Why didn't Paul play the piano solo on In My Life?
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dcshark:
WixRocks!:
Sgt._Pepper:
WixRocks!:
"Lady Madonna" is really the only challenging piece Paul composed AND performed for the piano with The Beatles...and there are few exceptions afterwards...
Martha My Dear?
It crossed my mind, but I wouldn't really call it challenging. Of course this all varies from player to player, "Martha My Dear" never gave me a hard time...but to this day, I'm never 100% happy with my playing on "Lady Madonna".
Paul has been quoted to say that Martha My Dear was above his level of piano playing and it was a complicated piece. When I taught myself piano I liked to see how far I could go, and this started life almost as a piece you'd learn as a piano lesson. It's quite hard for me to play, it's a two-handed thing, like a little set piece. In fact I remember one or two people being surprised that I'd played it because it's slightly above my level or competence really, but I wrote it as that, something a bit more complex for me to play. Then while I was blocking out words - you just mouth out sounds and some things come - I found the words 'Martha my dear'. Paul McCartney Many Years From Now, Barry Miles In My Life would have been beyond his reach when it was recorded.
You don't know that, unless you were there, and you weren't. And to those who say things like "well this song is easy to play, Paul never could play beyond a rudimentary level" you forget one thing: copying someone's work is not the same as creating it. That's why lounge singers can do what they do, and little school girls can learn to play piano from a book, and while it's charming to listen to, the process of actually writing your own music, of playing the notes you hear in your head and adding the perfect touches to a song, that's where the real talent emerges. To judge McCartney's ability based on whether Martha My Dear is really that difficult to play or not isn't relevant. The fact is, the piano playing is perfect for the song. Millions can copy what others have created, but its the rare talent that can actually create the music in the first place. And in McCartney's case, it is his music that has proven to be timeless.
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DavidP:
dcshark:
WixRocks!:
Sgt._Pepper:
WixRocks!:
"Lady Madonna" is really the only challenging piece Paul composed AND performed for the piano with The Beatles...and there are few exceptions afterwards...
Martha My Dear?
It crossed my mind, but I wouldn't really call it challenging. Of course this all varies from player to player, "Martha My Dear" never gave me a hard time...but to this day, I'm never 100% happy with my playing on "Lady Madonna".
Paul has been quoted to say that Martha My Dear was above his level of piano playing and it was a complicated piece. When I taught myself piano I liked to see how far I could go, and this started life almost as a piece you'd learn as a piano lesson. It's quite hard for me to play, it's a two-handed thing, like a little set piece. In fact I remember one or two people being surprised that I'd played it because it's slightly above my level or competence really, but I wrote it as that, something a bit more complex for me to play. Then while I was blocking out words - you just mouth out sounds and some things come - I found the words 'Martha my dear'. Paul McCartney Many Years From Now, Barry Miles In My Life would have been beyond his reach when it was recorded.
You don't know that, unless you were there, and you weren't. And to those who say things like "well this song is easy to play, Paul never could play beyond a rudimentary level" you forget one thing: copying someone's work is not the same as creating it. That's why lounge singers can do what they do, and little school girls can learn to play piano from a book, and while it's charming to listen to, the process of actually writing your own music, of playing the notes you hear in your head and adding the perfect touches to a song, that's where the real talent emerges. To judge McCartney's ability based on whether Martha My Dear is really that difficult to play or not isn't relevant. The fact is, the piano playing is perfect for the song. Millions can copy what others have created, but its the rare talent that can actually create the music in the first place. And in McCartney's case, it is his music that has proven to be timeless.
It wasn't Paul's creative input that initiated the the middle eight solo but Martin's and he states he couldn't play it at the required speed. Martin was the best piano player of the four at the time. What makes you think McCartney could play it. And I never said McCartney's playing was rudimentary.
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Paul sometimes got help from Ringo on piano!