Name: Glamour Suite (The Rainbow) | quick read of sheet music by r/piano users late Grandpa Bubby @blumenmusic
Uploaded: 2026-09-24T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: Glamour Suite (The Rainbow) | quick read of sheet music by r/piano users late Grandpa Bubby

Glamour Suite (The Rainbow) | quick read of sheet music by r/piano users late Grandpa Bubby

blumen 2026-09-24 | Glamour Suite (The Rainbow) | quick read of sheet music by r/piano users late Grandpa Bubby

my mom asked me to post some classical music

Richard M Blumenthal 2023-11-16 | here's the exposition to beethoven's first piano sonata (op. 2 no. 1, 1795)

#piano
#beethoven
#pianocover

Sam Mooradian | Playthrough & Transcription | Titrate Down Solo

Richard M Blumenthal 2023-04-14 | 🧪️ Clip of the piano solo from Sam Mooradian's new single "Titrate Down"
🧪️ Full duo playthrough video here | youtu.be/eA-71aWc5-o
🧪️ Free transcription | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/SamMooradian_TitrateDown

🧪️ Sam and I have collaborated on a few things over the years. Couple of covers; he actually helped out at an Aviations video shoot a bit ago; has come out to a couple of shows; and now this is the second song that we've worked together on (the first never formally being released). He's a monster guitar player, has been touring as the live second guitarist for Fallujah for the past year, and is really coming in to his own unique sound with his trickle of solo releases.

🧪️ This song has some heavy piano that I added that's not too difficult, just some fun crunchy bits to add punch to the guitars, but then there's a solo section that I had a good time with. Tried to incorporate a lot of influences, so at times it veers towards bebop fusion and others a more straightahead prog feel, all the way to some neoclassical influence. Fun solo, if I do say so myself.

The outro riff is also a blast to play, all Sam's writing, but just a great set of rhythms and harmonies. Go check out the full video to catch that riff, or download the pdf to play it yourself.

Thanks for watching!

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#pianosolo #progmetal #pianocover

trying to play an Olly Steele bassline, rhythm guitar, & lead line all at once

Richard M Blumenthal 2023-03-22 | pain.

🎸This is from some instagram clip he posted back in january I think.
🎸Free transcription | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/OllySteele_Jan2023

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#shorts #pianocover #transcription #ollysteele #keyscape

Sam Mooradian | Unreleased Song Guest Solo

Richard M Blumenthal 2023-01-07 | A short guest solo written for Sam Mooradian a couple years ago on a song that was never released. Free transcription here: blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/SamMooradian_UnreleasedSolo

From the Vault (September 2019!) - Sam & I have worked together on a few collaborations over the years, so when he hit me up to add some crunch to a song he was working on a few years ago I was immediately on board. This song ended up never being released, and if it ever does get reworked I think we'll both make a lot of changes & re-records, so I hit Sam up recently to see about putting out this clip for fun and got the green light. 3 year old video, so old camera, old mics, old setup. Still was a fun project for me, writing more angular licks like this is a step removed from my normal sounds so it was a good headspace to tackle. Particularly proud of that long descending line near the end, doesn't correspond with any particular scale/mode, but it just works. Check out the transcription for some crunchy goodness.

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#piano #solo #metal #progmetal

record music ❌ play with dog ✔️

Richard M Blumenthal 2022-05-14 | Clover was verrrry antsy while I was testing video - don't worry we had some fun right after this so she'd be chill and I could film the ducktales vid later

#melodica #dog #gh5

Ducktales (NES) | Arrangement & Transcription | The Moon Theme

Richard M Blumenthal 2022-04-23 | 🌜 An arrangement of The Moon Theme from the old DuckTales NES game, for electric harpsichord and melodica because why not.
🌜 Sheet music here | musicnotes.com/l/vvCb4

🌜 I originally made this as a piano three hands arrangement as part of my publishing contract through musicnotes for my Speedy Keys side business (arrangements of pop/vgm/ost tunes for piano), BUT I had a weekend with the house to myself so I thought it would be fun to record it on lesser-seen keyboard instruments.

🌜 Filmed this in August 2021 in a busy weekend, same time I was tracking harpsichord for the new Aviations album. Harpsichord is live from this video take (as you can see it being tracked in the pro tools session). Melodica was pre-recorded before filming, since my breath control isn't great these days, and my melodica is like 20 cents sharp across the board so I had to edit & pitch correct it anyway.

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#ducktales #vgm #pianocover

Animals as Leaders | Piano Cover & Transcription | Mind Spun

Richard M Blumenthal 2022-03-12 | 🧠 Full band video cover video here | youtu.be/av4qca3hnyo
🧠 Free transcription | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/AAL_MindSpun

🧠 Andrew Scott & I have been trying to get the time to do another batch of drum & piano duo covers, this is the first of a few new arrangements that I've worked on, more to come hopefully this summer.

For this one we brought on Matt Kniffin, one of my favorite bassists ever since I saw the bass & drum duo Soundscapes in boston one time. His approach to instrument combines low end, melody, and harmonics in a fluid way I haven't seen anyone else do, and it was great to get another unique layer for this project.

Thanks to Owl Shed studios for the mix and the full band video edit, be sure to check out the proper video rather than just this plain ol' piano solo vid.

📜 Assembled from 1 main take with a couple small punch ins, no claims of a single take performance here 😹. Not this time anyway. All audio is live from the corresponding video takes. There was a literal thunderstorm going on outside the day I recorded this, so the amount of light through the window varied drastically - you can see in the punch in section that it's a lot darker so you get more orange room light glowing on the right 🤷‍♂️.

This was the last project I did before redoing my audio setup, so still slightly clunky piano tone. June 2021.

