Schryver Piano Compositions

[William Schryver]

I am in the process of recording (if nothing else, for the sake of my posterity) as many of my piano compositions as I can. One of the things I have done in my various wards over the years is to compose my own arrangements of hymns out of our hymnbook, and present them as "special music number" piano solos during Sacrament meeting. Just yesterday I performed my most recent arrangement: Jesus, Once of Humble Birth. I had previously recorded a medley of songs with the tune of "Greensleeves" as the dominant theme. It is the second song in the current list at the link below. The third and fourth songs are original compositions.

I make no pretense to being a piano/keyboard virtuoso. I am not. I am purely a self-taught musician, and I don't pretend to be anything more. But I do love music, and I do love a great many of our LDS hymns, and it gratifies me very much to produce my own renditions of those hymns I love best. I am sharing these things here in the hope that perhaps some few others will be able to share in the passion I feel for these things.

Schryver Piano Compositions

[BookofMormonLuvr]

I am in the process of recording (if nothing else, for the sake of my posterity) as many of my piano compositions as I can. One of the things I have done in my various wards over the years is to compose my own arrangements of hymns out of our hymnbook, and present them as "special music number" piano solos during Sacrament meeting. Just yesterday I performed my most recent arrangement: Jesus, Once of Humble Birth. I had previously recorded a medley of songs with the tune of "Greensleeves" as the dominant theme. It is the second song in the current list at the link below. The third and fourth songs are original compositions.

I make no pretense to being a piano/keyboard virtuoso. I am not. I am purely a self-taught musician, and I don't pretend to be anything more. But I do love music, and I do love a great many of our LDS hymns, and it gratifies me very much to produce my own renditions of those hymns I love best. I am sharing these things here in the hope that perhaps some few others will be able to share in the passion I feel for these things.

Schryver Piano Compositions

Shameless self-promotion...

WORKS!!

I can't wait to check it out.

Thank you for sharing your gifts.

[William Schryver]

Shameless self-promotion...

I don't mean it as such. Really. I mean, I guess every would-be artist wants his or her work to be appreciated by others. But the simple fact is that music is (outside of my faith, my wife, and my children, of course) the single most important thing to me in life. By far. If I had my way, I would simply make music all of my waking hours. I care about it more than I do anything else I have ever done or ever tried to do.

Anyway, I hope the music appeals to someone. But, if it doesn't, I have the consolation of enjoying it myself.

[KevinG]

Very nice will. Are these improvisations or written compositions?

[BookofMormonLuvr]

I don't mean it as such. Really. I mean, I guess every would-be artist wants his or her work to be appreciated by others. But the simple fact is that music is (outside of my faith, my wife, and my children, of course) the single most important thing to me in life. By far. If I had my way, I would simply make music all of my waking hours. I care about it more than I do anything else I have ever done or ever tried to do.

Anyway, I hope the music appeals to someone. But, if it doesn't, I have the consolation of enjoying it myself.

I was joking. I apologize if I wasn't clear on that. I think it is great that you are sharing with us.

[William Schryver]

Very nice will. Are these improvisations or written compositions?

They are improvisations. I don't know how to write music. I kind of wish I did ...

Edited August 22, 2011 by William Schryver

[KevinG]

They are improvisations. I don't know how to write music. I kind of wish I did ...

Its not nearly as much fun as improvising (IMO). They are very artistic.

Don't fret Errol Garner managed to do quite well without using written composition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUJpV6VY7fw

[William Schryver]

Its not nearly as much fun as improvising (IMO). They are very artistic.

Don't fret Errol Garner managed to do quite well without using written composition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUJpV6VY7fw

Yes, but the reality is that, unless I really pound them into my brain, once I move on to something else, I kind of forget how to play something exactly as I played it before. However, so long as I record them, then I can always learn them again in just a few minutes, by ear. I often feel like my music travels straight from my ear to my fingers, bypassing the cognitive centers of my brain in the process. I routinely compose the majority of a piece in my mind before I ever sit down to actually try to play it, then I have to more or less "learn" how to play by ear what I've already composed and stored in my memory. Also, when I'm playing, I don't so much try to think about where my fingers are supposed to go, as I try to let my ear govern where they go; divorce the cumbersome "thinking" part from the process, and just try to "feel" the music into being. I guess that's kind of different from Harold Hill's Think System. Or maybe it's what he really meant by the phrase "think system."

