Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by tea for two »

BillB wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 9:22 am
tea for two wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:55 pm *1969 Terry Riley : A Rainbow in Curved Air
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hy3W-3HPMWg

Terry playing electric harpsichord, rocksichord, electric organ, saxophone.
2nd most influence upon my keys playing composing style.

Wow, thanks for this, tea for two. I hadn’t come across it before, will give it a proper listen. Fascinating in terms of its date and what it influenced, but also from the Youtube comments, how much the the power of this meditational music has meant to people through the years. Great stuff.

Welcome Bill.
Terry Riley also influenced Jarre's Oxygene5 end bit of sequences and solo.

Influence is a funny thing. When something comes out of my bucket hands it just happens.
Then when I listen back I can say oh it sounds like it was influenced by....
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by tea for two »

Ben Asaro wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 3:33 pm The opening theme to Escape From New York by John Carpenter.

John is a legend.
Dark Electronica, SynthMetal owes a lot to John's scores.

I really dig the live concerts he did with his son's band.
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by tea for two »

resistorman wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:25 am Joe Zawinul, Mysterious Traveler, the whole album.

Joe Zawinul I would kissed his hands. What a World Music aware Astral traveller Joe was.
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by Ben Asaro »

tea for two wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 3:56 pm
Ben Asaro wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 3:33 pm The opening theme to Escape From New York by John Carpenter.

John is a legend.
Dark Electronica, SynthMetal owes a lot to John's scores.

I really dig the live concerts he did with his son's band.

No JC, no Darkwave.

His latest album is amazing as well.
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by MarkOne »

Rick Wakeman's work on Fragile was a huge influence on me in my early teens. Trouble is however much I have tried to emulate him I am but a pale imitation :(.

The standout track and moment is of course Roundabout, and the hammond solo.

Similarly Keith Emerson's synth work in Karn Evil 9 - I still lust after that lead sound even today and I still haven't been able to emulate it properly. (I wore Brain Salad Surgery out as a 16 year old!), but again there is a distinct talent gap when I try anything like that.

But while Keith, and Rick's work was liberally sprinkled with a large dose of showmanship, Tony B as others have said plays in a beautiful and often understated way. (No gratuitous widdley-widdleyness!) - He's also an incredibly deep and accomplished songwriter.

All three for me massively influenced the keyboard player I am today, but if I had to choose just one, it would probably have to be Rick because he was the 1st guy who showed me that playing keys could actually be cool!
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by Arpangel »

MarkOne wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:26 pm(No gratuitous widdley-widdleyness!)

When I heard Bach for the first time, it was the gratuitous widdley-widdleyness that really grabbed me, then I heard Walter Carlos, and two things came together that made everything sound better, then I heard ELP, and Rick Wakeman, they were like Bach and Carlos, but in technicolour, at the time I wan an innocent youngster, that didn’t have any prejudices, or much conditioning, and I loved all if it.
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by BillB »

I have been holding off on this one, mostly because I am not a competent enough keys player or composer to have a style in which anyone could recognise an influence. But MarkOne has just pushed me close to the edge (see what I did there) with his comment. Rick Wakeman’s work on Fragile, the musical and compositional interplay between all the band members, is just so good and, Yes (see what i did there), Roundabout is an absolute stand-out track. The gentle Hammond arpeggios in the quiet central section, before the explosive solos, driven along by the best rhythm section ever...

I referred to this song in a previous post (“In and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky and they stand there....”) This is one of my life-long happy tunes. If there is any discernible keyboard influence, I guess it was just part of an awakening sense of how fabulous electronic keyboards could be. Unfortunately it also showed me how fabulous bass and electric guitar can be too, so I have spent my musical life as more of a magpie seeking shiny musical things and less of a musician dedicated to honing his craft on one instrument.

I guess, in a peculiar way, that has influenced my style, or lack of it!
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by tea for two »

MarkOne wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:26 pm All three for me massively influenced the keyboard player I am today, but if I had to choose just one, it would probably have to be Rick because he was the 1st guy who showed me that playing keys could actually be cool!

As a spotty teen, one of musical dreams was to wear a Cape as Rick, play at Stonehenge, surrounded by Synths.
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by tea for two »

BillB wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:13 am I have been holding off on this one, mostly because I am not a competent enough keys player or composer to have a style in which anyone could recognise an influence.

.

In my mind, something I did sounds influenced by....
Anyone listening would laugh facepalm pull a face :headbang:

That's because my bucket hands playing is no where near those that influenced me.
Also because as with most musicians, something personal goes into it, that makes it a mashup of us and our influences.

BillB wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:13 am I referred to this song in a previous post (“In and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky and they stand there....”) This is one of my life-long happy tunes.

.

I get this.
For this reason I like a bit of

Chas N Dave
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BliAPzEsao0

BillB wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:13 am If there is any discernible keyboard influence, I guess it was just part of an awakening sense of how fabulous electronic keyboards could be. Unfortunately it also showed me how fabulous bass and electric guitar can be too, so I have spent my musical life as more of a magpie seeking shiny musical things and less of a musician dedicated to honing his craft on one instrument.

I guess, in a peculiar way, that has influenced my style, or lack of it!

I would say various guitarists have also influenced the way I sometimes try to play when writing a guitar track on Keyboards.
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by tea for two »

MarkOne wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:26 pm Rick Wakeman's work on Fragile was a huge influence on me in my early teens.
The standout track and moment is of course Roundabout, and the hammond solo.

But while Keith, and Rick's work was liberally sprinkled with a large dose of showmanship, Tony B as others have said plays in a beautiful and often understated way. (No gratuitous widdley-widdleyness!) - He's also an incredibly deep and accomplished songwriter.


BillB wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:13 am Rick Wakeman’s work on Fragile, the musical and compositional interplay between all the band members, is just so good and, Yes (see what i did there), Roundabout is an absolute stand-out track. The gentle Hammond arpeggios in the quiet central section, before the explosive solos, driven along by the best rhythm section ever...

For me Yes is Fusion. English Fusion.
Alongside early Genesis, Mike Oldfield.
Fusion as Mahavishnu Orchestra, Shakti, Weather Report.
I actually don't think Yes, early Genesis, Mike  is ProgRock.
There are some elements of Rock strewn about.

Amon Duul, Camel (except Rain Dances), Cansas, Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd, Queen, Rush, Zappa and The Mothers, are Progressive Rock for me.

(I'm sure this been debated discussed plenty and I'm wrong).
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by Drew Stephenson »

This may seem snide or mocking but I promise you it's not.
As a non-keyboard player who occasionally tried to add keys to songs I was always over-doing things. So in terms of what's actually influenced my style, listening to the piano part in Johnny Cash's version of Hurt showed me how I could simplify things immensely but still have impact.
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Re: Name one Keyboard track that influenced your Keys composition style the most

Post by BillB »

That makes complete sense, Drew. I have sometimes heard guitar solos or fills to great songs and thought ‘I could play that!’. No Steve Morse ‘Tumeni Notes’ (which I love but couldn’t play in a lifetime)... No, just the right notes, well chosen and simply played. Very inspiring.
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