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carmina burana slaps as the kids would say

Richard M Blumenthal 2022-02-21 | hello yes most of the time i'm actually a classical person. I chuck up snips of recitals & concerts on instagram, there's a clip of the actual performance of this piece with better audio over there now:

instagram.com/richard.m.blumenthal

(Carl Orff - Carmina Burana - the O Fortuna movement)
#piano #carminaburana #choir

Seeg | Live Piano Playthrough & Transcription | Rift Guest Solo

Richard M Blumenthal 2022-02-16 | 🌄 This is a live piano playthrough of my guest solo on Seeg's new album "Echoes"
🌄 Free transcription | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/Seeg_RiftSolo

🌄 I met Seeg just through instagram, there's such a relatively small number of prog-ish piano folks so it was inevitable that we'd cross paths, and turns out that we live close to each other as well! He came out to an Aviations show a few years ago, and we've chatted on and off since about piano things & recording things. When he was working on his newest album he hit me up to add a short solo to the epic closing track, and I did my best. The album is really a surprise, a thickly textured varietous uplifting progrock experience with some gospel influence. Lots of vocal layers, cool synths, and piano to tie things together, definitely go check it out. I'm going to see him perform with a band he recently joined this weekend, so figured I should get this video out before we meet up ;)

Note: Tracking & filming for this solo occurred in December 2020, so before I redid my recording setup, added more room treatment, and switched to the gh5 camera. Fuzzier video, clunkier audio. Live and learn!

📜 I had a couple goals for the solo:
- lineup with the bass line riff because the rhythm was super cool
- write some phrases that go over the barline
- since the fundamental 7/8 grouping was pretty speedy, use that larger beat "full measure of 7/8" sensation to change up the subdivision. Fancier to describe than actually play to be honest, but in notating it there ended up being some spots of like 4:7 (0:12 and 0:29) and 5:7 (at 0:16) where I just tried to fit a set number of notes smoothly within a measure, ignoring the underlying seven 8th note subdivisions. Yah?

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#pianocover #seeg #progrock

Alec Templeton | Scherzo Caprice | Oboe & Piano

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-09-25 | Excerpt from a faculty oboe recital filmed & recorded January 2021. Graduate students from MTSU handled audio & video, while David Cyzak the oboe prof and myself handled the playing of instruments and coordinating of suits. Fun fact, my puppy chewed up my brown shoes the morning of recording, resulting in our mismatched brown & black shoes shown here. Recorded each piece in different rooms with different lightings and pianos, for flexibility and to explore audio and visual contrasts. Full playlist of the performance can be found on the MTSU Oboe channel:
youtube.com/channel/UC-vHxcZEvwKzEwht0lsnMjA

Been a quiet fall on this channel but, next Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, at 8:00 pm CDT (9:00 pm EDT), I'll be performing the first in a pair of recitals I have organized and programmed for this academic year, Dr. David Cyzak will be making an appearance as well as our amazing flute prof Dr. Deanna Little. It will be livestreamed through MTSU's school of music live channel:
youtube.com/channel/UCxZBlWC-vAqU_YCAWYc8qOg

While completely understood if tuning in to a classical recital is not your bag of chips, this is a huge portion of how I spend my time as a mostly-classical-pianist-who-does-prog-stuff-on-the-side, and I'm glad that we have the capability to share performances with a wider digital audience nowadays as livestreaming becomes the norm.

Program to consist of:
Pierre Sancan - Flute Sonatine (1945)
Alec Wilder - Oboe Sonata (1969)
Allison Blumenthal - "Explorations" Nocturne for solo piano (2021)
Blaž Pucihar - Trio "Ancient" for flute, oboe, & piano (2015)

Hope you can tune in! Beyond live recital performing, David & I have a continuing interest in recording & filming, so the door is inching open towards including more classical content on this channel. Flee now if you wish 😹.
-----------------------------
video info:

Alec Templeton
“Scherzo Caprice”
Dr. David Cyzak, Oboe
Richard Blumenthal, Piano
David Bonilla, Audio Engineer
Carson Bruce, Videographer

Middle Tennessee State University
School of Music, Saunders Fine Arts Building
Choral Rehearsal Hall
Murfreesboro, TN, USA

Aviations | Piano Solo Sheet Music | Intents in Tents

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-08-21 | 📜 Here's a quick edit of an old video to add synced scrolling sheet music to my piano solo from "Intents in Tents", re-recorded by Aviations in 2016.
📜 Free download of the pdf here | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/Aviations_IntentsInTents

🚀 Watch the full video for this song here | youtube.com/watch?v=JrbL4mGdfV4

📜 I originally wanted to go back and re-touch the audio & video and re-do the framing BUT turns out this one is old enough that I don't have the original video files anymore and the audio was done in Mixcraft lol. SO as the kids would say, this video is slightly scuffed, but I just wanted to demonstrate the synced sheet music aspect if folks are interested in seeing more of this type of thing. It's not perfect - Finale does some weird things on playback like measure 19 (I swear it doesn't look like that if you download the pdf).

📜 Every time I go back and look at this transcription I change my mind on what key to use - c# minor vs db minor, either way there's a ton of accidentals and pros and cons to each. SO, I have added both versions to the gumroad download, and you can just pick whichever key you prefer to read from.

🚀 NOTES (copied from original video posted in 2016 youtube.com/watch?v=5TNebKjpreg):
0:28 - I begin the solo with a quote from the opening lick of Charlie Parker's Now's the Time (1945 version?). Some discrepancy about whether it was Dizzy Gillespie on piano or Al Haig in that recording, but either way it's a super fun chart.
This hopefully gives me street cred as a jazz person, which I am not really.

0:36 - I tried to morph the very opening guitar riff of the song into a calmer, more major piano lick.

1:02 - Here I transcribed a lick from the guitar solo that's on the ORIGINAL version of this song, from Aviations' "A Declaration of Sound"(2012) - Guitar lick can be found at 3:55 in the track for those of you following along at home.

1:18 - Here I introduce the texture of the vibes outro, that sort of kinetic pattern, although I deviate after a couple repetitions in order to have that bit go up and finish the solo.

Thanks for watching!

