Poseur to Composer

I found a jazz keyboardist on Fiverr. For a small fee he records an instructional video showing how to play any song on the keyboard. I contacted him and asked if he could show me how to play the first 28 seconds of So What. Not the whole song, just the intro. He agreed and I ordered the gig.

That was four days ago.

Yesterday morning he messaged me: he was sick and delivery would be late. He has not been heard from since. No delivery, no updates. I messaged him this morning but he has not replied. I'm starting to think the assignment killed him. Those ethereal, otherworldly opening chords have a body count!

Don't believe me? Last month I reached out to three piano/keyboard instructors. I asked if they could teach me the intro for So What and a price estimate for the service. Two never replied back. One did and enthusiastically agreed to teach me via email. He would send me diagrams and a video of how to play it.

Then he went dark for a week. When I asked for an update, he backed out.

Today another keyboard instructor bites the dust!

I'm giving it another try on Fiverr. A composer took the gig this morning and promises to deliver a piano midi in five days. Part of me hopes he just makes it out alive.

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This morning I decided to focus on learning “chordlang” and the patterns of intervals in Major and Minor scales. Using this book and this app, I'm working through each chord, starting with C as the root, then the first and second inversions, and so on.

I'm also replicating the notation for both the treble and bass clef which requires going up to the fifth octave on the app. My 54-key keyboard only has four octaves so the app is super handy that way.

If what I just wrote sounds like this, remember that it was the same for me only a few weeks ago. It's not too late to automatically synchronize your cardinal grammeters.

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Sipping Kofola by Soma Adhicary

Yesterday at church, I read and understood the musical notation of the hymns we sang for the first time. At least at a basic level. I noticed how the organist used the sustain pedal on the slurs (the curved line connecting two notes) and transitioned up an octave for the last verse.

I felt gratified and a bit exhilarated by this new awareness after the first hymn.

During the intermediate hymn I was so caught-up in reading the notation I forgot what verse I was singing! I need more practice before I can do both at the same time.

How did I develop this new skill? It wasn't due to long hours of study. I don't have that kind of free time. It was accomplished by taking small, frequent sips.

For example, last week I carried the Essential Dictionary of Musical Notation in my back pocket with a page from an old hymn book for the bookmark. During a free moment I would try to “sight-read” the hymn on the page. When I got stuck, and that happened often, I referred to the dictionary for clarification. A sip of musical notation here, a sip of knowledge there. A sip to test my recall. After awhile it adds up.

Like Dominie the piano teacher said, “let me have my minutes”.

I will put them to good use.

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Yesterday in the musictheory subreddit someone asked the question: what do you feel gives you legitimacy as a musician? I've written about this issue before but certainly didn't settle it.

Replies in this thread that resonated with me most were the ones that stated interpretation and artistic choices are made and something is produced as a result. Meet that criteria, and the person is a musician.

According to the Wikipedia page for Musician, playing an instrument is not necessary:

A musician is a person who plays a musical instrument or is musically talented. Anyone who composes, conducts, or performs music is referred to as a musician. A musician who plays a musical instrument is also known as an instrumentalist.

Based on the above definitions, my old-coworker who hired a studio musician to play and produce his song while he just sang lyrics he scribbled on a piece of paper is a legitimate musician. He’s not an instrumentalist because he doesn’t play an instrument, but he is a musician. His song is even on Spotify and other music-streaming platforms –although he paid a submission service to be listed.

Art is anything you can get away with as Marshall McLuhan was quoted as saying, and isn't music an art form? Art is also subjective. Isn’t talent subjective too?

As another redditor stated, there are “a lot of levels of musicianship”. The poseur may be someone at the cusp of musicianship; the entry level musician. That's what I was in my days playing bass in a local nu metal band, a poseur, but it seems I was also a musician. A paradox? Can one be both?

As for now, where do I stand? Today I just finished reading the ebook Eight Traits of the Greats: How the Best Musicians Get That Way by Stan Munslow. He writes this:

Do you refer to yourself as a musician? Do you think of yourself as a musician? If not, start. It doesn’t matter if you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned pro. If you make music you’re a musician and that’s that. Don’t weaken everything by saying things like “I’m a music student” or “I’m learning piano” or “I’m a novice.” No. You’re a musician—a genuine, card-carrying musician.

Perhaps I am a musician in the most charitable sense. I can “perform” the verse part of the song So What and even played it for a few friends. It will be months before I can play the entire song (it might even take the whole year) but it will happen eventually.

What I am certain about is there is no linear path to being a musician. Shortcuts can be made, as my co-worker has proven. Making music (however you define music) by any means necessary is all that is needed.

More on this issue later.

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This Poseur to Composer project is starting to remind me of the movie Gattaca.

Gattaca is a sci-fi film about two brothers in a society obsessed with genetic selection. One brother (Vincent) is conceived naturally and born with health defects. The other brother (Anton) is born later and, with the help of genetic selection, is endowed with superior genes.

As the brothers grow up together, they play a game of “chicken” by swimming out to sea as far as they can. The first one to return back to shore loses. Vincent, being genetically inferior to Anton, always loses the game.

Then one day the impossible happens and Vincent wins. He not only wins but rescues his brother from drowning. He later reveals how he did it, saying to his brother “I never saved anything for the swim back.”

Vincent's strategy was to out-swim Anton. All effort was put into accomplishing that goal, with no consideration on how he might make it back to shore.

Reporting in this journal of at the end of a long day, when I should already be asleep, feels like I'm not saving anything for tomorrow. As a result of keeping my promise, I've been late several times for work and made compromises to my health. Balance has been thrown out the window.

It's worth it though, because I'm not only learning about music, but getting a refresher on what it takes to win.

