Click on a title to hear the song.

BOOGIE WOOGIE  A piano style developed by Pinetop Smith.  It was used in Swing Jazz and is the basic building block of early Rock and Roll.  Copyright 1995, Ensoniq Corp U.S. Artist - Pelle

BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE BOY    The Boogie Woogie melody line is played on piano and bass, while horns add fills, woodwinds play melody and drums keep the Swing rhythm. This is Big Band Jazz.

GUITAR BOOGIE    The same melody line as the piano boogie but done on electric guitar. The guitar is backed up by the rhythm section (drums, bass and horns) borrowed from the Jazz bands.

THE PINK PANTHER   Find a way to play softly (pianissimo) and in a big way (piano forte). The rhythm is sort of a Jazz Swing Shuffle.              Make your instrument swing and shuffle.

JAMES BOND THEME    Listen to the horn section rise and fall at the beginning. That is one of the musical themes. The guitar solo is another theme. In Pop music catchy themes are called "hooks."

SECRET AGENT MAN    The guitar theme or "hook" at the beginning is the exact same melody as the horn introductory theme in JAMES BOND. Is that a coincidence?

WATERMELON MAN    There are really two songs here. The first version is in the style of Mongo Santamaria. We could call it Afro-Cuban, Jazz, Cha Cha with a Bluesy melody. Then we hear the Herbie Hancock version played in what is sometimes called Fusion Style. That is a mixture of Jazz, Rock, Funk and other modern styles. Thanks to Bob Norton and George Tassara for the music.

WALK DON'T RUN    THE VENTURES are the pinnacle of guitar bands with the "clean", "twangy" tones you hear. They also perfected the use of the vibrato bar (whammy bar) which loosens or tightens the strings giving the sliding or glissando sounds. You will hear more glissando guitar in the song "Sleepwalk."  During the "bridge" (the middle part where the melody changes) listen to the bass guitar.  You will hear the familiar Boogie Woogie.

Click here to visit The Venture's website:    THE VENTURES

X FILES     The eerie tones or  "timbre"  help us imagine strange science fiction stories.  The second part of this version is played with harp, flute, strings and percussion. Now is has a feel of ancient stories.  The same melody can suggest different pictures or moods depending on the   "tone color"   of the instruments being played.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME      Listen for the surprise end. Before there was heavy metal there was brass. Once horns, flutes and percussion were the only instruments loud enough to be heard at outdoor concerts.  The saxophone uses a reed like a clarinet, but has a brass sound chamber.  Is it a  woodwind or brass instrument?

                                 This is a Waltz. The count is  1,2,3 - 1,2,3.

Try to play this pattern only sounding the numbers:

1, x, x,  1, x, x,  1, x, x,  1, 2, 3

1, x, x,  1, x, x,  1, x, x,  1, 2, 3

1, 2, 3   1, 2, 3   1, 2, 3    1, x, x

1, 2, 3   1, 2, 3   1, 2, 3    1, x, x

WALTZ ON THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE    The patterns played on "Take Me Out To The Ball Game will also work on this waltz by Johann Strauss.    The music was used in the Movie "2001 A Space Odyssey" as the space ship did a dance with the space station. Recently the section 40 seconds into the song was used on a TV commercial where people chewed food to the familiar rhythms.

THE SIMPSONS  Some parents object to the content of the show, but the theme song is a good example of creative use of the Classical Orchestra.  Danny Elfman,  since retiring from Oingo Boingo, has made great themes for movies and TV. Can you name one of his hit movies.  Good luck with trying to keep the beat to this one!  Lets try to identify instruments and how he uses them to "illustrate" characters.

SLEEPWALK     By Santos and Johnny.    This is the typical slow dance song style of the 1950's.    The drums are playing in 4/4 time. Between each drum quarter note the piano is playing three beats as in a waltz. These are called triplets. On a hand drum make your left hand tap out the quick 1,2,3  1,2,3 while your right hand hits only when the left is hitting on beat 1.  Left hand: 1,2,3  1,2,3, right hand 1,x,x  1,x,x.    That is what the drummer must do.      The guitar chords follow a progression used in hundreds of songs.  The chords are based on these steps of the scale: 1,6,4,5,1 or C, Ami.,F,G.    Musicians call this a turnaround progression.

TAKE FIVE    By Dave Brubeck.  5/4 time!  Count it like:  1,2,3,..1,2,  1,2,3,..1,2   Practice it like: clap, clap, clap, pat (lap), pat.    During the saxophone solo and bass solo in the middle of the song see if you can keep the pattern going as the instruments improvise.

TEQUILA    By The Champs.  The saxophone stops playing the melody and improvises.  That is the musician makes up a solo. During the improvisation hum the melody and see if the solo ends at the end of the phrase. When  musicians improvise they must remain aware of the structure of the song. During The "bridge" of the song where the melody changes, you can hear the bass playing the Boogie Woogie. 

THE MACARENA  The rhythm is like saying,  Hip, Hop, Cha-Cha, Cha.  You count four measures of 1,2,3,4. The dance changes hand positions on beats 1 and 3. Try to do the same with a collection of sounds.

SIRTAKI - ZORBA THE GREEK   This starts very slow and ends incredibly fast. Try two stepping 1,2-1,2 like Zorba's dance. By the end you'll know what a drummer has to do with the kick drum and high-hat cymbal. The guitar sounding instrument is a Bouzouki. Heavy metal speed guitarists, look out!  The bouzouki players are fast and the instrument has double strings to hold down with each finger.  

MISERLOU    This surf music classic by Dick Dale and The Deltones was originally a Greek song played on bouzouki like "Zorba The Greek." Predictably, the guitar is played very fast.     Some people know this song as the Pulp Fiction Theme due to it's use in that movie.

CHOPSTICKS  George Tassara created this fascinating take off. This copy is faster than George's version.   Use chopsticks as drum sticks and try to keep the beat as the song plays with time and instrument variations. The choppy sounding meter is called "staccato". The rhythm sounds like a Rumba. Spend some time exploring George's web page at: Fabulous Gertrude's MIDI Space.  There is a lot of music there.

WIPEOUT  A surfer classic with a speedy drum part which is kind of Military -Brazilian- African.  The roll is done with alternate single hits so hand drums would work fine. Try it with Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue."    A great single hit drummer is  Gene Krupa.  SING, SING, SING was one of his great performances.

LET THERE BE DRUMS    A drum solo by Sandy Nelson with a single hit style as in Gene Krupa's playing on SING, SING, SING.

SING SING SING   Gene Krupa's "tribal-primitive" drumming intermixes with Bennie Goodman's Classical sounding instrumental arrangement making this song like a Jazz Concerto.  The several drum solos in the middle of the song emphasize the tom toms rather than the snare drum. This technique has influenced generations of Rock drummers.  Notice that the drum roll at the end is strikingly similar to the drum solo in "Wipeout."  The song was written by Louis Prima who developed a jazz style that was popular with Rock 'n Roll listeners.

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DUELING BANJOS     From the movie "Deliverance."     "Call-response" is a technique where one voice calls and another echoes.  Try to clap or hum the responses as the song becomes more difficult.     The form of the song is rondo or A,B. Part A is call-response and part B is tutti. Tutti means all instruments play together.     Perhaps this explains the contents of the candy, Tutti Fruity.   What is the meaning of Little Richard's song, "Tutti Fruity?"

APACHE    Native Americans usually play drums with no accents so it's hard to tell if the song is 3 beats per measure or 4 or 16. Try to keep straight "Indian" time with this guitar classic as it goes through several Latin rhythm variations including Rumba and Tango.