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felted piano exploration | #1 | retrograde

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-08-07 | 🧣 Recently had a system installed on this piano so I can engage and disengage an additional layer of felts in between the hammers and strings in seconds. It's magical. It showed up already in the Bulb Upload Apathy vid: youtube.com/watch?v=3xxgG8PWPwg

🧣 This is an upload of an OBS direct recording, running my gh5 through a laptop and linking it up with processed audio through pro tools in real time. Means I can capture these sort of explorations as they happen without need to do a lot of editing afterwards - getting ideas from me out to my tiny lil' audience easily and directly. Frame rate for these OBS captures still suffers, not sure why but I'll keep tweaking it.

🧣 The neat thing with playing around this idea is that the two long phrases are an exact retrograde, the 'resting point' at the bottom of the descending phrase serves as the beginning of the ascent and the melody and chord progression are completely reversed. Works both ways I think!

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Leviathan Owl | Tracking Excerpts | Bradley

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-07-31 | 🐕 Bit of a change in format for a video, but here are a couple clips (ugly ugly footage unfortunately) from recording Bradley for Leviathan Owl's 2020 album "Would You Kindly".
🐕 Free download of the transcription here | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/LeviathanOwl_Bradley
🐕 Stream the whole album here on Andrew's channel | youtube.com/watch?v=dJY72DMAAzY

🐕 Support him next Friday 8/6 for bandcamp friday | leviathanowl.bandcamp.com

📜 So I recorded for this in December 2019 during a spell when I was realllll sick of filming and video editing (you may notice a big break in uploads starting around that time), so I was filming parts of tracking, but only had one camera set up and was using a 24mm pancake lens just so I wouldn't have to worry about focus. Plus no lighting. So the footage is ugly and the framing is atrocious, plus there wasn't enough footage to put together a smooth playthrough (and the song has some large piano-less sections so a full playthrough is probably unnecessary).

📜 I DID however want to put up SOMETHING, even if it's a year and a half too late - it really is a wonderful album you should check out, and I'm super thrilled to have been a part of it. So for a change of pace, here's some clips from tracking, with some notes about why I chose to stop or pointing out where I'd do a punch in. Generally I usually have to record in larger chunks due to how piano resonates (especially steinways) and when using the sustain pedal. A fair amount of repetition until I get lucky ;)

Thanks for watching!

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#leviathanowl #wouldyoukindly #steinway

Blumen | Some Notes | June 2021

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-07-24 | 🌻 YES I know it's July, but my pro tools session and finale files were made in June. I don't know what would be more confusing, either way there's a mismatch.
🌻 Name-your-price for my transcription here | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/Blumen_June2021

🌻 Here's like 3 ideas all mashed together for your brief enjoyment. Look, I'm a lazy drum programmer these days, since I know it is purely for demo purposes and James will find other better things to play over everything in the long run. However, over the last few iterations of building new computers and moving states and changing DAWs I have lost all my old presets for SD2.0, so when I reach for something to quick mess with a drum groove rather than a click, it's super handy to have even just a couple of GGD libraries available. I'm not trying to shill this too hard and present it with a bunch of extra processing (I ain't no mix person either these days) so beyond a little verb on the snare and an EQ on the kick to take out some of the more metal-y higher frequency clickiness, these are dang close to the out-of-the-box sound for the original Halpern library that GGD launched with. Played around with some of the mic balances for the OHs vs rooms, but that is all in-program. I also toyed with the Modern Fusion library for this for a second, but for whatever reason went with the OG library. So purely for purposes of getting a passable audio example of an idea, Keyscape (or Ivory) + GGD has been super handy both for my uses and for writing parts for Aviations.

🌻 I will be periodically uploading things as I start to coagulate ideas and demos for the slow assembling of new songs. Generally I find a sound/chord/progression/pattern I like and iterate a half dozen ideas on it, stitching together different pacings/variations, so someday some form of these riffs might show up on a full length song. Maybe it'll be something similar but not the same. Who knows. But between my full midi Fake Piano Fake Drums setup at home, and my quick capture setup for real piano at my office, I can try out things more fluidly than ever before which is NICE.

Thanks for watching!

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Carl Adams | Ether | #shorts

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-07-17 | 🧪️ This is a live quick lil' piano playthrough of Carl Adams' 2020 single "Untethered".
🧪️ Transcription available if there's interest - this one is pretty minimal but it's a nice hypnotic texture.

🧪️ I finished a sheet music book of all 7 songs for Carl's Disremembered EP but haven't gotten around to cleaning up the sheets for a few one-off singles I recorded for him since then. gumroad.com/l/CarlAdams_Disremembered

😺 While this single was released in September 2020, the piano was recorded & filmed in 2019 and should not be taken as representation of my current setup in 2021, audially or visually. Still, it's nice to finish up these older projects that I still have footage for.

Thanks for watching this quick one!

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Varra | Piano Playthrough | Buggo ii

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-07-03 | 🐛 This is a piano playthrough for the live band version of Buggo ii, by Varra.
🐛 Free download of my transcription here | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/Varra_Buggoii
🐛 Watch the full band video here, with some groundbreaking feline animation: youtube.com/watch?v=p4WKKsxzzBA

🐛 Some largely repetitive sections here, really the guitar lines and bass fills are the true heroes in this song, but I tried to spruce it up with some b-roll of the piano dampers. Something mesmerizing about them moving up and down.

👀 Looking for more varra videos & transcriptions I've made?
planet stuff | youtu.be/Tx_kxUIL1kQ
birdo ii | youtu.be/lShhwW3e1pk
snowy liccs | youtu.be/va5tzNp3JtI

Thanks for watching!

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#varra #fusion #buggoii

Agent Fresco | See Hell | Full Band Cover (link)

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-06-30 | 🔶 Just when you thought I was done with Destrier for a while - full Agent Fresco re-record on drummer n i c k a c k e r channel, go check it out | youtube.com/watch?v=dBScgUn6iVk

🔶 Featuring the swift trots of buckaroos both new and old:

Guitars/ Mixing/ Mastering - Jack Davenport:
https://linktr.ee/JackDavenportMusic
https://linktr.ee/theowlshed

Vocals - Oliver Wardell:
https://linktr.ee/OLWardell

Bass - Kyle Duncan:
facebook.com/SnakeFather666

Video Editing - Kaung-Myat Aye:
https://linktr.ee/ayephotothings

Drums - Nick Acker

🔶 Thanks for checking out these collaborations! Got some neat upcoming things that will be hosted on my channel I promise, tricky to find a balance sometimes between chipping in on collabs vs original content.

