The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Valerie Bertinelli used it for the intro to a short-lived show she did, "Sydney" in 1990.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbIzd48-DY8

Valerie Bertinelli used it for the intro to a short-lived show she did, "Sydney" in 1990.

She was hot back in the day - could have been my teacher and finish what she started

And Susanna Hoffs...

Well, she's definitely on my mind now.

I was just a kid barely in elementary school when The Bangles videos were playing.  I didn't even understand exactly what I was feeling, but I knew she was beautiful and I wanted to keep looking at her.  

Right on.

Starting in my teenage years when I discovered Jeff Porcaro, I ruthlessly tried to imitate him.  He was my favorite, my hero, and I wanted to get as close to what he did as was humanly possible.  It annoyed me to no end, all the ways I failed.  I learned a ton of good stuff, and it was a thing, but it wasn't him, it wasn't what I wanted.  Every album I ever got to play on and every live recording I ever heard of myself secretly disappointed me.  I wanted the magic he had, and I wasn't hearing it on my playbacks.  Everybody in my main "circle" knew what I was about and what I aimed for.  Sometimes I was mystified they even wanted to play with me.  Why weren't they bothered like I was?

One day I read an old interview of Jeff from a back-issue of Modern Drummer I'd gotten a hold of.  He said a lot of insane things, like his timing sucked, he had no groove, stuff like that.  The biggest thing that jumped out at me was he said he couldn't listen to a single record he'd ever done without getting bugged about the way he played.  (He did literally thousands of records, btw, including many major ones.)  I thought "Hmm.....if he gets irked at listening to his own playing, then I guess I'm in good company."  He also talked about how his playing was always an aspiration to play like his heroes, which he basically just failed at the best he could.  I thought, maybe that's me too.

Years later a friend of mine sent me some old tapes of stuff we'd done.  The material wasn't fresh on my mind, I didn't remember a lot of it, had no plans to play it, and thus had no inclination to formulate in my mind what I'd want to do for such a song.  My playing had evolved by then, not so much in skill, but in terms of style.  Not for better or worse....just different, as happens with most musicians, so far as I'm aware.  I listened to younger-me play the drums and thought "Hey, that's not bad."  No wonder people didn't mind playing with me.  I only heard what I was aiming for at the time.  They only heard what I played.  

I recently got season tickets to our symphony, they come in six event packages, and aren't cheap.  They off also special events which are even less cheap, this year they have Lang Lang, who I'd really like to see, but it sold out before I could get in.  He's a Chinese pianist who is pretty fun to watch and I think he is superb.

I play the piano a bit, though my skills have receded dramatically over the years, I'm trying to get some of it back.  We bought a Yamaha electronic piano, which sounds goofy, but it has a regular keyboard, so the action is terrific, but the sound if from a speaker.  Electronic pianos I had played with previously have awful "action", the keys don't hit right at all, this one is like playing a concert grand.  We got it at Costco of all places and didn't pay nearly that much.  It's a neat piano IMHO.

Yamaha Clavinova CLP-895GP Digital Grand Piano with Bench - Polished Ebony | Sweetwater

When I was taking lessons (up to age 12), we had a "spinet" at home, the least expensive kind of piano.  My teacher had two Steinway grands pushed together.  The spinet had a very light action, the grands had a heavy action, so in practicing at home, my hand strength was deficient relative to playing on a grand.  We would have periodis graded performances on a 12 foot grand which was heavier still, the sound is terrific, but you need strong fingers, which I lacked.

So, in 8th grade, I was playing basketball and my fingers were getting "stove up" at times, so I started back playing the piano, and my fingers got stronger, and solved that problem, and improved my hand strength in bball a lot.  I kept playing through college until I got married, I really liked it, my then wife did not.  So, I basically quit, for years, now I'm trying to get back into it with indifferent results.  My left hand in particular is still deficient.  And I'm old.

Anyway, the feel of the keyboard is very important even to hackers like me.  The Yamaha feels like a grand, you can set it to feel like a Boesendorfer, which Yamaha now owns.  You don't see that brand much, it's kind of top of the top, though most concert pianists play Steinways.   The former can cost over $300,000.

Our symphony recently bought a new Steinway concert grand, it was over $250,000, they brought in like five of them for folks to play and feel and listen to to choose one.

Bosendorfers are cool, since part of their sound is that they're made of live wood! Basically, they have a shelf life! For that much money, the instrument itself basically dries out at some point (like 40 years or something) and the sound changes.

I consider myself lucky that my early career, starting when I was like 9 years old, I played REALLY HORRIBLE public school cellos. They had tragically high action and cruddy solid steel strings (there are many brands of high end boutique steel based strings, but these weren't one of 'em!). As a result, I built up finger strength that can crush billiard balls. While it's been decades since I played cellos like that, I keep medium bronze strings on my acoustic guitars (only because I like the jangle sound). The strat is similarly wired with Ernie Ball heavy bottom. I should not have gotten the jumbo frets, but I didn't really understand what I was doing then. I have to change my touch to keep from fretting it sharp.