Chopin Liszt

The pun of the title of this blog (Shopping List/Chopin Liszt) was to suggest that I would bring you a shopping list of musical interest. Well then, it's about time I introduced you to the men who hold those names.

Frederic Chopin was a Polish composer from the Romantic period who lived out his 39 years of life in the early 1800's. Many consider him to be one of the best composers for piano of all time. At 5 he began to play piano and was discovered as a prodigy player and performed for the Tsar of Russia when he was only 11, and the prince at only 9. Though of Polish heritage he moved to Paris and because of the Great Emigration became a French citizen to avoid the confusion and the hassel of obtaining and using imperial Russian documentation to prove himself. At this point he performed much less and often played only at salons and gatherings, giving a public concert only once a year and dedicating the rest of his time to teaching.
Though he did compose a couple concertos as well as some chamber music most of the rest of his pieces were written for solo piano. His surviving works include:

Ballades (4)
Chamber works (3)
Etudes (27)
Impromptus (4)
Mazurkas (59)
Minor Works (21)
Nocturnes (21)
Piano Concertos (2)
Polonaises (17) [a patriotic Polish dance]
Preludes (27)
Rondos (5)
Scherzos (4)
Sonatas (4)
Songs (20)
Variations (7)
Waltzes (20)

Chopin was the one who invented the etudes for concerts as well as other musical styles. This is his Etude in C major:
Etude in C major

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer who lived a good 75 years starting in 1811 and is also considered one of the greatest pianists of all time. He was admired most for his amazing technical skill and spent his life composing, conducting, playing, and teaching. Franz began learning piano at age 7, composing at age 8, and giving concert at age 9. He then studied his music abroad with multiple famous teachers. Throughout his life he went back and forth between being settled and touring as a musician, often for causes such as the support of the Beethoven monument that was to be destroyed. In the end he died of pneumonia leaving behind a large body of work numbering well over 300, and while including a magnitude of piano pieces, varying in style more than that of Chopin.
This is his Sonata in B minor, written for Robert Schumann, and often considered one his greatest works for piano:
Sonata in B minor

Liszt himself even wrote a book on Chopin, describing him as a romantic performer and composer without equal, under appreciated in his own time.

Very Punny
I should really make a Lizst. I'll do it as soon as I get Bach from doing my Chopin.

If you have problems listening to the pieces linked, click in the address bar and hit enter to reload (refresh wont work) and it will play.

Sure They CALL Them Free....

Free Reed Instruments

Here's a term that might sound new to a lot of you. The free reed instrument. Now I have already talked about the reed used in the instruments called woodwinds (namely clarinets and saxophones) which is also called a 'beating reed', but these are a little different.

Free reeds are reeds that are surrounded by a plate that is just barely wider than themselves. When pressure or suction is applied to the reed it is then able to move up and down freely through the slot in the plate that surrounds it. In this way it creates vibration and thus sound. This is different from the other reeds I talked about because in those reeds, the air that is blown through them by the musician causes the read to 'beat' against the mouthpiece as it vibrates, causing sound that way.

Types of Free Reeds
There are two types of free reeds. The first type is the older kind and is called: idioglottal. This means that the reed and the 'casing' or plate are one piece. The surrounding plate will be cut out underneath the tongue of the reed so that it still can flex freely up and down but the reed is anchored to the plate simply because it was never cut away. The tongue of the reed will either be triangular or rectangular and often lies flush with the plate. This type can be played by drawing air or blowing air. To get different pitches from the reed the size must be changed and oftentimes the material of the actual reed. Lastly, this reed must be attached to some form of resonator to create audible sound.These reeds were used mostly in older Asian instruments like this Kobing from the Philippines:


The newer version of the free reed is used mostly in western culture and is heteroglottal. This basically means that the plate and the reed are two separate pieces. The tongue of the reed still hangs free over the slot in the plate but where it would be attached as one piece to the plate in the other type it is instead a completely separate piece that is attached via screw or other means. This type can hold many sized reeds with one plate or have one plate per reed-note. Instruments you might recognize that use this system include the harmonica or the accordion. You can see on the inside of the harmonica how these metal reeds are placed so that when the two pieces are put together they still have a large enough slot in which they can move up and down as air is drawn across them (notice also how they are fastened down instead of part of the reed-plate).

Very Punny

Some soloists are so bad they should sing tenor twelve miles away.