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Bulb | Live Piano Cover & Transcription | Upload Apathy

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-06-26 | 💡 This is a live piano cover of the opening piano riff to "Upload Apathy", from Bulb/Misha Mansoor's upcoming solo album.
💡 Free download of my transcription here | gumroad.com/l/Bulb_UploadApathy

💡 After the reorganization and re-release of all the Bulb back catalogue stuff (already a year ago!) it's great to get some new explorations under Misha's solo project. I'll be the first to admit I'm a sucker for both his and Jake's electronic music, really any artist that mixes organic elements with their electronic, be it piano or guitar or whatever, that hits the spot for me. The Flashbulb, Wisp, etc

💡 I will note that this riff is exceedingly awkward to play once the bass notes come in. The main 16th riff is fun to alternate between the hands, and if you want to grab a friend to play the bassline, that'd be the easiest way (and I almost drafted my wife to help out with this video for that reason). But, with some careful redistribution and some scary leaps in the right hand to grab the low B flats in the riff it is TECHNICALLY possible to pull off. I wouldn't want to do it at a live show, but to get one lucky pass for a video was mostly fine.

Thanks for watching!

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#pianocover #bulb #moderatelyfastadequatelyfurious

Thrailkill | Live Guest Solo Playthrough | Paracusia Jam

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-05-15 | 〽️ This is a live piano playthrough of my contribution to Wes Thrailkill's solo jam over a loop from Paracusia off his Detach EP (an amazing 2020 release). Be sure to check out the whole thing here, featuring 20 amazing fusion players and also me doing my best to hang | youtube.com/watch?v=p3d4wHyLN4A
〽️ Free download of my transcription here | gumroad.com/l/Thailkill_Paracusia

〽️ Wes is one of the tastiest fusion players in the game right now, so when he asked me to contribute some lines to this internet jam I felt a little more pressure than usual to come up with something neat.

〽️ I tried to show the bassline a little love, as well as find a balance between catchy melodies and angular interest 😹. After years of feeling like a fish out of water when playing solos to click tracks or anything that is relentlessly metronomic rather than the bit of pianistic rubato I'm used to, finally starting to feel more comfortable flexing in and out of time as desired, to hit the big beats but let it drift when the line seems to call for it.

Thanks for watching!

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Carl Adams | Second Carl Adams Sessions | Untethered

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-04-03 | 🥀 This is a live piano playthrough of Carl Adams' 2020 single "Untethered".
🥀 Transcription available soon™, I finished a book of all 7 songs for the Disremembered EP but haven't gotten around to cleaning up the sheets for a few one-off singles I recorded for him since then. gumroad.com/l/CarlAdams_Disremembered

🥀 This is from the second set of sessions I did for Carl Adams, a self-described composer, violinist, bassist, & guitarist. After getting a feel for his writing on the Disremembered EP, it was neat to hear more fleshed out songs, both in terms of structure and texture, in these newer singles.

🥀 Boosted the piano audio just a smidge in spots in comparison with the album version. I also cut part of an interlude in the middle, so listen to the real version to hear that buildup into the keychange more effectively! To check out more of Carl's prolific work | carlmakesstuff.bandcamp.com
or on Spotify | open.spotify.com/artist/5NScmBk0GW9ruhsWYunlRR?si=LBeQ0SCCQnK-iCMaDOHSIQ

😺 While this single was released in November 2020, the piano was recorded & filmed in 2019 and should not be taken as representation of my current setup in 2021. I have no idea what the heck I was thinking when framing up the main video angle. Terrible.

Thanks for watching!

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#carlmakesstuff #untethered #playthrough

Varra | Buggo II | Live Band Version

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-03-20 | 🐛 Full video by Varra, go check it out | youtube.com/watch?v=p4WKKsxzzBA
🐛 It's been a couple years since the last time I did anything with Varra (and it's been a year since their last single too), so 2021 has already got some good stuff happening. Really cool to hear & work with a bunch of players that are new to me, great drum pocket and bass fills:
Guitars/Composition: @Varra1
Bass: Logan Kane
Drums: Josh Nesmith

👀 I'll put up a full playthrough in a bit, but go show the full video some love for more tight syncopated fusion. In the meantime, looking for more Varra vids I've done?
- Birdo II | youtube.com/watch?v=lShhwW3e1pk
- Snowy liccs | youtube.com/watch?v=va5tzNp3JtI
- planetstuff | youtube.com/watch?v=Tx_kxUIL1kQ

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#varra #buggoii #liveband

should I bring back multi-angle videos

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-03-13 | ❓ It's been around 3 years since I started doing single angle videos, to show one continuous take in a maximally informative way. Been playing around with bringing back some artsy elements recently, would that make videos more enjoyable or just slightly distracting?

❓ Should I go for it, or do you like a less distracting/more informative single shot - I'll chuck a poll up on Monday, we'll see what stats come up in the next week or so. Leave a thought in the comments.

📷 So why did I switch to the single camera setup? Well for starters, laziness ;) Half kidding - for sure any time you add more cameras that's more footage to line up, more footage to color correct, and in general the editing process just balloons. There was a time I was quite sick of all that, but I think my workflow speeds have gotten to a point where it wouldn't slow me down toooo much now.

📷 But the other factor was just seeing the glut of covers and videos going up on this platform with obvious edits and trickery. I'm not talking about the "videos sped up" kerfuffle from a year ago, wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole lol. I've just always been in the grumpy camp of disliking prerecorded audio or a ton of spliced takes when watching cover videos - a cover is a proof of concept that the performer has transcribed or learned a song on their instrument, so it doesn't feel like the time or place to use prerecorded audio and a mimed video on top. For 'official' playthroughs or shooting footage in a remote location to have a cool scene? Sure, go nuts. At that point you're putting in the effort to prioritize the visual presentation so if you have to compromise I'll understand. But if you're just shooting a cover at home, use live audio. Otherwise what's the point (from my perspective).

