Today I Smiled: High Voices

I'm taking a short blogging break for a few days so I thought I'd leave you with something to listen to, courtesy of DL who is currently sucked into Filipino singers.

Marcelino Pomoy and Morisette are pretty good, but I was most impressed by Gary Valenciano who sings Chick Corea's jazz standard: Spain. It is amazing! Here's a low res version but with less ads in the middle.

I also can't help but share a few more Brexit funnies. At some point I feel the Queen's just going to line up those politicians and...

Clean house!

slakmehl (on getting further Brexit extension)
Because when you're sitting in a car with a perfectly good steering wheel careening towards a cliff, your only option is to figure out how to make the edge of the cliff slightly further away.

punchdrunkskunk
    Turns out Brexit negotiations are basically the Spice Girls:

    UK: I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
    EU: So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
    UK: I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
    EU: So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
    UK: I wanna Huh I wanna Huh I wanna Huh I wanna Huh
    EU: ...
    UK: I really, really, really wanna [unintelligible].
    EU: ...

Lastly, due to the fire at Notre Dame recently, Ubisoft are offering Assassin's Creed: Unity for free this week. As expected with this outcome, folks on reddit are now suggesting "We need to burn more historical monuments." LOL.

Music is Magic

Ok, other than the obvious mood transference that some songs have I am amused that as a pianist I seem to follow the same rules as the older versions of a Dungeons & Dragons mage, except in exchange for spells I have songs. It takes me long to learn one, and as I gain new ones I lose the old ones that I don't play. Maybe I'm just too low level at the moment? 

And just like in D&D there are those naturally gifted with magic who can use it better. So too is the case in music. While everyone can train up to a certain point there are just somethings that you are born with. A good example is the youtube aussie muso "Lara Plays" (aka Lara de Wit) who has Synesthesia - she "hears" notes as colors. She also thinks a lot of musicians do and maybe that's true, I'm just not one of them. :P

Lara has the most links in this post!

If you don't know what I'm getting at she talks a little bit about it in a question and answer video here. The part you are interested in starts at 0:40 and goes to 2:20. Or, you could just listen to her play stuff! Her side by side vid of playing Rebecca Black's Friday and Nyan Cat is particularly funny since they gel so well together.

Anywho while I'm on the topic of music here are a few other links that I really like, so I thought I'd share them. At the very least check out the first link, because it's bloody amazing.

Amira Willighagen (9 yrs old) - Audition for Holland's Got Talent
(Skip to 1:40 to get to the singing)

"Defying Gravity" from Wicked by Evynne Hollens
(I'm a fan of her husband's layer stuff too)

"Pierce the heavens with your drill!" from the Gurren Lagann OST by Animenz
(This guy does a lot of cool pieces)

"Spain" - Chick Corea and Hiromi Uehara piano duet
(Old clip but one of my favs, very jazzy though)

"Mendelssohn Wedding March" by Arcadi Volodos
(Listen to it fully to be blown away by dexterity! :P)

And if music isn't your thing, maybe learning Elvish is. Elfish? Sylvan? I dunno, you'll have to ask Ravanel for a "Ravalation" as I got the link from her blog. :P