(In my mind, I literally hear the notes playing, even full chords. It's kind of weird, because I've heard people suggest it's not possible to "hear" multiple notes at the same time, but I know I hear the blended notes of 3, 4, even 5 note chords, all at the same time. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I hear the "color" of the chords. For example, to my ear, there is a profound difference, that goes entirely beyond pitch, between an E and E flat chord. They are two completely different colors, almost like yellow and blue are different. In fact, I'd say major keys like A and D ... they're what I'd perhaps call "yellow" keys. E, C, G, F, Bb (the majors) are all, depending on the harmonic chords you choose to go with them, more in the area of orange and red. Eb (Cm) is blue. Ab (Fm) is dark blue. Db (Bbm) is purple. I love Abm and Gbm. (I never met a black key on the keyboard that I didn't prefer over its white neighbor. Maybe that makes me a racist of some kind. )

Anyway, the point is that I view the different keys not in terms of pitch, but as different colors, each with its uniquely different feel, one from the other.

I have a song for which I have only recorded the guitar part so far, even though I have the words, melody, and even the guitar solo already worked out--in my mind. (I think my ADD keeps getting in the way of finishing it!) Anyway, it's called So Far Between. Here is a link to a page where you can listen to it (it's the last song in the list, and if you're interested, the as-yet-unsung lyrics are even available via the drop-down arrow to the right of the song title): So Far Between

IIRC, I tuned the guitar to an open Gbm chord (starting with a Db on the low string), and then figured out a whole set of chord positions based on that tuning. It produces a very unique "color" of music, different from any other tuning I have used. It's very full and haunting, full of droning notes, kind of like a bagpipe.

Anyway, I'm not sure if any of that makes sense, but it's the way it works for me. I've now rambled almost incoherently, so I'll stop.

I know there is good composition software for printing out sheet music of anything you play into a digital keyboard, but I haven't yet purchased and figured out how to use any of the available products. I probably should before I get too old to figure it all out, although I do believe that simply recording my songs will be enough to preserve them, so long as there are people who learn how to play by ear, which is something that runs in my family--about 6 generations in a row now, from at least my great-great grandfather Thomas Hardy, who came from England across the plains to Utah in 1860.

Edited August 22, 2011 by William Schryver

[Mola Ram Suda Ram]

(In my mind, I literally hear the notes playing, even full chords. It's kind of weird, because I've heard people suggest it's not possible to "hear" multiple notes at the same time, but I know I hear the blended notes of 3, 4, even 5 note chords, all at the same time. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I hear the "color" of the chords. For example, to my ear, there is a profound difference, that goes entirely beyond pitch, between an E and E flat chord. They are two completely different colors, almost like yellow and blue are different. In fact, I'd say major keys like A and D ... they're what I'd perhaps call "yellow" keys. E, C, G, F, Bb (the majors) are all, depending on the harmonic chords you choose to go with them, more in the area of orange and red. Eb (Cm) is blue. Ab (Fm) is dark blue. Db (Bbm) is purple. I love Abm and Gbm. (I never met a black key on the keyboard that I didn't prefer over its white neighbor. Maybe that makes me a racist of some kind. )

Anyway, the point is that I view the different keys not in terms of pitch, but as different colors, each with its uniquely different feel, one from the other.

I have a song for which I have only recorded the guitar part so far, even though I have the words, melody, and even the guitar solo already worked out--in my mind. (I think my ADD keeps getting in the way of finishing it!) Anyway, it's called So Far Between. Here is a link to a page where you can listen to it (it's the last song in the list, and if you're interested, the as-yet-unsung lyrics are even available via the drop-down arrow to the right of the song title): So Far Between

IIRC, I tuned the guitar to an open Gbm chord (starting with a Db on the low string), and then figured out a whole set of chord positions based on that tuning. It produces a very unique "color" of music, different from any other tuning I have used. It's very full and haunting, full of droning notes, kind of like a bagpipe.

Anyway, I'm not sure if any of that makes sense, but it's the way it works for me. I've now rambled almost incoherently, so I'll stop.

