# Hiromi Uehara playing with a 7 string dude



## DropDizzle (Jul 13, 2012)

Just pure gold. I love everything she does. If you've never heard of her, listen and grow. Had to share.


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## Yaris (Jul 14, 2012)

This is just unfair.


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## troyguitar (Jul 14, 2012)

I hate her.


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## DropDizzle (Jul 14, 2012)

I know that feel bro. There's another one of her with chick corea. They basically improv an entire show and I don't think I've ever been more pissed/angry/jealous/enjoyed/happy/elated and just outright jaw dropped. In my opinion she is at least 5 years ahead of where jazz is now. Her playing is the same quality of Chopin. I've never wanted an Asian girlfriend more.


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## larry (Jul 14, 2012)

tosin should jam with these cats.


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## troyguitar (Jul 14, 2012)

The thing that gets me is that she never even looks like she's trying at all. She's just up there screwing around 

People like her are why I stay away from any serious attempt at the piano. I haven't seen a guitar equivalent to that kind of insane capability. Maybe Shawn Lane but that's about it.


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## Trespass (Jul 14, 2012)

DropDizzle said:


> I know that feel bro. There's another one of her with chick corea. They basically improv an entire show and I don't think I've ever been more pissed/angry/jealous/enjoyed/happy/elated and just outright jaw dropped. In my opinion she is at least 5 years ahead of where jazz is now. Her playing is the same quality of Chopin. I've never wanted an Asian girlfriend more.



Yeah, I think Wolfmother is 5 years ahead of where rock is now.



> Her playing is the same quality of Chopin.



No.


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## DropDizzle (Jul 14, 2012)

Never heard Wolfmother. I will.

I know shes not as good as chopin really, Idk if anyone could really be that good.  Classical is definitely more difficult to play than jazz.

Thats the sad thing about piano v. guitar. The average piano player has put twice the effort starting at a younger age than the average guitarist. Imagine if guitarists started at age 3 and played at least an hour a day their whole life. I dont really think many have done that. And that has to be coupled with a natural musical ability (affinity if you will).

The thing that gets me is shes 33. She will definitely be the same legend that Chick Corea is.


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## Trespass (Jul 15, 2012)

The Wolfmother reference was a joke. They sound like a 70s rock band.

I think your making statements without any real understanding of the jazz world or history man.

Hiromi hasn't added any new vocabulary or techniques to the table. Guys like Brad Mehldau, however, have. Maybe that's why he's consistently been voted the best jazz pianist for the last few years in Downbeat's poll, and Hiromi hasn't.

If anything, she's the next Oscar Peterson. Oscar Peterson didn't add any new harmonic vocabulary or techniques to the table, didn't particularly write well, and plays a string of licks. But hey! He was overtly technical, and had a certain charisma and charm to his sound. Like Hiromi, the focus is on technique and sound.



DropDizzle said:


> I know shes not as good as chopin really, Idk if anyone could really be that good.  Classical is definitely more difficult to play than jazz.



First of all, people certainly can be that good. It is possible to improvise, play, and write at the level Chopin did. There are examples of improvising classical pianists who can do incredible feats of improvisation, like Chopin could.

Classical is not more difficult to play than jazz. There is no possible way to even talk about the differences vis a vis one being better than the other.

I mean, it's easy to blow over Autumn Leaves. It's also easy to play some mid-level Bach. So what?



> Thats the sad thing about piano v. guitar. The average piano player has put twice the effort starting at a younger age than the average guitarist. Imagine if guitarists started at age 3 and played at least an hour a day their whole life. I dont really think many have done that. And that has to be coupled with a natural musical ability (affinity if you will).



Except that they don't often put much effort in that half hour, if they do practice. There is an undeniable benefit to early piano lessons, but it usually comes from the 1 hour a week the kid may put in the day before the lesson, and then the lesson itself. Kids just don't want to practice.


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## DropDizzle (Jul 15, 2012)

Trespass said:


> The Wolfmother reference was a joke. They sound like a 70s rock band.
> 
> I think your making statements without any real understanding of the jazz world or history man.




I do understand Jazz history. Gotcha about wolfmother now lol. I looked them up and i was like, either this dudes crazy or making a joke. I concluded the latter. tip of the hat to you sir. haha




Trespass said:


> Hiromi hasn't added any new vocabulary or techniques to the table. Guys like Brad Mehldau, however, have. Maybe that's why he's consistently been voted the best jazz pianist for the last few years in Downbeat's poll, and Hiromi hasn't.



Not a piano player so I'm gonna move on from this topic and say i learned something. 




Trespass said:


> First of all, people certainly can be that good. It is possible to improvise, play, and write at the level Chopin did. There are examples of improvising classical pianists who can do incredible feats of improvisation, like Chopin could.



