Elmo Peeler Note-for-Note Piano Transcriptions
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Happy New Year - 2019!
Today is the first day of January 2019 - Happy New Year! - and time again for my monthly newsletter, to keep you informed of recent transcriptions and other news of the last month.
2019 begins with my first Keith Emerson transcription - one of his most beautiful recordings - "Lay Down Your Guns".
And, whether you play Classical, Cocktail Lounge, or Rock piano, the ability to arpeggiate is an important skill. This month there's a new exercise based on a Keith Emerson arpeggio to help you master a 'different' kind of arpeggio.
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Note that every Title Heading is clickable.
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ALL of the Sheet Music listed on my website has been personally transcribed by me, and guaranteed to be note-for-note perfect.
Whether you:
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have a cover band and want to get your keyboard parts exactly correct,
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are a professional who wants to study the styles of rock's greatest keyboard players, or
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are a hobbyist that wants to learn how to play pop/rock and great piano music,
...these note-for-note transcriptions will prove extremely helpful.
And as always, if you ever need any help, just drop me a note at: elmo@manymidi.com
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One of Rock's Best Techniques
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Keith Emerson surrounded by friends
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Born in 1944, Keith Emerson at first lived in a row of terraced houses that shared a single lavatory at the end of the road. Early on, his parents moved to a seaside town in West Suffix to live with his paternal grandmother, where Keith was encouraged by his father, a telephone engineer and amateur pianist, to learn to read music and to play the piano.
He referred to his first teachers as the "local little old ladies", from whom he began learning classical music around the age of eight.
"I played for my auntie's dance classes when I was 13 and 14, everything from tap-dancing to ballet. I learned a lot of styles, but I was painfully shy, hiding away behind the piano, and being driven mad by the sight of all those girls. I used to make loads of Airfix Spitfires [model airplanes] while dreaming of being a star and a hit with the girls."
Not owning a record player, he listened to the radio, enjoying Floyd Cramer's 1961 "On the Rebound", and boogie-woogie and country-style pianists, including Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, Russ Conway and Winifred Atwell.
Emerson describes himself: "I was a very serious child. I used to walk around with Beethoven sonatas under my arm. However, I was very good at avoiding being beaten up by the bullies. That was because I could also play Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard songs. So, they thought I was kind of cool and left me alone."
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Keith Emerson in concert
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He used jazz sheet music from Dave Brubeck and George Shearing and learned about jazz piano from books.
Emerson became interested in the Hammond organ after hearing jazz organist Jack McDuff perform "Rock Candy", and the Hammond became his instrument of choice in the late 1960s. Emerson acquired his first Hammond organ, an L-100 model, at the age of 15 or 16, on the installment plan.
"My father played piano-accordion, piano, guitar and introduced me to Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Dudley Moore and many others. Mum and Dad didn't smoke or drink. It was a disciplined childhood. When I first went on the road with the VIPs and Gary Farr and the T-Bones, I wasn't into the rock-n-roll lifestyle. I didn't even like beer. Mum used to polish my L-100 as if it was a piece of furniture."
After leaving school he worked at Lloyds Bank where he played piano in a bar during lunchtimes. Outside work, he played with several different bands.
The flamboyance for which he would later be noted began when a fight broke out during a performance in France by one of his early bands, the VIPs. Instructed by the band to keep playing, he produced some explosion and machine gun sounds with the Hammond organ, which stopped the fight. The other band members told him to repeat the stunt at the next concert.
"I wanted to do for the keyboards what Hendrix, a friend, was doing for the guitar. We talked about forming a band shortly before Jimi died, but it would have been too competitive.
"Jimi played the guitar behind his back or with his teeth. I took to riding the L-100 like a bucking bronco. It weighs 350 lbs [actual weight is 215 lbs]; when it's on top of you, you need the adrenaline rush you get onstage to chuck it around. I'd play Bach's Toccata and Fugue from behind the keyboard. I'd hold down chords with knives during our version of Dave Brubeck's Rondo.
