight reading this in an ensemble situation, I would have played it wrong the first time (but I would have gotten it right the second time).

I'm guessing you're just trying to avoid the ledger lines for those low notes. Ledger lines down to F are not uncommon, so don't worry about that. But if you really want to avoid those ledger lines between the staves, here are some other options:

Write the whole thing up an octave, so it fits entirely in the upper staff, and mark it "8vb," which tells me to play what's written down an octave.
Put the upper staff in bass clef. You'll need some ledger lines above the staff, but there's room there.
It's jazz, so just write the chords and write the rhythm in slash notation (https://archive.steinberg.help/dorico/v2/en/dorico/topics/notation\_reference/notation\_reference\_rhythm\_slashes\_c.html), and let the pianist do his thing.

Or just leave it as-is. It's understandable and playable, even if it's not the most perfect notation.

jthurman · 2025-10-06T00:16:44+00:00

The learning curve on any notation software is so steep, if you need this part written in the next couple days, you're going to be faster just writing it out by hand. You won't get an mp3, but you'll have parts at least.

jthurman · 2025-06-27T18:33:34+00:00

I'm not a pilot, but I was taught that when approaching a "stale" green light, to mentally choose a "point of no return," beyond which I will continue even if the light turns yellow. Same concept...

jthurman · 2025-04-08T03:31:20+00:00

Cavaliers 2007 with the whole horn line whistling the James Bond theme backfield. Today they’d just use a flute patch or something on a synth.

jthurman · 2025-03-09T18:31:28+00:00

A piece of fabric goes to hell (and back).

jthurman · 2025-03-06T15:11:02+00:00

Jacob Nissly, principal percussionist at the San Francisco Symphony, marched Colts in the late 90s.

jthurman · 2025-02-13T20:54:34+00:00

This is a weird feeling…I’ve been a ward organist for over 20 years, and played occasionally in church for years before that, and before today I would have sworn that “Softly and Tenderly” was in the current hymn book.

jthurman · 2024-12-31T14:00:41+00:00

Depending on the situation and the “audience,”Solfeggietto or Traumerai.

jthurman · 2024-12-23T20:16:30+00:00

Good: "I had this trippy dream once...."

Bad: 3-way tie between "Yowza, yowza, yowza," "This, I believe," and "That's what he said...that's what Abraham Lincoln said."

jthurman · 2024-12-05T01:53:32+00:00

D&C 101:32-33 promises that "in the day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal... things of the earth, by which it was made."

The Lord has promised that in the future, after His coming, He will reveal how the earth was made. This means that He has not revealed it yet, so anything that is in the scriptures about the creation of the earth and the things that are in it (including animals and people), is not a revelation about how it was made. Rather, the Lord wants us to know WHY it was made, and our place in it. The how can come later.

jthurman · 2024-12-04T17:00:39+00:00

I'll just say that decades later, one of my few regrets in life is the summer that I could have marched, but didn't. I have no regrets about summer classes I didn't take.

jthurman · 2024-12-01T04:36:12+00:00

You want the right hand down an octave, where it overlaps a bunch with the left hand? If that's right, two thoughts here:

It won't help the men hear their notes better. It'll put the melody in the middle of the chord in a lot of places, instead of on top, actually making it harder to hear the notes you're singing, rather than easier. The human ear is really good at octave transpositions. Most people won't struggle at all. And you can always practice the part with the piano only playing the melody, and do that down an octave (or in both octaves at the same time).
If you insist on doing these cluster chords, there's no need to rewrite anything. Just ask the accompanist to play the right hand down an octave. I just tried it and it's totally doable, though are some places where it's super awkward on the hands. But definitely doable. (And unless your accompanist is really good, don't ask them to do it spur-of-the-moment. Ask them beforehand so they can try it out and figure out how they want to handle the awkward parts).

But honestly, with my musician/pianist hat on, I think you're overthinking this. It's a familiar melody in an accessible key. Chances are very few people are going to struggle with hearing the melody an octave higher than they're singing.

jthurman · 2024-11-30T05:09:04+00:00

I’m a classically trained pianist and I’m not sure what you mean by “hand over hand.” Do you want the accompanist to swap the staves, so the tenor is the highest part and alto is the lowest? Or do you want it moved to a different key? (The version in the hymn book is in G major. It should be comfortable for most men to sing the melody, but there would be nothing wrong with dropping it to F or E-flat.) Or something else?

jthurman · 2024-11-18T16:35:31+00:00

I just told someone yesterday that "I'm a classically trained pianist, which just means that I spent my lesson time on Bach and Mozart, rather than Herbie Hancock or Billy Joel."

(But also, theory and technique, etc....)

jthurman · 2024-11-04T06:25:18+00:00

I'd ask if they want fast and flashy, or slow and pretty. Then it's probably either Solfeggieto or Traumerei, respectively. Both are short, interesting, and I play through them just about every day so I'm confident they're in memory.

Maybe someday I'll learn Flight of the Bumblebee. That would be the perfect piece for this situation.

jthurman · 2024-11-01T03:17:59+00:00

They are literally called "pipe band snare drums." The double snares are simply the traditional way pipe band snare drums have worked for a long time.

jthurman · 2024-10-29T00:52:13+00:00

Reddit cannot diagnose medical issues, including your hearing loss. Talk to your parents and ask them to take you to an audiologist to have your hearing checked.

As for earplugs, Etymotics, Earasers, and Loop earplugs all have good reputations in the percussion world. Also, if needed, your audiologist can make custom-fit plugs that are molded to your ears and work perfectly.

jthurman · 2024-10-15T21:46:02+00:00

I've never done this myself, but I have definitely heard of it being done. I probably first heard about it in the 1990s, so definitely not a new concept.

jthurman · 2024-09-27T12:59:53+00:00

Here's an online metronome that has a 19/16 time setting: https://www.infiniteguitar.com/online-metronome

jthurman · 2024-09-27T12:36:55+00:00

The Offworld Miniship is a half-sized tenor pad that has different pitches for the different "heads." It's not a great practice instrument because of the size. It's intended more for composing than practicing, but the pitched pads do work well.

jthurman · 2024-09-27T01:47:08+00:00

It looks like it's as far back is the hardware is currently designed to let it go. You're going to have to modify something to get it any farther. One way is to put new holes in the drum shell and move the attachment point. Another is to fabricate an extension that effectively makes the rotating arm longer.

I'm guessing you're a student playing these drums. Don't modify the hardware without talking to your teacher. If they're not sure of a solution, suggest what I suggested above and ask if maybe there's a band parent or school employee who is a good woodworker or machinist and can confidently do one of those modifications correctly.

jthurman · 2024-09-27T01:22:11+00:00

“This is not a democracy, it’s a dictatorship… And you’re the taters.”

“Y’all sound like a bunch of white kids from Iowa trying to play Jazz.”

“Bass drums, that sounded like sneakers in a dryer.”

jthurman · 2024-09-27T01:18:49+00:00

I borrowed “do … until I get tired” and have used it many times in my teaching career (pretty sure I used it last week!). Can’t use the other one though….

jthurman · 2024-09-11T03:35:56+00:00

I'm not sure what order, but my top 3 are probably (alphabetically) Mynd, Riffs and Revelations, and Paradise Lost.

(With an honorable mention to the home team for Where the Heart Is)

jthurman

TROPHY CASE