Tenative Top Ten

Now I've been asked what the best songs of all time are, not specifically for this blog, but just in general. How can I answer that when I know I clearly enjoy a hodgepodge mix of Johnathan Coulton, Foo Fighters, Switchfoot, and on while you may be singing the praises of Soulja Boy? So instead I headed to the Internet and looked for the best KNOWN songs of all time, because even if you don't like them, chances are you know them. Now another problem arises. How many top ten lists are there on the Internet? Try thousands. So after reading through more than 40 of these lists I have put together a list of you of the top ten songs. They are ranked here by the number of times they were mentioned in the numerous lists I found, even if they were never ranked first, because clearly if everyone chooses it, it must be pretty well known.
Because many appeared the same amount of times I then took into account their rating number and those with better overall ratings are therefore ranked higher than those with worse ratings that appear the same number of times.

Without further ado, the list of lists using everything from TIME magazine's to VH1's Top Tens:
1. Like A Rolling Stone by the Rolling Stones
2. Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones
3. American Pie by Don Mclean
4. A Day in the Life by The Beatles
5. Yesterday by The Beatles
6. I’m So Lonesome I could Cry by Hank Williams
7. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
8. You've Lost That Loving Feeling by The Righteous Brothers
9. Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison
10. Imagine by John Lennon

The runners up that shared the same number of appearances as the last two but scored lower (although they tied each other) were:
Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys
Hey Jude by The Beatles

I was severely surprised at the low appearance of the following songs:
Dust in the Wind by Kansas
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

Very Punny

When a jazz musician's clothes are all worn out it's ragtime.

Crazy Insrument Installment 3

So it has been a while since I've talked about a truly odd instrument, and because of this I dug up one with the most curious picture. It is called the Bikelophone and it looks a little something like this:

As you may have gathered by the name and a brief glance at the BlueMan-esque contraption in the picture, the keystone of this instrument is indeed a bicycle. Brought into the music world only 14 years ago for the sake of the The Lyle and Sparkleface Band, the Bikelophone can create sounds akin to a soft harp or loud and metallic like crashing cymbals.

The bike part of the mechanism works chiefly as an amplifier by way of magnetic pickups. Anything that is attached to the bike then becomes amplified and can be manipulated. This particular model includes: bass strings, scrap wood and metal, bowls, telephone bells, a mechanical foot pedal, and a touch sensitive tone generator.

Now if you are asking: "But what is a magnetic pickup?" then this next paragraph is for you. A Pickup in general is something that acts as a transducer, or rather something that converts one type of energy or physical occurrence into another for the purpose of information transfer(sometimes other things but mostly this). The pickup is used to capture the actual movement or vibrations caused by the strings of a stringed instrument that have been played in some manner. It then changes this mechanical occurrence into an electronic signal that can be understood by computers which can then record or amplify the sound produced. A magnetic pickup accomplished this by way of magnetic coil which is usually mounted on the instrument intended for amplification. The vibrations caused by the instrument are picked up by the magnetic circuit and transferred to the recording or amplification apparatus by way of cable. To put it simply.

To listen to the sounds of the Bikeolophone click: here

Very Punny
I tried to come up with a good flute pun, but I blew it.

Scales-not for fishies

So one of the questions was about the minor keys and to accurately answer that question I have to delve into the world of scales.
Each key has a certain set of notes that make it up. These notes can be strung together in a sequence called a scale. Each scale will follow the key signature of they key it is associated with. For example the Bb scale will have the Bb key signature and the C scale will have the C key signature. Knowing at what intervals to string the notes together makes a big difference.

First you have to know about half steps and whole steps. To get from one type of note (natural, sharp, or flat) to the next note of the same type is a whole step. To get from any one type of note to the next adjacent note, that is a half step. There are exceptions, however and that is best shown to you on a keyboard.

Looking at the keyboard above you can see that every black key is a sharp or flat and every white key is natural. A jump from one white key to the next is usually a half step (same with from one black key to the next) except where there are two white keys next to each other as it is with the notes E and F as well as B and C. With these notes a whole step would be to the very next black key. In short, a whole step will always be two pitch jumps and a half step will always be just one.

So in relating that to scales I can now tell you their structure. A major scale of a key is the scale that keeps all the notes that are designated in the key signature and it's pattern is as follows.

Starting on the base note of the key (C for the key of C) which is called the 'tonic':
Whole step Whole Step Half Step Whole step Whole step Whole step Half step
Listen to C major

Each scale will have eight notes, starting on the tonic and ending on that note one octave higher.

Every key has a relative minor key that shares its key signature. The difference is in the sound given off when played. Minor keys sound darker and more mysterious. How is this possible when they have all the same notes? The structure of the way their notes are put together is different. First of all is you look back at the relative minor keys you'll notice that they have different names than their major counterparts. For example: C major is A minor. What this means for the scales is that we will start on A instead of C.