"There were lots of funny moments among the broken ribs and blown-off fingernails. When we were touring as Emerson, Lake & Powell [in 1986, with the late Cozy Powell on drums], I was playing this very complex arrangement based on Holst's Mars. One section was hard to remember, so I had a monitor set up above the keyboards with the score. I'm playing away and look up only to see the monitor showing a heavy Swedish porn video..."
It was this band, Emerson, Lake & Powell, that produced one of Emerson's most beautiful melodies and chord progressions, "Lay Down Your Guns".
My new Emerson, Lake & Powell transcription:
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Note-for-Note Accuracy
My first transcription of the New Year is a very good one - Keith Emerson's "Lay Down Your Guns" from his Emerson, Lake & Powell days of 1986 - one of his most beautiful recordings.
Emerson is often associated with very fast playing of a zillion notes, really showing off his spectacular keyboard technique. But "Lay Down Your Guns" concentrates more on lush chords/harmonies, a dramatic chord progression and a beautiful melody soaring over it all.
Don't misunderstand. Beginning in the third Chorus there are three different ascending arpeggios that can be a bit challenging at first (but a lot of fun to play). Keith Emerson was Keith Emerson, after all. But overall its main focus is on creating atmosphere and harmonic color.
This note-for-note transcription includes not only Emerson's entire piano part, but also the SynthBrass solo plus the Tubular Bells in the Out section.
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January's New Exercise
- Arpeggiate like Keith Emerson
Another Way To Arpeggiate a Chord
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Keith Emerson's hands - Great Chops
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Arpeggios, along with scales, form the building block of keyboard technique, and we've all spent time practicing the standard 1-3-5 arpeggios.
However, Keith Emerson found more creative ways to arpeggiate a chord. He wasn't the first; Liszt, Liberace and others have found ways to add a little 'zip' to arpeggios.
In Emerson, Lake & Powell's "Lay Day Your Guns" Keith Emerson used three non-standard arpeggiation techniques, all Right-Hand ascending. One of them, a particularly good variant, was used only once, in the 5th Chorus.
I've taken that method of arpeggiating a chord, and put it into every measure of a 10-bar phrase, based on "Lay Down Your Gun". By applying this specific technique to various chords and inversions, one can better understand how Emerson constructed it, and master it through repetition.
If you'd like to improve your technique while mastering a non-standard arpeggiation method - certainly one that Keith Emerson liked and used - this exercise should help.
(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out
the other 57 exercises available.)
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What Recording Would You Like To See Transcribed?
'Custom' (to-order) transcriptions can be expensive because of the time required. And when a recording is particularly long and/or complex, the expense can be too much for one person.
if you'd like to help 'crowdfund' a transcription of the classic electric piano part in B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone", played by Paul Harris, the same pianist on Bob Seger's "Against the Wind". This is an historically important track that needs to be transcribed precisely. The goal is $595, of which $100 has already been pledged.
My 'CrowdFunded' transcriptions to-date:
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If improving your musical skills this year are a priority, I can help you. An outstanding childhood teacher, plus the Eastman School of Music and Interlochen helped me greatly, and I can pass along many of those techniques to you.
I've had the good fortune to have
toured the world playing keyboards and arranging/conducting for these Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Artists:
- The Beach Boys
- Rod Stewart - All 'Unplugged' concerts
- Ricky Nelson - Stone Canyon Band
And I've also won classical piano competitions performing Beethoven,
Rubinstein a
nd
Saint-Saens' Piano Concerti. See me playing here. "Josie's Boogie" is quite the virtuoso dramatic mino
r-key showpiece; check out the ascending double-octave run at the ending... :)
Thanks to the internet, I can help you play piano better - rock or classical, by ear or by note.
Perhaps all you need is just an hour on Skype discussing rock keyboards.
If you'd like to improve, drop me a note
at
info@manymidi.com. Tell me three things:
1) Your musical background
2) Where you are currently, musically-speaking
3) Your musical goals
My students include members of:
- Weezer (Rivers & Brian)
- Vampire Weekend (Ezra & newest addition, Greta)
- Incubus (Mike)
- The Strokes (Nick)
- Rooney (Robert)
- Jason Schwartzman ("Mozart in the Jungle")
- Courteney Cox
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