📷 So somewhere around maybe 3 or 4 years ago I stopped doing multicam setups for covers and most videos general, in favor of a single informative angle (usually overhead or diagonally lofted for maximum useful visual information), to reinforce the live one-take aspect of things. Heck I even made an album where every song was each tracked as a single take. Having one continuous video eliminates even vestiges of suspicion.

😺 At this point, I would like to think that y'all will trust me going forward, even if I bring back in more angles and up the production quality. I always put in the description if I have spliced multiple takes or punched anything in, and will continue to do so. Heck, part of this is probably just some ego trip for me anyway, so at the end of the day it doesn't actually matter lol. 2017-2018 blumen cared a lot more about this issue than 2021 blumen.

(song is One Perfect Moment, from Bring It On: The Musical)

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Scarypoolparty | Live Piano Cover | universe (#shorts)

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-03-10 | 🌊 Quick live cover of the piano sample from Scarypoolparty's "Universe"
🌊 Free/name-your-price for transcription here | blumenmusic.gumroad.com/l/Scarypoolparty_Universe

🌊 James is a big Alejandro fan, although it was actually Sam who sent this song to me. Guess all of Aviations is into his music, figured I'd hop on board to mess with this one once I heard the piano riff 😉

📜 This was a fun one - when transcribing it I wasn't sure whether I should 'fix' the notes that, to me, sound like they were misses from the notes that fit in the arpeggios. I ended up not tinkering with it, so I played it note-for-note (to the best I can pick out) the same as the track. I also went about recording this in an interesting way: In order to keep that sort of off-kilter authenticity to it, I immediately began attempting to record this without practicing or really working on the fingering patterns slowly. Over a couple separate days I just turned on the camera and rolled the mics for 15-20 minutes and just ran it until I got a semi-accurate take, before it got any smoother and fluid. Aiming to match the vibe of the song rather than going for anything super polished. Hope it comes across effectively.

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#scarypoolparty #universe #pianocover

TesseracT | Live Bass Cover | Dystopia

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-03-06 | 🔳 This is a live bass cover of "Dystopia", from TesseracT's 2015 album Polaris.
🔳 All audio is live from this take (with processing obvi).

🔳 No transcription for this one, made this cover using the official tab book for Polaris released through Sheet Happens. I made a pact with myself a while back that I wouldn't let myself buy any more tab books until I had actually worked through a bunch of the books I have already on my hard drive. Expect a smattering of some of my favorite tunes from a few artists this year, scattered throughout with some transcriptions I've got piled up to practice and record. Bass is cool.

🔳 Attempting a bit of a one-tone-fits-all processing rather than working a slap tone, clean tone, and distorted tone all separately, partly because I had half-mixed this almost a year ago and the signal chain was a mess, so overall the tone is a bit more aggressive than Amos's album version for sure. Going forward I'll be starting from scratch, have some different plugins I'm testing out and looking for a simpler processing chain. TBD!

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#basscover #tesseract #neuraldsp

Carl Adams | Live Session Playthrough | White Orchid

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-02-27 | 🥀 This is a live piano playthrough of "White Orchid", from Carl Adams's 2019 EP Disremembered
🥀 Full transcription book available here | gumroad.com/l/CarlAdams_Disremembered

🥀 Carl Adams is a self-described composer, violinist, bassist, & guitarist, with an ear for writing beautiful melodic lines and a knack for piano parts that lie decently well under the hands. The first batch of sessions I did for Carl was a set of 7 short piano songs back in 2019 for his Disremembered EP, a couple of which have additional sound design. While I did some adapting and arranging (especially for the more fiendishly difficult ones like Daffodil), others I left completely intact for the most part from the original ideas he sent over.

🥀 This is a different take from the album version, I don't think I was filming for the take that's on the album (or just couldn't find the footage). This pass is a little sloppier than the album version, especially the ending 🤷‍♂️. To check out more of Carl's prolific work | carlmakesstuff.bandcamp.com
or on Spotify | open.spotify.com/artist/5NScmBk0GW9ruhsWYunlRR?si=LBeQ0SCCQnK-iCMaDOHSIQ

😺 As I ended up taking most of 2020 off from uploading videos and general online activity, just now getting around to giving his work the attention it deserves. 2019 feels like a long time ago already in terms of my recording quality both for audio & video, here's to the future! If you'd like to get in touch for adding live piano to your own compositions, blumen.richard@gmail.com .

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#carlmakesstuff #disremembered #playthrough

see hell alternate angle - practice take (#shorts)

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-02-23 | 🔸 compare with the final vid here | youtube.com/watch?v=1AjuOIeH4DM
🔸 Figured I might as well make these short videos not quite completely useless - here's a bts clip from a practice take of See Hell about a week or so before I filmed the final video proper. You can probably see that my right hand looks more tense in this version, another few days of ingraining the pattern really helped to get it comfy and loose.

(As mentioned in a community post, I'll be uploading a few clips with more vertical aspect ratios just so that the 'shorts' area of my channel is populated with better representative examples of what I do around here 😉. Currently the only short video that gets pushed to people on mobile is that Ihlo/Jingle Bells mashup from a year ago - a great video to be sure but a rather low effort one)

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#basscover #agentfresco #shorts

Celeste: Farewell OST | Live Piano Cover & Transcription | The Woman and the Bird

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-02-20 | 🐦 This is a live piano cover of "The Woman and the Bird", from the Celeste: Farewell OST
🐦 Sheet music here | musicnotes.com/l/gNtJS
🐦 I originally made this as part of my publishing contract through musicnotes for my Speedy Keys side business (intermediate/early advanced piano arrangements of pop/indie/OST tunes), but there's plenty of other versions that people have made out there, so with a little sleuthing you can find free ones rather than shelling out for mine 😉

🐦 I played Celeste start to finish for the first time while on the road with Aviations for our Summer 2018 tour with Outrun the Sunlight. As a big fan of 2d platformers, this was a huge boon to passing the time in the van, especially since I couldn't get my little travel keyboard to work with my old terrible laptop in order to write or demo any music on the road. Super frustrating, felt like I was just twiddling my thumbs, so it was better to at least be twiddling my thumbs on joysticks. I admittedly still haven't gone back to start a new file and work through the Farewell chapter of the game, but it's on my list, hopefully once new AV is out of my hands I'll be able to sink into some relaxation.

