culture / education / music

Open Mic Adventures XXXIV: “Chase’s Dilemma”

The Portly Politico2 Comments

In keeping with the vacation vibes of Memorial Day Weekend, it’s going to be a pretty short edition of Open Mic Adventures this week.  The good news is that very soon I’ll be back to showcasing footage from actual open mics, and not just me noodling on the piano in my school’s tiny music room.

That said, I hastily recorded a video of a very basic piano piece I wrote for one of my students, whose name is Chase.  It was a very quick sightreading exercise for him, and an opportunity for me to write some more student-focused material.

I suppose the “Dilemma” in the title refers to the presence of an F# accidental, as well as the necessity to move the right hand from C to D position and back again.  The left hand is a simple ascending line with that playful F# tossed in the mix.

Being just four measures, it’s very short:

Astute readers and viewers will note that I’m no longer sporting a beard (just a couple of succulent man boobs), but if you’re a fan of hairy TPP, I can get that beard back in two weeks.

Here’s the handwritten manuscript for “Chase’s Dilemma,” dating to the titular student’s lesson on 19 April 2023:

Chase's Dilemma - Manuscript

He’s actually way past this level of material at this point, but I always like to throw my more intermediate and advanced students some easy sightreading, because sometimes they’ve gotten so far beyond it, they actually have a hard time with it at first!  Fortunately, “Chase’s Dilemma” presented no dilemma for the real Chase, who played it easily.

Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures:

2 thoughts on “Open Mic Adventures XXXIV: “Chase’s Dilemma””

  1. Were you playing scales? If so, you could get a good overlap with a few or more tunes either down key or up tempo. They’re some good notes. 👍

    Yes, I know much about man boobs. I keep toning my pecs with free weights and then it doesn’t look that bad but it’s easy, for me anyway, to pull a muscle and then a week later, they’re wobbling again. That’s one of the reasons why I’m dieting and exercising. I don’t fancy seeing mine and Tina’s wedding pictures showing a perfectly formed woman and a bloke with lady parts. 😄

    As for a beard, if I stopped shaving now, I’d get a full beard in 2 years. It just doesn’t grow the way I’d like it to.

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    • The piece is basically a study of the standard C position on piano, and the left-hand is a little modified scale, going C->D->E->F#->G.

      Haha, Godspeed, my friend, in your battle against the boobs.

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