Topic: Piano Tunes? (Read 13612 times)

Meishk · « **on:** 15 Mar 2006, 18:32 »

Hey I know I am new and its generally bad for newbs to post new threads but I have been around for awhile, and I had not gotten around to registering an account on the forums.

So now that I am all registered up, I am wondering if anyone could recommend some bands/artists who use piano a lot in their songs. I currently listen to Ben Folds, Ben Folds Five, and then some other bands that add piano in sometimes.

I am learning to play the piano and I am looking for some material to be able to play along with the classics that I am learning, because to be honest I get bored with practicing the same piece over and over and its easier to learn songs that I already know the tune of. So if anyone could suggest something that would be great!

Gryff · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Mar 2006, 18:45 »

Cat Power.

Awesome music, and would not be too hard to play either.

The Thrill · « **Reply #2 on:** 15 Mar 2006, 20:36 »

I would suggesting checking out anything that has Jon Lord on it, plays organs more than pianos but he's damned good. He was the keyboard player for Deep Purple from the start up until recently. He has a great sense of melody and his solos are definately awesome. I've tinkered around with some of it but I'm not particularly good with piano-instruments. I would suggest checking out Never Before from the Machine Head album in particular, quite awesome.

Gregg Allman is pretty good, another organ player. Usually pretty slow, clean stuff. Don't think I've ever heard him solo on the thing though, he leaves that to the guitarists.

Chuck Leavell is another incredible player, but I only know him from the tracks he did with Gov't Mule. I'm not entirely sure what band he is from.

Just about any classical pianist you can think of. You will almost definately recognize the melodies making it easier to play, and it's great exercise.

ImRonBurgundy? · « **Reply #3 on:** 15 Mar 2006, 21:10 »

two words: Tom Lehrer.

Rubby · « **Reply #4 on:** 15 Mar 2006, 21:45 »

Fuckin Supertramp man. God I love Supertramp

Laffy · « **Reply #5 on:** 15 Mar 2006, 22:30 »

Quote from: ImRonBurgundy?

two words: Tom Lehrer.

I second this. Good luck with being as funny as Tom Lehrer, though.

Ravenbomb · « **Reply #6 on:** 15 Mar 2006, 22:55 »

Tom Waits

StrangeGrowth · « **Reply #7 on:** 15 Mar 2006, 22:58 »

The Final COuntdown

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #8 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 07:27 »

Radiohead and Belle and Sebastian use a fair amount of piano.

Billy Joel?

Kai · « **Reply #9 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 07:39 »

Quote from: StrangeGrowth

The Final COuntdown

Hellz yeah.

Thrillho · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 08:59 »

Nick Cave.

Bob Dylan's piano stuff is an example of him being a great songwriter whatever he turns his hand to.

StrikeThePostman · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 12:10 »

Nick Drake wrote a couple of songs on piano, even though he was primarily a guitar player. I'm looking around for a book of sheet music, since I've never tried transcribing before.

pat101 · « **Reply #12 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 12:44 »

on a totally unrelated note, does anyone happen to know a good website to get "popular" songs in piano sheet music form?

Thrillho · « **Reply #13 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 12:50 »

Quote from: pat101

on a totally unrelated note, does anyone happen to know a good website to get "popular" songs in piano sheet music form?

Not for free.

Not for money either, for that matter. But you can't get piano sheet music for free. And if you do find it anywhere, they'll be arrested by the end of the week.

mberan42 · « **Reply #14 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 13:16 »

Serious Suggestions:
Elton John
Billy Joel
Paul McCartney
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Norah Jones
Rachael Yamagata
Jewel

Sorta Joke Suggestions:
Meatloaf - And I Would Do Anything for Love
Axl Rose - November Rain
That one song by NiN / Trent Reznor that I can't remember the name of atm.

Meishk · « **Reply #15 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 13:47 »

Thanks a bunch for all the suggestions. I will definately check some of them out.