🐦 First video with a new gh5 (not counting the Olly Steele clip because I accidentally shot that in anamorphic, ha). Using a speedbooster to be able to use my sigma EF lens with the panasonic mount, and I was SHOCKED at how much light I could get to the camera now that I have an f/1.2 stop. Ridiculous, I swear the room was pretty dim when I filmed this, was going for a more demure murky lighting but nope, clear as day. Thing is crazy, going to be a learning process for sure.

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#celeste #pianocover #celestefarewell

member this periphery all new materials cover?

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-02-13 | 🍪 This is a nudge to follow blumen on instagram, check below for details on why it's easier now to post good clips more frequently there! ( instagram.com/blumenmusic)
🍪 Pepperidge farm remembers Michael Obed's amazing cover of All New Materials from way back in 2011 | youtube.com/watch?v=9OKds6IAeQ0

🍪 I've recently gotten some help from James to set up a way to capture decent video & semi-mixed audio simultaneously through OBS so I can record high quality clips to post MUCH easier. Running my dslr through the computer as a webcam and capturing the audio output from pro tools, adjust for the latency and bam, all lined up and immediately ready to post. Still some tweaks to make obviously, the video doesn't look quite as good as raw footage from the camera (need to tinker with bit rate and all that), but it's a great way to skip a lot of tedious video editing and still get fun solid footage for not-youtube.

🍪 I remember being blown away by how full-textured his version was, kept all the original character of the @periphery song intact but adapted so comfortably for the piano. I had a moment hearing this back then (lil 2011 blumen with like 1 mxl mic, a copy of mixcraft, and zero experience) and thinking that this was "A Goal" - to get comfortable transcribing, writing, arranging, & recording enough to be able to make things as solid as this, whether covers or original. Still don't know if I'm there yet, but grateful for his work as motivation almost a decade ago now. What other classics do you still think about?

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#periphery #allnewmaterials #pianocover

Olly Steele | Live Piano Arrangement & Transcription | Jan. 5 Kinetic Instagram Riff

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-02-06 | ⚖ This is a live piano cover & arrangement of a riff Olly Steele posted on instagram on Jan. 5, 2021
⚖ Free download of my transcription here | gumroad.com/l/OllySteele_Jan5Riff

⚖ Check out the original on Olly's IG | instagram.com/p/CJqx7DhAK4y

⚖ Between getting back into the swing of things for uploading, as well as working steadily on the new Aviations song, I also wanted to start carving out time to demo and work riffs for new blumen and things. I opened up GGD for the first time in probably a year this week when creating some new composing templates in pro tools, ended up messing around with this neat riff Olly posted in early January. Thought it would take me longer to figure out but the initial riff translated pretty easily to piano, so I wrote a couple variations for it and tweaked the drum grooves 🤷‍♂️.

ALSO was the first video I've made with a new camera but accidentally had anamorphic settings turned on so it's fuzzy on the edges lol. LOTS of settings to get used to and squared away, once I have something that I like the look of I'll post more with it.

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#pianocover #ollysteele #try

Agent Fresco | Live Piano Cover & Transcription | Mono No Aware

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-01-30 | 🔸 This is a live piano cover of "Mono No Aware", from Agent Fresco's 2015 album Destrier.
🔸 Free download of my transcription here | gumroad.com/l/AgentFresco_MonoNoAware

🔸 Thanks for tuning in to AF appreciation month. Figured I'd end it with a fancy one - 2 pianos, 3 layers, 1 epic album closer. Just checked the footage and I filmed this originally in July of 2017 😹. Definitely not an up-to-date example of my piano mixing, at the time I was still using an XY setup instead of ORTF, among other things. You're hearing just my piano sounds for the most part, I blended back in the original track obviously near the end, starting with that drum pickup beat.

🔸 This song gives me chills every time I listen - watching the Live in Reykjavik concert (youtube.com/watch?v=3Vgpf-hOPJE) is unbelievable, I can only hope to see these tunes live in the coming years.

Note: when performed live, I know that the two black & white layers in this video are just played by one person with both hands. For artistic visual and panning audial reasons I split it up for effect 😉.

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#pianocover #agentfresco #destrier

Agent Fresco | Live Bass Cover & Transcription | Pyre

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-01-23 | 🔸 This is a live bass cover of "Pyre", from Agent Fresco's 2015 album Destrier.
🔸 Free download of my transcription here | gumroad.com/l/AgentFresco_Pyre

🔸 Agent Fresco appreciation month continues. Pyre is such a great song, it gets in, says what it came to say, and gets out. Great dynamics in the verses, cool rhythms in the choruses, and when the sound stage blossoms for that last repetition of the chorus? Perfect.

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#basscover #agentfresco #destrier

Agent Fresco | Live Piano Cover | Bemoan

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-01-16 | 🔸 This is a live piano cover of "Bemoan", from Agent Fresco's 2015 album Destrier.
🔸 You can watch Tóti's piano playthroug and grab the sheet music to try out yourself here: youtube.com/watch?v=MJu70XcZpkE

🔸 Continuing Agent Fresco appreciation month! I actually have a sloppy cover of the first half or so of this song already on my channel that I'd thrown up on for fun a couple years ago, but wanted to go back and do it properly. As I mentioned in the last video, I've been sitting on these covers for a couple years now so DON'T WORRY the fern is in MUCH better health now, thank you for asking.

🔸 Tóti's scalar writing and all the combinations of polyrhythms and polymeter in this song are a great exercise and practice to make sure all the subdivisions are precise and accurate, but still within a gorgeous melodic package that serves the music. Really it's a fascinating song from a harmonic standpoint too, how after each chorus it modulates to a new key area and sort of starts the process over again.

Thanks for watching!