It sounds like you might have perfect pitch. I wish my ears worked like that. Instead, I just hear notes. They are not colors and it is hard for me to tell them apart. I can pick out notes if I have a reference though, and not by name, just, that I can tell what should be in the same key. Edited August 22, 2011 by Mola Ram Suda Ram

[Calm]

Urrrgggg....two posts eaten by the ether when my internet went wonky. Giving up, just will post I'm very jealous of your ability, Will, musical talent is about the only thing I really covet.

[William Schryver]

Urrrgggg....two posts eaten by the ether when my internet went wonky. Giving up, just will post I'm very jealous of your ability, Will, musical talent is about the only thing I really covet.

Well, C, you, too, can learn how to at least play some of the hymns. I am certain of that. I could make a short list of at least 10 hymns that any sentient human can learn to play. We might start you off using the "Intermediate" hymn book (which is actually very valuable -- I use it as a basis for improvised organ preludes). But you and every other person on this earth, if they will simply choose to do so, can learn how to play at least 10 hymns out of our hymn book. Here's two right off that I know anyone could learn: #125 - How Gentle God's Commands, and #180 - Father in Heaven, We Do Believe. That's an opening song and a sacrament song right there. Throw in #166 - Abide With Me, and you've got an entire meeting covered.

So don't give up. I never started playing until my mission, and then only because there was no one else who could; it was Christmas time; and I simply could not face the prospect of my first Christmas in Italy without music in our meetings. So I willed myself (no pun intended) to learn Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and (IIRC) It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and that was our Sacrament meeting music for Sunday, December 23, 1979 in the woebegone city of Trapani, in Sicily.

Anyway, I got up very early this morning (apparently about the time you were going to bed, based on the time stamp of your last post) and worked on refining my rendition of I Never Saw a Moor - Come, Come Ye Saints and therefore I hope to successfully record it later today, and then upload it to my music site, along with another original composition, dedicated to my DW, and whose theme I composed the night before our marriage in 1982 (how romantic!).

Edited August 23, 2011 by William Schryver

[William Schryver]

It sounds like you might have perfect pitch. I wish my ears worked like that. Instead, I just hear notes. They are not colors and it is hard for me to tell them apart. I can pick out notes if I have a reference though, and not by name, just, that I can tell what should be in the same key.

Actually, I don't think I have perfect pitch. But I have something close to it. I know what it is. My mother has it. She can be in the other room, you can play any note on the piano, and she can tell you what the note is within ... oh, about a half second.

I have what is called "relative pitch". Unlike my mother, whose sense of pitch is very oriented to single, specific notes, my sense of "pitch" is related to chords and chord groups. For example, I can listen to a song on the radio for on a CD, and by the end of the song (unless it's something inordinately complex, which is not the case in 99% of folk/rock/blues music) I know what key it's in (the root chord) and what chords are being used along with the root. Of course, most all folk/rock/blues/country music operates on the simple harmonic principle of MmmMMm7, where, regardless of what key you're in, the notes in the scale describe the root notes of the chords that harmonize with each other in that key. So, in the key of C, you can play the following chords in almost any combination, and it will harmonize: C/Dm/Em/F/G/Am with the B7 or Bb7 employed depending on what precedes them. In the key of D, it's the same principle, the first note in the key is a major chord, the second and third are minors, the fourth and fifth are majors, and the sixth is a minor. D/Em/Fm/G/A/Bm.

Of course, most songs are simply built around three or four chords. Take Come, Come Ye Saints, for instance. Three chords (G/C/D) and the truth, as Bono might say. My version of Jesus, Once of Humble Birth that is linked above: Eb/Ab/Bb. Three chords and the truth ... that's all you need.

By the way, I should go on record as saying I am personally convinced that the principles of modern western music, with its 12 tones to the octave, 7 note scale, and 3 chord harmony ... it was a revelation. It is inspired. It is of divine origin.

[Mola Ram Suda Ram]

Actually, I don't think I have perfect pitch. But I have something close to it. I know what it is. My mother has it. She can be in the other room, you can play any note on the piano, and she can tell you what the note is within ... oh, about a half second.