@pat101: I have gotten some piano sheet music from www.musicnotes.com but it costs money. (like $5 per song which is pretty steep if you ask me)

ASturge · « **Reply #16 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 13:48 »

Quote from: pat101

on a totally unrelated note, does anyone happen to know a good website to get "popular" songs in piano sheet music form?

well, if you have the program "Guitar Pro" you can download files from

www.mysongbook.com

and load them up. You can then print the music from there. It wont be OFFICIAL, but if it sounds right, who cares?

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #17 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 15:10 »

Quote from: StrikeThePostman

Nick Drake wrote a couple of songs on piano, even though he was primarily a guitar player. I'm looking around for a book of sheet music, since I've never tried transcribing before.

Brad Mehldau plays two of his tunes ("Things Behind the Sun" and "River Man") on his "Live in Tokyo" album. He's an amazing piano player, that entire album is solo piano music (he does an amazing version of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android").

Valrus · « **Reply #18 on:** 16 Mar 2006, 15:24 »

Rufus Wainwright.

Chingyul · « **Reply #19 on:** 19 Mar 2006, 15:26 »

I asked a similar question a while back:

http://forums.questionablecontent.net/viewtopic.php?t=8490&highlight=piano

Picked up 2 albums from Hugo. Good stuff.
Gotta check out the other suggestions here.

IronOxide · « **Reply #20 on:** 19 Mar 2006, 17:30 »

Quote from: ASturge

Quote from: pat101
on a totally unrelated note, does anyone happen to know a good website to get "popular" songs in piano sheet music form?

well, if you have the program "Guitar Pro" you can download files from

www.mysongbook.com

and load them up. You can then print the music from there. It wont be OFFICIAL, but if it sounds right, who cares?

I completely second you, Sturge. My uncle grobbzored me a copy for christmas and it is very good cheap software.

Cartilage Head · « **Reply #21 on:** 19 Mar 2006, 17:33 »

The cover of Tears For Fears' Mad World by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews.

Kai · « **Reply #22 on:** 19 Mar 2006, 18:19 »

PSSSST! The Tears for Fears version is so much better. But that's beside the point.

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #23 on:** 19 Mar 2006, 22:32 »

I prefer the Gary Jules version. But anyway, Head Over Heels also has a cool piano part.

casull · « **Reply #24 on:** 19 Mar 2006, 22:35 »

If you can sing too, then check out warmness on the soul by avenged sevenfold.

>_> I know... don't laugh unless you're heard that track, it's not their normal sound.

work out a version of hallelujah too.

making music that people will stop what they are doing and listen to on the piano is a lot easier if you play chords and sing than trying to play awesome piano pieces.

Jira · « **Reply #25 on:** 19 Mar 2006, 22:59 »

Sorta Joke Suggestions:
Meatloaf - And I Would Do Anything for Love
Axl Rose - November Rain
That one song by NiN / Trent Reznor that I can't remember the name of atm.[/quote]

I'm guessing you're saying Joke Suggestions because they're kinda hard to play? *has learned both And I Would Do Anything For Love and November Rain for piano, ZOMG my brain tried to implode on both of those*.

If you're into KISS, try Beth. Great song. ^^;

Also, try VH1s Top 100 Love Songs, they've got some good piano music. It's about 30 dollars (a friend bought mine) and if you're into anime sheet music, http://www.animescores.com/ is a good website.

futile · « **Reply #26 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 01:13 »

have you tried mozart? that's a pretty good band.

bach is OK too, but not as fun.

Vlishgnath · « **Reply #27 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 06:14 »

Fiona Apple and Tori Amos? I don't listen to either, but I do believe they primarily use piano as the foundation of their music.

There is a band (sorry, they have transcended categorization at this point) called Samael that put out a CD by the name of Passage. Their keyboardist/percussionist/songwriter released a followup CD that was the entire disc (plus an extra track) completely redone with only piano and synths. It's bundled up with the original release now, but might be hard to track down. I think the bonus disc is called "Xytras' Passage." Really amazing stuff in my opinion.

