ELP - Nut Rocker - Piano Sheet Music + PDF & MIDI file
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- PDF can be obtained thru www.buymeacoff...
Some useful gumpf; click on SHOW MORE (just below).
And now for something completely different…!
Since I first got into Genesis, Tony Banks has always been my favourite keyboard player (no! really?!😂), but before Tony there was Keith Emerson.
Emmo is still my second favourite (although closely followed by Dave Stewart of Bruford & National Health fame), simply because IMHO, he’s the undisputed GOAT as far as rock keyboard players go! Whereas I can make a pretty good attempt at playing Tony’s musical magicness, Keith’s compositions are in a different ball-park!
I can play a few bits and bobs (like this, Benny the Bouncer, Trilogy) to a barely passable degree, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to play, say, Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression…!!
In many ways Keith, with his incredible showmanship onstage is the total anithesis of Tony and his “look at the singer, I’m not really here” approach 😂
But I love ‘em both!
Luckily, one of my subscribers (thanks Eric B 👍😊) recently commissioned me a to do this piece and has Ok'ed me putting it up here.
Although there are some really good transcriptions of a lot of Keith's playing already available on the internet (far more than is the case with Tony; hence my UA-cam channel...), I couldn't find anything for Nut Rocker, so I hope I've plugged the gap...
I've got a lot of other transcriptions of Keith's playing and I plan to go over them to see if there're any that need massaging...
So, this is a transcription of Keith’s version from the “Pictures at an Exhibition” album.
Nut Rocker itself was written by Kim Fowley and originally performed by Bee Bumble & The Stingers though the original motifs are from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” (hence the name).
It's scored, as usual, with Sibelius 7.5
The Honky-Tonk Piano is provided by Modartt’s Pianoteq 7 U4 Upright (detuned).
I decided to go with a honky-tonk piano sound rather than the original Clavinet D6 simply because I prefer it 🙂
To be honest, I’m not a fan of the Clavinet unless it’s being abused by the utterly awesome Lachy Doley with his whammy bar attachment & wah-wah!! 😎
If I were to spend a few months practising then I could MAYBE play it well at the tempo that Keith does on PaaE, but that ain’t gonna happen! 😂
Hence, I reduced the speed a bit so that I could at least give it a go.
And here are the results - after a LOT of duff notes, velocity and tempo correction…! 😳😂
Some performance notes.
NO sustain pedal! except maybe at the very end to hold the bass G’s down while playing the G7(#9) chords…
I've added some metronome marks (relating to the original tempo) to give an idea of the speeding up/slowing down that happens throughout the piece.
The Bm chord in bars 55 and 127 can only be played this way on a piano. On a Clavinet (the PaaE recording has the live Clavinet performance on the right channel and an overdubbed 'double' track on the left to thicken the sound up), playing the top F# in the Bm chord is impossible cos the key simply doesn’t exist!
So Keith added a G in the middle of the chord instead (making it a G^7) - he also dropped the top notes of each chord in bars 53-56.
The boogie section (bars 65-100) are (as indicated) slightly swung. ie. not, like the rest of the piece, straight 1/8th notes (da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da), but slighty 'boogified' (dum-di-dum-di-dum-di-dum).
At the warp-speed that this bit flies along at, it's natural that the LH pinky is 'weak' compared with the LH thumb & index finger so it kinda just happens anyway 🙂
Bar 84 - I've made a slight adjustment to the seventh 1/8 notes in the RH; the notes are B and D# on the original but I prefer C and E.
Also, in bar 83, you could play a B on the RH first 1/8th note to 'complete' the sequence if you like; Keith doesn't on the recording but it may just be cos he slipped…
The end of bar 100 is where the drum break happens on the original. I've joined the two sections but feel free to take a breather; it's what Keith did! 😂
Bar 139 - I've 'corrected' it to contain the 'standard' blues run down that would normally accompany what Greg played on the bass; works for me!
Bar 143 - Not sure if the final chord was meant to be the way it's recorded. Keith goes back to a G7(#9) chord but Greg stays on an Ab. Whether it was a mistake or not, the resultant chord sounds cool so that's how I've scored it. NB. the LH middle note is a B natural - the 'b9' of the Bb7(b9) chord.
Have fun! 👍
Really cool of you to branch out to Keith Emerson. I'm gonna study this from your transcription.
And if you decide to do any Dave Stewart (egg, Khan, Hatfield, national health, matching mole) I for one would greatly enjoy it!
Yeah, I was commisioned to transcribe this piece (I've just added some more info about that to the SHOW MORE description above).
May do some DS at some point; I guess Bruford's Joe Frazier may be as good a place to start as any...
Thank you, you are great
no other music better embodies freedom as rock and roll. awesome piece.great work! was lucky to see elp live once.
Nice. Thank you for this even when I do not play piano 👍☺
This is a very good transcription and performance! I love how much work you put into this! And all the performance notes. I'll definitely be buying you a coffee when I get the chance.