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Agent Fresco | Live Bass Cover & Transcription | See Hell

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-01-09 | 🔸 This is a live bass cover of "See Hell", from Agent Fresco's 2015 album Destrier.
🔸 Free download of my transcription here | gumroad.com/l/AgentFresco_SeeHell

🔸 Happy 2021. I declare it Agent Fresco appreciation month.

🔸 I have been sitting on a batch of covers for 2 - 4 years depending on the video, holding out to await news of a new fresco album release date. At this point they are no longer really an accurate depiction of my playing or recordings SO, starting off 2021 with a bang and getting them out there! A mix of piano and bass covers for the next few weeks to get back into the swing of things.

🔸 Had a blast messing with the opening riff of this one, as always working on my double thumb but also trying to mix in some mixed thump/pop patterns on the larger string jumps, sort of feels like a version of hybrid picking, which I have done my best to notate in the available pdf & gp7 files.

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Jun Mitsui | Christmas Jam 2020 Solo

Richard M Blumenthal 2021-01-02 | ❄️ The 3rd annual large snowy jam, full vid here | youtube.com/watch?v=rUt-PFNhQPs

❄️ Free download of my solo transcription here | gumroad.com/l/JunMitsui_Christmas2020

😺 This year I wasn't feeling too shreddy, and after playing around with the chord progression for a little while I ended up throwing in a bit of a reharmonized Feliz Navidad. All in good fun, hope you enjoy. Happy holidays, hope you are safe & warm. Return to normal-length uploads in the new year, see you soon.

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Leprous | The Price

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-12-28 | 💶 @Sam Mooradian organized this collaboration, check the full video here: youtube.com/watch?v=0dRXzg6LBbI
Here's what I got up to this year, part 3 (final one i promise)

💶 For both Sam and I, The Congregation was the entry point into Leprous's discography, and it's been pretty consistently some of my most-listened to music from there, them and Agent Fresco (hint hint). Was a blast to do some sound design and record the keyboard parts for this full band cover, as well as go back and tackle the bass part a bit later.

💶 Despite my spotty presence in 2020, having these opportunities to talk shop and do some collabs here and there has been a great outlet, between this one, the Demiurge cover, and another 1 or 2 in the works it breaks up the monotony of making videos by myself! Sam came out to a show on the last AV tour as well so he, Werner, & I could finally all chat in the flesh after all pitching in on a few of these cover projects over the years. Here's to more in the future.

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Speedy Keys | 2020 Sampler

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-12-21 | 🎹 If you like intermediate-to-advanced piano arrangements of pop/indie/VGM/movie soundtracks, check out the channel | http://bit.ly/SpeedyKeysYT
Here's what I've been up to in 2020 part 2: Speedy Keys

🎹 Check out the our MusicNotes Shop to browse the selections | musicnotes.com/l/SpeedyKeys
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With freelancing work down to practically zero over the summer, I ended up poking around for other things to get into - much as wildly niche prog transcriptions & compositions are a joy to make for blumen things, was curious to see if I could successfully apply the skills I've honed over the years to a slightly more economically-driven area.

With some help from a buddy of mine to get up and running and get the branding/layout sorted, the generically-named Speedy Keys was the result. After seeing all the terrible piano arrangements there are for sale on websites and the rise of Synthesia channels (don't get me started), figured I'd try to make slightly more idiomatic sheet music for pop tunes/vgm/soundtracks. Aiming for intermediate to early advanced, pitched it to musicnotes and got approved for a publishing deal thru them as a Signature Artist - not as fancy as it sounds I promise.

Ended up a pretty fun time. Got burned out at the end of summer after cranking out nearly 75 arrangements just to build up the initial library in 4.5 months or so, but after taking a break I'm back it, albeit with a more reasonable pace to keep it a minimally stressful side gig. Somewhere around 80 by the end of 2020, we'll see what 2021 brings! Looking forward to bringing these sharpened transcribing & arranging skills back to blumen things, it has really opened up a door to feeling a lot more flexible and creative with adapting things for piano. And, well, speedy.

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#pianocover #keyscape #popmusic

Aviations | Outliers | Retrospect EP Out Now

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-12-14 | 🚀 Check out the full video here: youtu.be/_7Aj2wGxsA4
Been a little quiet on the uploads, but here's what I've been up to in 2020 part 1: Aviations

🚀 We have a new EP out NOW, featuring 30 minutes of re-recorded or reworked versions of songs from across the first two albums.

🚀 Follow us on Spotify: http://bit.ly/AV_Retrospect
🚀 Grab you a copy or tabs: http://bit.ly/AV_Bandcamp
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Since joining the band properly, we've had time for our solidified lineup to gel and enjoy making music together. With the firm 6-piece mentality it was great to go back and revisit some older songs (as well as get a chance to get sit together in a room and perform that Two Days Acoustic version, no amps no glamour). Filmed and recorded these videos 1.5 years ago now, but rather than sitting on them waiting for tours to kick back up, figured we'd put it out so we can springboard to new music for 2021. The reception to this fleshed out sound has been quite positive, so hopefully the new songs continue to scratch that itch.

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Blumen | Some Notes | Lööps 1

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-08-22 | ⭕️ Blumen + Lööps = Blööps
This probably won't be a series but HEY maybe so here's a lööp.

⭕️ I mostly write in the sphere of things that are playable in real time by 1 pianist, so this is fairly uncharted territory for me. As a result, probably a fairly rudimentary example to all you LOOP MASTERS out there, but still a neat bit of exploration for me OKAY?

⭕️ At this speedy tempo and with the parts locked in as tightly as they need to, it's interesting to hear those minutiae of separation when things come just sliiiightly unglued. Tried to represent that in the video.

ANYWAY, thanks for sticking around. What's up, how are you

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Josh Martin | Thumbelina Etude | covered with just my thumb

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-07-11 | 👍 Josh Martin writes cool and beautiful exercises. Check out his original video here: youtube.com/watch?v=5fELTPwzK44

Since the difficulty of this piece on guitar wouldn't translate to piano, my adaptation was just to play it with my right thumb and honestly this took FOREVER.