Kai · « **Reply #28 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 07:34 »

Quote from: futile

have you tried mozart? that's a pretty good band.

bach is OK too, but not as fun.

Oh man, Mozart could totally punch Bach in the face and get away with hit because he was that much better.

mberan42 · « **Reply #29 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 09:28 »

Quote from: futile

Oh man, Mozart could totally punch Bach in the face and get away with hit because he was that much better.

Why did Mozart hate chickens?

'cause they kept saying "Bach bach bach!"

Laffy · « **Reply #30 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 13:46 »

Quote from: mberan42

Quote from: futile
Oh man, Mozart could totally punch Bach in the face and get away with hit because he was that much better.

Why did Mozart hate chickens?

'cause they kept saying "Bach bach bach!"

Baddum-thish. Anyway, there's some songs by Mark Lanegan ,(Lexington Slow Down, fx.), that include some pretty cool piano.

joey13 · « **Reply #31 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 16:54 »

R.E.M. - Nightswimming

The only instrument used in the song is the piano, so I'm thinking it'll be pretty easy to learn.

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #32 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 17:09 »

Most songs in the Antony and the Johnsons use piano.

Rubby · « **Reply #33 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 21:12 »

There is this live acoustic version of "They stood up for Love" by Live which is really really pretty and only piano. I wouldn't recommend the album version because it kinda stinks, but that piano one, oh god!

pcp · « **Reply #34 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 22:44 »

The piano work by (mostly) Rick Wakeman is really great stuff, in a simple kind of way, which is best if you're learning. Wakeman really nailed the essence of the place of piano in pop music. Other than that, listen to 'Round Midnight, the one where Thelonius is playing with John Coltrane, for about two hours and see if you can learn through osmosis;).

Also, "The Bad Plus" is awesome. Try to find "1972 Bronze Medalist"--it's a pretty simple structure with a whole bunch of semi-atonal soloing over top of it. Fun excercise, definitely.

Cheers,
pcp

sac_magic · « **Reply #35 on:** 21 Mar 2006, 06:43 »

Regina Spektor. or Joni Mitchell's piano stuff. Blue is the best album for that.

Diomedes · « **Reply #36 on:** 21 Mar 2006, 07:25 »

Procol Harum is a great piano-led band. Gary Brooker is one hell of a piano player, and has a great voice, too

pip_helix · « **Reply #37 on:** 21 Mar 2006, 08:46 »

1. aimee mann.
2. the dresden dolls.

Rocketcore · « **Reply #38 on:** 21 Mar 2006, 09:18 »

you should get the last 2 or 3 Idaho Albums. On the new one, The lone gunman, guitars have disappeared completely. it's just piano, wurlitzer and all that stuff.

http://www.idahomusic.com

StrikeThePostman · « **Reply #39 on:** 21 Mar 2006, 13:43 »

Quote from: Bastardous Bassist

Quote from: StrikeThePostman
Nick Drake wrote a couple of songs on piano, even though he was primarily a guitar player. I'm looking around for a book of sheet music, since I've never tried transcribing before.

Brad Mehldau plays two of his tunes ("Things Behind the Sun" and "River Man") on his "Live in Tokyo" album. He's an amazing piano player, that entire album is solo piano music (he does an amazing version of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android").

Yes, those three covers are good. And didn't he cover Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" too?

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #40 on:** 21 Mar 2006, 13:54 »

No, it was "Paranoid Android," which rocks a fierce amount of faces. His version of...oh hell, the entire album kicks more ass than...um...something that kicks a lot of ass.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Piano Tunes? (Read 13612 times)

Meishk

The Thrill

Laffy

Ravenbomb

StrangeGrowth

StrikeThePostman

Meishk

ASturge

Chingyul

Jira

futile

Vlishgnath

Laffy

joey13

pcp

sac_magic

Diomedes

pip_helix

Rocketcore

StrikeThePostman