Last night I was eating dinner at 14 West, which had a great pianist/singer providing music. But what was notable was the fact that he was using a music tablet. SHB and I noticed this, and started debating whether he would know a particular song, the Frim Fram Sauce.
SHB felt that he was such a good musician that he would definitely know the song. I said that since he was relying on the tablet for about half of his pieces, that he wouldn't know it from memory, and would have to use the tablet, if it was in there. SHB felt that any decent music list would include this song. So SHB went to request the song, and he proceeded to look it up on the tablet. He didn't know it, but sightread it (piano and vocals) incredibly well. It was very exciting to see a tablet used this way, allowing a great musician to expand the repertoire in such a compact way.
Later we joined some others at the Slippery Noodle to hear a great blues band, the winner of a Blues Jam contest. They were from Mooresville, and had lots of friends and family in the audience which created a very festive environment. The others teased me for my lack of knowledge about some of the blues songs, especially as one of the others was a major blues expert. Ah well, I smoked them on Beethoven trivia.
3 comments:
Love it, "smoked them on Beethoven trivia". HA! yes, we classical musicians have to do a lot of self-learning in other genres, don't we? I wonder why that is?
There is an impression that professional musicians should know everything about all types of music, especially that person's favorite music. I am happy to admit the lacunae of my musical knowledge, and to be taught more about these other musics.
But I think the reason classical musicians don't know a lot about other genres is because we spent formative years in the practice room rather than on the dance floor.
I don't get the music tablet nonsense. It's nothing innovative as there are so many touch pads out there which are simply touch-screen monitors for computers. It's been done before but the "inventor" FreeHand Music, claim it's a one of a kind system. Pff...
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