Wow, fantastic job! Way beyond my playing skills but much appreciated nonetheless. A fun piece and one of the many examples of Keith’s brilliance. I find it amusing that Trilogy is one of his songs in your wheelhouse - I’ll go back to practicing and stick with Tony in the meantime 😉
Try playing it at a slower tempo (say, 2/3 speed); that's how I start with this sort of stuff. At that speed the right hand is certainly no more difficult than anything Tony does.
With Keith, it's the left hand that REALLY needs weeks of practice, although once your LH is strong enough to play this piece, you can then cope with the rest of his 'boogie-woogie' stuff like Benny the Bouncer or Honky Tonk Train Blues.
His LH ostinato work is legendary and the stamina required to play, for example, bar 45+ or bar 65+ cannot be acquired overnight...!! 😂
I'm nowhere near Keith's level, but with a LOT of practice, I can do a reasonable approximation 😉
PS. Not all of the Trilogy track; just the beautiful piano stuff up until the synth chords ostinato comes in.
Thanks for the tip. Much appreciated
This is awesome Hob!
Please do more transcriptions of elp
I probably will but, unlike my Genesis videos, they won't be 'free' (if you've already bought me at least one 'coffee') as they're MUCH harder to work out!
This one (Nut Rocker) IS effectively 'free' as I did it as a commission and Eric B gave me permission to pop it up here.
Grazie!
Hello,
your favorite keyboarder are Tony Banks and Keith Emerson but what do think of Rick Wakeman ?
Ah, Rick... I've got all his Yes & solo albums and seen him live several times (with Yes & solo).
He's a brilliant raconteur and an incredibly charismatic character, but I'm afraid his playing doesn't resonate with me the same way the three (TB, KE & DS) that I mentioned in my video description do. He's a truly excellent player and I can't think of anyone who plays with more precission than he does, but for me it's all a bit too 'baroque' for want of a better word.
I think it's his constant use of arpeggios and ornamentation (trills etc.) that are just too 'old classical' for my taste. And I find his compositions don't have the variety, particularly in terms of harmony (chords, chord sequences etc.) that the other 3 do.
I'm reminded of Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Handel etc. when I listen to Rick, whereas with Keith it's more of a Lizst and Russian (Rachmaninov, Mussorsky, Prokofiev etc.) vibe; with Tony and Dave it's Rachmaninov, Mahler, and the French (Debussy, Faure & Satie) and English (RVW, Holst & Elgar) composers although that's perhaps simplifying it a bit.
And, apart from Bach, I prefer my classical music from the mid 19th century onwards precisely because of the more advanced harmonies used compared to earlier periods...
I guess that, for me, music is a bit like the story of Goldilock's reaction to the porridge and the beds... 😂
Pre-mid 19th century was too simple (harmonically speaking), post early-mid-twentieth century (including, to a certain extent, jazz) too complicated. But the period in between (and those influenced by it like TB etc.) is 'just right' for me 😊
@@ElektrikHob Never mind,
I would be interested in the harpsichord accompaniment in the Yes song "Madrigal".
But indeed, it's baroque.
@@ElektrikHob Love the comparisons of keyboardists to classical composers, although with Keith you have to include jazz folks like Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson, etc., since they make up a huge part of his harmonic sensibilities as well.
I hear the French, English, and Russian modal sound with Tony, but sometimes he's just...Tony! Mussorgsky and Debussy messed with pedal tones and modal mixture of course, but there's just something about the way Banks did it that was truly unique.
I agree with your assessment of Wakeman and his overtly neoclassical style. He just can't resist those Baroque/Classical Mordents/Trills, etc.!
Anyways, I love your channel. I'm always too busy accompanying or writing on piano to bother with transcriptions, so to me, you're really doing God's (Keith's!!!) work here. Great job!!!
@@rizz7604 You're right about Keith's Jazz sensibilities of course. Huge fan of Bill Evans myself (the jazz I was refering to was more the free-form jazz movement which just leaves me cold and the self-indulgent noodling that can occur in some 'standard' jazz too) and partial to some Keith Jarrett (like the Koln concert) too.
Although Oscar's probably the jazz GOAT from a technique POV (with Art Tatum not far behind), he doesn't float my boat I'm afraid.
Funnily enough I remember two different TV shows (shown in the UK decades ago) with Emmo & Oscar on one and Rick and a classical pianist (possibly John Lill) on the other.
Keith was so nervous about playing with Oscar (as would be anyone!) but he did Ok.
However Rick was utterly blown away by the classical dude, especially on boogie-woogie of all things...!
Rick tried but ended up just repeating his usual chord sequences & arpeggios/mordents/trills etc.
And yes, Tony really is one-of-a-kind which is partly why I've dedicated so much effort to understanding his writing & playing :)
Is there a version of this when I can see which tangents to press? 🤣 like synthesia? I suck at notereading
Good transcription. Is there a transcription that includes the version where the Trans-Siberian orchestra goes into A major chords temporarily and has the amazing organ part?
Erm... No 😂