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Learning Musical Multitasking
11–20 of 24 posts
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#12I've been trying to do something like this for a long time. There are lots of different options, but not many are easially available, and there are no instructions. The big lesson is always "I need a lot more practice". Harmonica has a hands-free brace from multiple manufactures, so that is the most approachable option to combine with a stringed instrument (and I sound terrible when I try it).
Maybe in 20 years I'll get something working. (sooner if anyone wants to fund my mid-life crisis)
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#13Is HN showing post and comment times as recent when they really aren't? I see an exchange between Rochus and jefftk "1 hour ago", ending with a "thanks, posted" and that blogpost is from July 25. Today is July 29.
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#14The relevant issue is independent or coordinated control of concurrent musical parts, not whether those parts happen to use different instruments. Piano, Organ (with bass pedal) and drum-kit playing are canonical examples of the same underlying challenge. Skilled performance can require separately controlled fingers, hands, and feet, while the player experiences them as an integrated whole. I started to play the drum…
Rochus, a huge thanks for the comment and discovering your fascinating site. I was blown away by how musical the recent Suno covers of your funk songs are. I would not have been able to guess that they were AI generated. Please post more videos in the future---I am convinced there is a large audience that would be interested in learning more about your setup and seeing you improvise.
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#15Whenever I think of a true musical multitasker, I picture Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins . There's an element of multitasking that is (while not exclusively) inherent to piano definitely is an important focus. For instance, I play a lot of stride and blues piano. One of the hallmarks of those styles is having a rock-solid left hand that can maintain ornate but very consistent patterns. Once that’s locked i…
Re: Bach, also factor in that an organ player’s two hands would often be playing on two separate manuals (keyboards) that produced different sounds from each other and from the footboard. The player could activate a different set of stops (groups of pipes that provide a consistent sound for each note playable in the range of the keyboards) for each keyboard or footboard, and could also vary those selections to some e…
One nitpick: changing registration and playing on different manuals was not common in Bach's time; some scholars have gone as far as saying it was not done, even some pieces contain explicit instructions. But it's more of a Romance thing.
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#16Whenever I think of a true musical multitasker, I picture Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins . There's an element of multitasking that is (while not exclusively) inherent to piano definitely is an important focus. For instance, I play a lot of stride and blues piano. One of the hallmarks of those styles is having a rock-solid left hand that can maintain ornate but very consistent patterns. Once that’s locked i…
For that matter, a kit drummer is essentially playing (up to) four instruments at once since each limb could be doing something unique (granted for many (most?) drummers, they’re just using the high-hat pedal as a footrest, beating quarter or half notes on the bass drum and their hands will be focused on a single instrument, but a truly talented drummer might have four unique rhythms going at once). Add in the fact that some drummers sing backup and it can be quite impressive.
I had the pleasure of working with an amazing organist in my time at Holy Name Cathedral (he’s apparently since become semi-retired, just doing occasional fill-in work). Watching him do a Messiaen organ piece as a postlude after Mass it was like seeing video of Keith Moon on the drums. Limbs moving in a seemingly chaotic manner and yet music came out the other end (on top of crazy multi-manual keyboarding and pedalwork, he was also frequently changing the stops on the organ as he played).
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#17Whenever I think of a true musical multitasker, I picture Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins . There's an element of multitasking that is (while not exclusively) inherent to piano definitely is an important focus. For instance, I play a lot of stride and blues piano. One of the hallmarks of those styles is having a rock-solid left hand that can maintain ornate but very consistent patterns. Once that’s locked i…
For that matter, a kit drummer is essentially playing (up to) four instruments at once since each limb could be doing something unique (granted for many (most?) drummers, they’re just using the high-hat pedal as a footrest, beating quarter or half notes on the bass drum and their hands will be focused on a single instrument, but a truly talented drummer might have four unique rhythms going at once). Add in the fact t…
Nice. Oh yeah for sure that makes sense. I also think of the locking in a limb to play a preset "pattern loop" is also really similar to juggling which is something I enjoy. Just a lot of overlap in general!
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#18Is HN showing post and comment times as recent when they really aren't? I see an exchange between Rochus and jefftk "1 hour ago", ending with a "thanks, posted" and that blogpost is from July 25. Today is July 29.
Oddly enough, they do show July 25 on mouseover. The post itself shows as July 24 from two hours ago, and vunderba’s (top) comment shows as July 24 from 1 hour ago. I wonder if an old post got promoted or two posts merged and HN automatically updates comment dates in that case? Or maybe it’s a bug?
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#19The relevant issue is independent or coordinated control of concurrent musical parts, not whether those parts happen to use different instruments. Piano, Organ (with bass pedal) and drum-kit playing are canonical examples of the same underlying challenge. Skilled performance can require separately controlled fingers, hands, and feet, while the player experiences them as an integrated whole. I started to play the drum…
Rochus, a huge thanks for the comment and discovering your fascinating site. I was blown away by how musical the recent Suno covers of your funk songs are. I would not have been able to guess that they were AI generated. Please post more videos in the future---I am convinced there is a large audience that would be interested in learning more about your setup and seeing you improvise.
Very kind, thanks. Suno is indeed a great technology and opens interesting possibilities for musicians. I consider posting more videos. Stay tuned.
Re: Learning Musical Multitasking
#20Whenever I think of a true musical multitasker, I picture Dick Van Dyke’s character in Mary Poppins . There's an element of multitasking that is (while not exclusively) inherent to piano definitely is an important focus. For instance, I play a lot of stride and blues piano. One of the hallmarks of those styles is having a rock-solid left hand that can maintain ornate but very consistent patterns. Once that’s locked i…
For that matter, a kit drummer is essentially playing (up to) four instruments at once since each limb could be doing something unique (granted for many (most?) drummers, they’re just using the high-hat pedal as a footrest, beating quarter or half notes on the bass drum and their hands will be focused on a single instrument, but a truly talented drummer might have four unique rhythms going at once). Add in the fact t…
As a fan of drumming, you're probably one of the millions who have seen this. But for anybody who hasn't, here's a fun video showing how complicated drumming can be with a live performance by someone whose nickname is "The Octopus".
While the entire video is fun, the link is cued up to a place where there's a lot going on, but it's slow enough that you can kind of see what he's doing. Watch his knees to see what he's doing with pedals. Notice that his hands seem to be going in cycles, but there are subtle variations in the cycles.
At 8:54, strobe lights start up - that can't make it simpler to keep this focus. What he's doing looks essentially impossible to me, but I'm well aware that I don't know enough to understand just how insanely difficult it really is.