Scattered Thoughts . . .

L ukey and Kenzie spent a few days with us last week during their break from school.  We had a good time with them and stayed pretty busy.  Gee had to work but I spent time doing activities with them each day.   Every now and then, Lukey and I will sit at the piano for a bit to do some improvisation and we did that again last week.  There is an audio clip, below, of our spur-of-the-moment ballad duet if you prefer to skip down to that so you can listen while you read the rest of this blog entry.   Lukey is now 10 years old and, although he has never had any true structured and regular lessons, he has an interest in the piano and sits at the piano to play at our house whenever possible.  Whenever I sit at the piano to play, he is quick to come over to the armchair right next to the piano so he can watch and listen.  In this way, he kind of reminds me of my cousin William.  William always sat right next to the piano whenever I played and he was a good page-turner for me since he read mus

I don't have a whole lot of recordings of myself on piano but I still do have a few audio clips left to share. So, before I head to bed and call it a night, I thought I would share a couple more recordings. Tonight's theme is movies. I'm going to share themes to two movies... the theme to "The Notebook" and the theme to "Chances Are". For what it's worth, I think that both are good movies but "Chances Are" is a much more entertaining movie. Actually, I wouldn't mind watching it again right now! As I've mentioned when sharing audio clips previously, these are just clips and not the full pieces.  Theme from "The Notebook", written by Aaron Zigman Unsupported Browser! Theme from "Chances Are" called "After All", written by Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow Unsupported Browser!

Whenever I think of autumn and traditions, I am reminded of fond memories of fallen leaves covering the ground, cool crisp air, playing touch football in the street and seasonal "Peanuts" episodes.  Naturally, "Peanuts" reminds me of Schroeder playing his favorite Beethoven pieces but there are two other songs from the "Peanuts" episodes which were written by Vince Guaraldi that always come to mind this time of year...  First is the show's theme which is called "Linus and Lucy". Most people refer to this piece as "The Charlie Brown Theme" but that is actually a different piece! The well-known "Peanuts"  theme is actually called "Linus and Lucy". Also, I am quickly reminded of another piece called "Getting Ready" so I'm sharing both of these recordings here in the same blog entry. So, in the spirit of autumn and halloween, here are two clips I recorded on piano back a number of years ago....

Back in 2001, Billy Joel published an album called "Fantasies and Delusions" which is a complete album of classical compositions rather than the pop, pop/rock, and ballads for which Billy Joel has always been known. This was a complete departure from his three decades of previously published music and, in my opinion, this "Fantasies and Delusions" album is perhaps his best.  If you've never listened to this album... search for it online... and listen. The album really is a beautiful album in the style of classical music of the Romantic period of the late 19th century. Admittedly, I'm not much of a fan of classical music, generally speaking, but I do occasionally enjoy some music of this Romantic period... Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Schumann, etc... when the mood for something on the quiet side strikes me. Billy Joel's romantic style of classical music composition really is beautiful and I often find myself listening to this albu

Those whom have known me my entire life will probably be surprised by this but I haven't touched a piano in three years. Those whom have only known me in recent years will probably be surprised by the fact that they had no idea I ever was an accomplished pianist. The truth is that until three years ago, I had accomplished quite a bit as a pianist throughout my life but it was a rather quiet side of my life.  I've performed with many outstanding musicians. I've performed for quite a few dignitaries. I've won many awards. I've performed and competed in the classical music world. I've performed in rock bands. I've performed with the US Air Force. I've performed in concert bands, orchestras and marching bands. I've performed with Top-40 bands. I've performed jazz. I've performed at events, weddings and countless parties. I've performed with some amazing R&B groups. I've even performed with a few choral groups. To be honest, however,