Here are the swimming scenes from the movie along with an inspiring message.

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VeggyBurger: Come at me bro!

First, a little housekeeping. I stopped using Rosa Suen's ATTACK & SAY IT OUT LOUD method as well as Dan Delany's Learn to Play Piano in Six Weeks or Less.... The former because it’s too basic and the latter because it’s a bit too advanced for me right now. Maybe later.

Yesterday I skim-read a research paper on the gamification of piano practice, particularly the repetitive technical exercises such as scales, chords and arpeggios. Students often lack the motivation to do these exercises because they are perceived as boring. However, if these exercises are not done, their piano playing suffers greatly. They don’t have mastery over the keyboard like the students who do diligently practice, nor can they execute musical pieces with the same competence.

The key takeaway here is that motivation to practice is linked closely with achievement. But how do you increase motivation so that students want to do these technical exercises? This paper discusses that, specifically how “game elements are added to a learning environment in an effort to increase engagement and increase desired behaviour.”

To accomplish this, the author Heather Birch conducted a study with a group of piano students and a game called Technique Tower. The findings at the end of the study was “attitude toward practicing technique had a moderate positive effect”. In other words, gamification does increase motivation to practice ergo making you a better piano player.

Inspired by this study, I downloaded several apps that gamify sight-reading and interval training and played until my arms throbbed in pain (about 45 minutes, it doesn't take long to aggravate my tendinitis).

My scores are public on Google Play Games and, in case you want to join me, my profile name is... VeggyBurger.

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Today I unsuccessfully tried to decipher the D6-5sus2 chord using various apps (the article didn't help me crack this nut). I don't even know if D6-5sus2 is one or two chords. Maybe it's a chord progression?

I'm hoping that by airing out my stupid questions in public, the benefits will be twofold: 1) it will leave breadcrumbs for other beginners and 2) facilitate my learning process through self reflection.

For number one, I may never know if people will benefit from these sleep-deprived ramblings but for number two, it turns out journaling can be an effective learning tool. From the book Journal Keeping: How to Use Reflective Writing for Learning, Teaching, Professional Insight and Positive Change, this passage:

Journal writing can benefit individuals by enhancing reflection, facilitating critical thinking, expressing feelings, and writing focused arguments. It also allows one to reflect on new knowledge learned and solidify learning experiences by recording ones evolving thought process as one progress further in ones learning, learn new material, and form new conclusions (Stevens & Cooper, 2009, p. 3).

I also found a list of possible questions to answer in a reflective journal (see the bottom of the page). I may use some of them or make my own.

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Last night I dreamt about chords and chord formulas. It was a fitful sleep. In my dreams I kept trying to play the elusive opening chords for So What by Bill Evans on my RockJam 54-key keyboard. When I finally rose from bed this morning, still half in a dream state, I pointed to my cat crossly and said “you better tell me how to play those chords” – as if she knew the secret finger positioning and was holding out on me.

Even if she does know, she's not talking.

Speaking of cryptic chord combinations, I played the first two chords of David Sylvian's September and it sounded right. A smile crept upon my face. Then I hit this brick wall of a chord (or is it chords) with D6-5sus2. I'm decoding the chord using this fantastic article as a guide.

A few things have changed since starting the Poseur to Composer project about a month and a half ago. Punctuality is one: I was late for work again today. I'm also sleeping an hour less at night, stopped exercising completely, cut my meditation time from an hour to 20 minutes, and my diet has gotten worse (eating mostly comfort foods, very little fruit and vegetables).

I suspect these changes are due to immersion / cognitive flow. This stuff is fascinating for me and time is whirring by...

That reminds me, I need to get to bed.

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This morning I read an excerpt from the journals of Christopher Columbus, and how he felt guided by God to find the Americas[*].

From my first youth onward, I was a seaman and have so continued until this day. The Lord was well disposed to my desire and He bestowed upon me courage and understanding; knowledge of seafaring. He gave me in abundance, and of geometry and astronomy likewise. Further, He gave me joy and cunning in drawing maps and thereon cities, mountains, rivers, islands, and harbors, each one in its place. I have seen and truly I have studied all books and cosmographies, histories and chronologies for which our Lord with provident hand unlocked my mind, sent me upon the seas and gave me fire for the deed. Those who heard of my enterprise called it foolish, mocked me and laughed, but who can doubt but that the Holy Ghost inspired me.

I feel similarly guided at times, especially in the past few days (you can read the entries here and here) although my voyage to musical literacy has just begun.

Also, I subscribed to Chordify but didn't get far with the app. It couldn't make sense of the three songs I gave it to translate into chords: September by David Sylvian, So What by Miles Davis and Across The Universe by BeatleJazz. I love the idea but the algorithm needs refining. I won't be renewing next month.

[*] Of course, historians have recently charged him with colonization and genocide of natives, so he may have fallen from grace since his great discovery.

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I got so preoccupied with looking up chords for various songs this morning I was late for work. One thing I searched for (in vain) was classical piano notation with the chord names above the treble staff. I didn't know if that was a common practice or not, but I'd seen it in the wild a few times.

I want to be fluent in both languages, traditional musical notation and “chordlang” (i.e. Cm7sus4, F#6add9 etc).

Turns out that music notated with the chord name above the staff is a common practice: it's called lead sheets or fake books.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about (from the Wikipedia page).

I found this out from a book I found at a thrift shop – today! Talk about timing! The book is Learn to Play Piano in Six Weeks or Less by Dan Delany and Bill Chotkowski and teaches how to use lead sheets right from the start of the course. The book has a jazz-bend too (the songs to practice are kind of jazzy). It couldn't be more perfect.

Also discovered Chordify today. It makes every other music app look old.

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