I have what is called "relative pitch". Unlike my mother, whose sense of pitch is very oriented to single, specific notes, my sense of "pitch" is related to chords and chord groups. For example, I can listen to a song on the radio for on a CD, and by the end of the song (unless it's something inordinately complex, which is not the case in 99% of folk/rock/blues music) I know what key it's in (the root chord) and what chords are being used along with the root. Of course, most all folk/rock/blues/country music operates on the simple harmonic principle of MmmMMm7, where, regardless of what key you're in, the notes in the scale describe the root notes of the chords that harmonize with each other in that key. So, in the key of C, you can play the following chords in almost any combination, and it will harmonize: C/Dm/Em/F/G/Am with the B7 or Bb7 employed depending on what precedes them. In the key of D, it's the same principle, the first note in the key is a major chord, the second and third are minors, the fourth and fifth are majors, and the sixth is a minor. D/Em/Fm/G/A/Bm.

I was thinking about this as well. Steve Vai has relative pitch. I am quite familiar with theory, and I am able to derive much about the songs I listen to from theory. My only problem is that I need a reference first. I always have to play my guitar to the tune and then I can analyze it. I am not very good at that stuff. Oh well.

Of course, most songs are simply built around three or four chords. Take Come, Come Ye Saints, for instance. Three chords (G/C/D) and the truth, as Bono might say. My version of Jesus, Once of Humble Birth that is linked above: Eb/Ab/Bb. Three chords and the truth ... that's all you need.

Yeah most pop songs follow a simple 1, 4, 5, chord progression. Nothing wrong with that at all. The trick is to build off of that simple idea. I guess I just don't have the creative gene or gift. I can learn a song and play it, I just can't really compose or really improvise unless I borrow from other gifted people. It is good to see you have that gift.

By the way, I should go on record as saying I am personally convinced that the principles of modern western music, with its 12 tones to the octave, 7 note scale, and 3 chord harmony ... it was a revelation. It is inspired. It is of divine origin.

I defiantly think it is inspired but for different reasons then you outlined. Come to think of it I never really thought of it in those terms and I agree.

[Calm]

Well, C, you, too, can learn how to at least play some of the hymns. I am certain of that.

I finally decided about two years ago to do something about my musical envy beyond gnashing my teeth and started taking lessons with my daughter's piano teacher. I have graduated from the easy play hymns to the simplified version....though at this point having to take a sabbatical due to my health being currently in a state of extreme flux---bad health is sometimes easier to deal with as long as you can predict and therefore plan for it---and I was definitely not far enough along to have much of anything 'stick'. However, I am hopeful that I will pick it up quickly. The teacher actually claims I am a fast learner, the only problem being that I can't devote as much time as I want to practicing as I haven't been able to figure out how to sit at the piano for longer than 20 minutes and let myself get way too easily distracted by the general stuff of life. Now if I could get a piano that I could stand up at, I might progress faster....or even one attached to a treadmill so I could walk and play at the same time, lol.

I just read in Mormons Scholars Testify about Carma de Jong (I think that's right) who was a brilliant and gifted woman who got her BA at the age of 46 and then her Pd.D at 62, taught college classes, etc. At this point of my life for me, it's not about when I accomplish a goal, but whether or not I am in the process (well, I still want to have a Ph.D by the time I die, but I may have it for such a short time I'll decide to be buried with it to maximize the time it 'belongs' to me....though since I plan on being cremated--I cannot conceive of being locked up in a box even when there is no possibility of feeling the need to move---that doesn't have quite the appeal it could have for me).Got to bed at 9 AM this morning, my daughter was having an allnighter and about 5 we got to talking about the Marvel movies (I've actually seen Captain America before she did because she wanted my husband and I to have a date night to ourselves, we ended up sitting at the theater next to our next door neighbours, lol) and critiquing them....four hours later.....

Edited August 23, 2011 by calmoriah

[ERMD]

I have a type of relative pitch. I can identify a note when played on a piano, but not any other instrument. If I hear a tone on another instrument, I have to think about the tone and then relate it to a piano keyboard.

Weird.

[William Schryver]

-

Edited August 28, 2011 by William Schryver

[William Schryver]

Two new songs, for anyone who might be interested.

One called White Linen, an original composition.

One consisting of my improvisations of a medley of I Never Saw a Moor (a song from the old Sing With Me primary songbook) and Come, Come, Ye Saints.

Link: Schryver Piano Compositions