Yes, at his level definitely. I meant to be referencing more towards how far ahead of his time he was. Really, he pushed musical technique further than a lot of people around his time. I'm probably wrong though cause Im not a pianist and piano is my weakest instrument.



Trespass said:


> Classical is not more difficult to play than jazz. There is no possible way to even talk about the differences vis a vis one being better than the other.



I think classical IS more restricted. And for most people that is more difficult because it doesnt allow for as many mistakes that jazz allows.

Classical requires very specific articulation, phrasing, dynamic, expression that is not really "natural" to where we want it to fall. Most classical (art music past the romantic era) tends to avoid phrasing that starts and ends on beat 1. 

When playing jazz, if you hit a "wrong note", start the phrase on a different beat (start autumn leaves on the downbeat, for example) you can easily turn around and have no one ever think you didnt mean to do that.

more restriction=fewer mistakes= difficult

even so, with all that said, the term easy or hard (difficult) is entirely subjective and opinion.  I'm just basing it off of my experience with what most musicians that have studied both for the same amount of time say (in other words, my own statistical understanding, which obviously isnt very scientific).

Edit: looked at your profile. I dun wanna argue with you. great chops. you win.  ignore everything i ever said about piano. if that wasnt clear up there ^
but screw you! i still think classical style music is more difficult for previously stated reasons. bwahaha. even so, without being too back and forth I do realize how apples and oranges it is.


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## JoeyW (Jul 21, 2012)

Hiromi is great. Although I 100% agree with Trespass that she certainly has not revolutionized anything from simply a playing perspective, I find her writing to be very refreshing. On a side note I've found that many non-jazz enthusiests can appreciate her work, which is cool.


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## Enselmis (Jul 21, 2012)

DropDizzle said:


> I think classical IS more restricted. And for most people that is more difficult because it doesnt allow for as many mistakes that jazz allows.
> 
> Classical requires very specific articulation, phrasing, dynamic, expression that is not really "natural" to where we want it to fall. Most classical (art music past the romantic era) tends to avoid phrasing that starts and ends on beat 1.
> 
> ...



What you say is true however when playing jazz you don't have weeks or even months before to bring whatever you're playing up to a flawless level. You have a split second to react and choose either consciously or unconsciously where you're going to take the tune.

Different skill set entirely and I think there is in fact more pressure when you're expected to compose something exceptional on the spot. That's why jazz shows aren't called jazz RECITALS. 

On topic: <3 Hiromi. She may not be an innovator but her playing is still beautiful.


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## The Reverend (Jul 22, 2012)

I thought it was interesting. Not sure why they all wore the strangest clothing possible, but hey, they're artists, right?


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## narad (Jul 22, 2012)

Ah, that's David Fiuczynski with his "Fuzeblaster" Gustavsson signature double neck. Pretty crazy specs on that thing.


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## InfinityCollision (Jul 22, 2012)

DropDizzle said:


> I think classical IS more restricted. And for most people that is more difficult because it doesnt allow for as many mistakes that jazz allows.


As mentioned, different skill set. People tend to judge classical players by their ability to play a rehearsed piece, whereas jazz players are evaluated by their improvisations.

This has not always been the case for classical music. Improvisation used to be relatively common in classical playing, and it's only within the past couple centuries that this has faded away. It lingers in the form of the solo cadenza, though many players use pre-composed passages for their cadenzas instead. There's been a small revival of interest in classical improvisation in recent years, but it hasn't really caught on; it's just not part of the skill set of most classical musicians these days.



> Classical requires very specific articulation, phrasing, dynamic, expression that is not really "natural" to where we want it to fall. Most classical (art music past the romantic era) tends to avoid phrasing that starts and ends on beat 1.


Such modern pieces exist, certainly, but I would not consider that to be the bulk of modern pieces that actually see repeat performance and modern literature in itself is not the majority of performed classical music. It's also worth bearing in mind that some modern pieces are as much science as art, written for the sake of examining a certain tone sequence.



> When playing jazz, if you hit a "wrong note", start the phrase on a different beat (start autumn leaves on the downbeat, for example) you can easily turn around and have no one ever think you didnt mean to do that.


Only because of the improvisational component in jazz. Theory itself will tell you that there is really no such thing as a wrong note; an out-of-key note could be a leading tone into another note, or it could imply a different tonality, etc. It's all in what you're trying to express, and recognizing that modern-day expectations for each style are different.


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## AlexRuger (Sep 5, 2012)

Good ol Fuze. I've studied with him a bit. Ridiculously intense guy but very nice and helpful if you put in the work. 

Check out his work with Screaming Headless Torsos, John Medeski, KIF, etc. Lots of crazy playing by him all over the place.


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## Stan P (Sep 21, 2012)

Other neck is fret less BTW


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