video: ‘Round Midnight
Right, this is a test post, trying to see how to best do a YouTube video embedded in a post. You have to click onto the page for this post to see the embedded vid, you won’t get it on the index pages, so that way they load faster and look less cluttered, okay? The video is me playing Round Midnight, Thelonious Monk’s signature composition, hope you enjoy it.
My notes on this video:
No blowing. I play an intro based on my recollection of what I heard Monk play. The intro used by Miles Davis on loads of recordings in the 50s is rather different. Then once down the tune in the usual key of Eb minor. I hit the intro figure again and set up a modulation down a half-step, which is sort of weird/uncommon. I was working on playing this in all keys at the time and I liked how the transistion sounded, so did a “arrangement” based on that idea.
The dynamic range is pretty compressed by the video camera. A YouTube commented thought it lacked dynamics, and I suppose agree, but it ain’t so much my playing as the recording.
The weird sounding sub I do in the fourth bar (end of the first phrase, Bb7) is a Gb triad over Bb7, followed by an E triad over Bb7. The melody is the top note in these voicings, and it voice leads cleanly downward to the Ebmi7 (Gb triad) that follows it.
Got questions? Leave me a comment!
YouTube link: ‘Round Midnight
