thinkJAZZ.

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17 June 2010

Recently I think my hearing got better :D

I used to just figure out chords from pop and contemp. songs in order to play and sing, but recently, I have really like figured out the piano parts, like right down to every single note, running notes and embellishments and stuff. Especially in the following songs:

Plane (E flat minor)– Jason Mraz
Innocence (C# minor)– Avril Lavigne
Heavy (C minor) – Holly Brook
Curious (C Major) – Holly Brook
Incomplete (F# minor) – Backstreet boys

Well I guess BSB and Avril were the easiest to figure out. Jason Mraz packs quite a punch, especially the running notes on the B flat chords, but I figured that there were basically 2 phrases with different chord progressions and things got simple after that. The first phrase merely consisted of a step down bass line. So it was really nothing much. I guess the thing with Jason Mraz’s songs is that while the chords are simple, it’s the fancy decorations and embellishments, and the speech – like singing incorporated that gives it such a unique flavour, quality and high standards.

Holly Brook happens to be the opposite. Singing is what you would expect to be commonly agreed as “good acoustic singing” and “non-annoying”, but it’s the chords that really give the music its quality. Curious took me more time to figure out the chords than the actual piano parts. Til’ now, I still can’t really confirm the key of the song. I’m quite sure it is in C Major, but it touches the tonic chord so little, that it makes me doubt myself. Mostly revolving around the other chords like D minor (supertonic), Fmaj7 (Subdominant), G major (Dominant), E flat major, A flat major, B flat major, A minor, D7. But actually if you think of it, it seems to be centred around C major. So, I guess C major it is. Heavy had less confusing chords I guess, mainly just borrowed chords between C major and C minor… oh wait that seems to apply to Curious too. So I guess that’s how she derives most of her chords for her songs. Borrowing. One thing to look out for next time I try to dissect her songs. But I guess it’s really seldom that you start your songs with a chord ii or chord IV? O: It’s just like how Westlife’s bop bop baby is a scam. It starts with chord IV =.= But in this day and age of music, it should be better to expect a song to start with all sorts of weird things, since most of them don’t even end with a perfect cadence anymore. Many times, it’s just left hanging there at chord IV or chord V.

Anyway, back to the point. I guess this means that either

I’ve really gotten better at figuring out chords (actually I think I have. I can get most of them at the first try) so I can move on to things like figuring out melodies.
I was just lazy last time.

Heh. or both.

Sleepover at Belinda’s was amazing. We tried to learn Lady Gaga’s Alejandro dance (gay secks!) and it was… ok. XD Quite interesting, esp. the part where we had to hold hands in a circle like some ritual thing, Bel, Bernice, Abi and I got kind of carried away. We managed to spot this dancer who looks so angry/into it/gay porn face. I think Gaga loves him cause he’s in Telephone too (I SPOTTED IT K) omg.

I definitely improved my guitar skills by practising alot. My fingers kind of hurt too, but they are still intact for piano XD. Bel taught me harmonics, of which I wanted to learn because of Koshkin’s Usher Valse x.x That song is a legend. Koshkin is like the guitar version of… hmm… Gabriel Faure / Maurice Ravel / Claude Debussy. Ok you get it, French Impressionists basically. Yep, and added another instrument to all the instruments I’ve learnt. A UKELELE! Hahaha. Ukelele chords are so much easier. I can bar the entire thing cause it only has 4 strings and it’s so tiny. Bel changed my guitar strings too :3 I can now bar better. SO ALL THE WHILE IT WAS MY GUITAR IT WASN’T ME. Hers was so easy to play x.x

OH OH OH. THAT REMINDS ME. WE HAD A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE WITH A WORM. THE WORM IS FREAKING DISGUSTING. IT’S LIKE SO MUCH WORSE THAN MEALWORMS / EARTHWORMS / CATERPILLARS / MILLIPEDES. OMG IT WAS FREAKING BROWN AND TINY AND IT WAS ON MY LEG. I ALMOST DIED. MY REFLEXES SAVED ME THANK GOD.

I used to think worms were ok. until now ._.

Alright I guess shall stop here. It’s gonna be quite a long post :3