So starting on its tonic, the minor scales is built as follows:
Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step
Listen to A minor

Because of the different tonics and the different interval construction, the two relative keys are able to share the same key signature but sound pretty different. I hope that answered your question.

Very Punny

A dead writer of music is de-composing.

Q&A

I have a list of random music questions that I have gotten and today I am going to answer them. Uunfortunately as very few people read this there are very few questions so please feel free to ask me something and I will answer it. Here we go.

Q: Are they called Barbershop Quartets [be]cause they sang in actual barbershops?
A: Yes, actually. They were also known for singing at parties and on street corners (like you see at Disneyland). This last also earned them the associative title of 'curbstone harmony'.

Q: Where can I get free sheet music online?
A: Ok first why are you asking me this? This is an informative blog not a place to pick up illegal merchandise. Second, shoo.

Q: What can I use to convert my midi into usable sheet music?
A: You can try 8notes.com, Midillustrator, or a program called Noteworthy Composer. There are a lot of programs out there designed to handle just this function so you will have to look through them to see what will work best for you. Also, try visiting this site. It has a list of converter applications as well as many other useful tools.

Q: You mentioned minor keys, what are those for?
A: Ok yeah that is pretty much a whole other blog but basically the minor keys that are shown inthe image of my previous post share the key signature with the major key they are listed with. As in, those notes will all be played with or without those sharps or flats. The difference is in the sound. Minor keys tend to be more solomn and haunting, while major keys are brighter and more jovial sounding. This is accomplished by changing the intervals in the scale for that key. And because I've completely confused you I will make scales my next post. (=

Q: What is the biggest insrtument ever?
A: Well I am going to go ahead and tell you the largest operating instrument and it may come as a slight dissapointment to you because the answer is not an instrument that anyone will ever have to try and cary around. It is infact and organ. It is owned by the Macy's store and resides in Philidelphia. The monster organ contains 28,543 pipes and sounds a little something like this.

Q: My friend just showed me this thing where they have cats and dogs singing Christmas songs. You should do a post about that!
A: Ok not a question. And no, no I should not. If you want to watch the kitties sing then go here, not here.

Very Punny
If you break a string on your guitar don't Fret.

Key Signatures

So as promised in the very first post I am now going to explain key signatures to all y'all out there. The key signature is present at the beginning of any piece of music and resides between the clef and the time signature. There are a few things you need to know about what the different spaces and line of the staff represent before I can start the key signature explanation.

Staff Lines:
The lines of the staff each represent a different note.

Staff lines in the Treble Clef are as follows:

To remember these the acronym Every Good Boy Does Fine is often used.

The spaces are as follows:

This one is easier to remember as it spells out the word FACE.

Staff lines in the Bass Cleff are as follows:

To remember these the acronym Good Boys Do Fine Always is often used (though admittedly more awkward than its treble counterpart)

The spaces are as follows:

To remember these the acronym All Cows Eat Grass is often used.

Any note placed on one of these lines will be played as the note letter notated(no pun intended). To make is more confusing each one of these notes as three basic forms: sharp, flat, and natural.

Natural is notated with a natural sign: to the direct left of the note along the same line or space or if a note has no signs next to it. This is the base pitch of the note.
Sharp is notated with a pound sign to the direct left of the note along the same line or space. This will cause the note to be played a half step higher (slightly higher) than the natural.
Flat is notated by a lowercase 'b' to the direct left of the note along the same line or space. This will cause the note to be played a half step lower (slightly lower) than the natural.

All of these signs effect every note on the same line that come after the marked note and lasts until the measure is over.

Because it would be boring to play the natural of a note every time and notating every single sharp or flat pitch would become messy and hard to read we have key signatures. The key signature's job is to dictate a note's sharp, flat, or naturalness for the entire piece (or until a new key signature is introduced). These combinations of set flat, sharp, or natural notes are called Keys. For example the simplest key would be Concert C. In the key of C every note is played as its natural value and any variations from this key will be placed within the music using the sharp, flat, and natural signs.

These are the keys:


Each key has a certain number of sharps of flats that come with it. All of the notes that are on lines or spaces that represent a note that the key signature has deemed sharp or flat will be played that way through the entire piece if they are unmarked. Only if there is a natural sign next to them or the key signature changes will they be played at their natural tone again. As you can see in these diagrams every key has a relative minor key that shares its key signature. Don't worry about those for now. Hope this helps (=

Very Punny
Musicians need a leader because they don't know how to conduct themselves.