Have you ever found yourself in a nice hotel lobby that’s nearly empty?
It’s almost like the space is going to waste! Especially if there’s a big beautiful grand piano just begging to be played…
Terry Miles, a master pianist, just can’t bear to let the piano be.
In a video posted on YouTube, Terry Miles does what he does best and shakes it up!
He enters into a quiet hotel, takes a short look around and almost b-lines right for the piano in the lounge!
His intention is to play the hard and fast rhythms of boogie woogie style piano.
This is kind of Terry Miles’ thing!
He shows up in seemingly random places and jumps on a piano to liven up the room!
In this endeavour, boogie woogie is the only style that makes sense!
And it’s even what Miles specializes in teaching!
Study.com gives us a solid explanation of boogie woogie, as well as context for how it developed!
“Boogie woogie, also sometimes known as barrelhouse music,
is a form of piano music. It comes from the blues, which is a form of very expressive music that originated in America’s Deep South in the 19th century. Blues is known to tell a story, and that story is often about hardships faced by African Americans.”
When they say very expressive,
they mean it’s rock and roll piano!
It’s full of passion and emotion and it’s all about getting people to dance! It’s crazy fast paced and will get just about any room moving sooner rather than later!
It’s also impressive as all get out to watch!
… Or at least, until you ask a piano purist.
Study.com doesn’t pull any punches when they say boogie woogie is generally associated with:
- “Being played by unskilled musicians and often on low quality instruments
- Emphasizing rhythm and not melody
- Using the left hand to continually play a repeating rhythm
- Using breaks in the music to rest the left hand and to create suspense in the music
- Being unpredictable and using screams and cries to create emotion in the lyrics”
Before you think that’s too mean, keep in mind that a classical guitarist would say the same thing about blues or rock!
Some purists just won’t change their mind! But Miles proves that plenty of skill goes into boogie woogie, and that it sounds even better on these great old grand pianos!
Not to mention people love it!
Just look at this guy above,
seeing Miles play through the window and offering up his custom stamp of approval!
Watching Miles play is seriously something else,
he headbangs while he plays
as if he’s in the back of Wayne’s car in the middle of Bohemian Rhapsody!
Modern technology simply cannot capture the majesty of the enthusastic piano dance!
Miles not only loves to spontaneously play boogie woogie piano to brighten people’s days, but
he also provides tutorials for how to do so on his channel!
He states his method on his about page:
“No complicated musical jargon or complicated scales on the piano but just pure knowledge that I’m giving away to you from over 35 years of experience and I guarantee you’ll be playing an impressive Boogie Woogie Piano Piece within two hours with my easy to follow videos and empathetic instructions.”
Maybe if you follow his videos you too can attract a crowd like that!
You can watch the video below and I highly recommend you to so you can enjoy some of the bops and tunes yourself!
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