Check out his excerpt of tabs if you want to try it for yourself: youtube.com/watch?v=LYI2OX15nEo

Thanks for watching!

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Reharmonized Meshuggah | Demiurge Clip

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-06-27 | 🥁 I added some textural piano layers to a full band cover of Demiurge for Owl Shed Studios, go check it out here: youtube.com/watch?v=4NQhjNxXVqo
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Andrew Scott (Leviathan Owl) organized this project a while back, his studio setup at the newly formed Owl Shed is legit with Jack Davenport on the mix & edit. Holla at them for your drum needs. Also featuring Werner Erkelens, Derek Sampson, and Oliver Wardell.
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True story I was SURE I had sent my footage along but turns out I must have just dreamt that so jack just used stock footage of cats for me instead in the final video and honestly that's a great solution. BUT figured I'd throw up a clip here with boosted piano so you can here what I did to this one riff 🤷‍♂️. Watch the full video because everyone else is much more professional than I.

Thanks for watching!

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Amaj(add everything) | The Cove Transcription Book Available May 1st

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-05-01 | Transcription book available at blumenmusic.bandcamp.com

I'm no Jacob Collier but I try to end songs with a proper amount of spice.

Friday May 1st (today) Bandcamp is giving 100% of sales to the artist. To celebrate that fact I have finally finished tinkering with the piano transcription book for The Cove and it is now available. It will be $5 as long as coronavirus is still keeping people cooped up inside*. If you're going stir crazy and looking for some piano tunes to work on I hope you'll pick up a copy.

Engraved with care in a clean house style developed over the past year, this book contains additional phrasing/articulation/fingering markings that will hopefully aid in the dissection and learning of the tunes if so desired.

*Mångata transcription book has ALSO been made $5 for the same time period.

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Jun Mitsui | Christmas Jam 2019 Solo

Richard M Blumenthal 2020-01-04 | ❄️ 2nd annual beeg snowy jam. Wrote a few fluttery bits for the outro, but check out the whole 8 minute snickerdoodle here | youtube.com/watch?v=vFgX2hCy-_0

❄️ name-your-price for the transcription here | gumroad.com/l/JunMitsui_Christmas2019

🌼 Check out our new album "The Cove", 12 short vignettes inspired by soundtracks & cozy home recordings | ffm.to/blumenmusic.oyd

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🎄FESTIVE Ihlo piano arrangement

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-12-23 | happy piano holidays. Listen to Ihlo. free99 transcription | gumroad.com/l/Ihlo_JingleBells

youtu.be/fbrQ3loAI3o

I wrote this out but forgot to upload it to gumroad before I left town, hopefully will remember to throw it up there when I get back so you too can be merry.

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classical did mathrock before it was cool

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-12-16 | 🌌 This is a live excerpt to show just SOME of the neat rhythms and harmonic sonorities in american composer Rodney Rogers' piece "Lessons of the Sky", for soprano saxophone and piano, written in 1990. I think mathrock fans will dig what they hear in this Classical™ piece of music.

🌌 I'm classical folk at heart, currently employed full time as a university pianist to collab with students/faculty/guest artists for recitals and other performances (accompanist, if you want to use the antiquated term 😉). Sometimes, classical friends are surprised by my interest and participation in the prog & mathrock circles, and vice versa - prog friends are surprised by my vehement love for my 'day job'. To me, there's so much overlap between the 2 worlds, things that they have in common that can be so rewarding, and knowledge that can transfer back and forth to reinforce each skillset. Especially once you get into 20th and 21st century classical music, the amount of sonic variance among the repertoire would surprise just about anyone.

🌌 Trevor Wong recently posted a version of Clapping Music with guitars that galvanized me into finally finishing up this 2-year-old-video (nearly the last thing I still have on my hard drive from living in Louisiana!), got me thinking about how much music there is out there that could have crossover appeal. Trevor brings up a lot of the folks that we think of as the 'minimalist' movement (Reich, Reilly, Glass, Eastman), and that got me to thinking. Outside of minimalism, there's a wave of cool brass composers who wrote rhythmically angular sonatas for _______ and piano in the 20th century, there's all this amazing postmodern choral work that includes polymeter and wild colors, really in the modern classical scene it's overall a 7/10 there's a little something for everyone.
Check out Trevor's video | youtube.com/watch?v=pdDcRWbMMmE

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Hollow Knight | Live Multi Cover & Transcription | Dirtmouth

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-12-08 | ⚔ This is a live piano & viola cover of "Dirtmouth", by the wonderful Christopher Larkin, composer of the Hollow Knight OST.
⚔ Name-your-price for my transcription here | gumroad.com/l/HollowKnight_Dirtmouth
⚔ Each instrument filmed in single take, obviously not at the exact same time 😉

⚔ Previous Hollow Knight "Resting Grounds" video here | youtube.com/watch?v=xzNf6dtW9f8
⚔ Or check out the other multi cover of a Varra I made the same night as this one, piano & melodica | youtube.com/watch?v=va5tzNp3JtI

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Blumen | exeunt

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-11-03 | 🌼 "The Cove" out now - Streaming, physicals, transcriptions here | https://ffm.bio/blumenmusic

🌼 THE END. Inspired by how the end credits of most movies start out with good music and then cut to something very contrasting that ruins the vibe and encourages the audience to get up and leave the theater (a conspiracy I wholeheartedly believe). Definitely should have ended the album with the finale but nope, you get this cheesy gospel bows music to end & exit. I told James to put some stylistically inappropriate fills and drumming towards the end and he absolutely nailed it, the double bass in the outro is hilarious.

🌼 Also inspired by the Chon song "O.G." where it has a key change DURING THE FADE OUT which is the funniest thing ever.

🌼 fun fact - I spent a LOT of time getting the voicings of the modulation exactly how I wanted them, lots of smooth voice leading and contrary motion. BUT since I think I was successful, each key change is 100% the exact same set of notes just transposed up a half step each time, SO theoretically we could just modulate upwards foreverrrrr. Someday I'll make a video of the whole sequence with 12 modulations that can then loop into eternity. Unless someone wants to beat me to it ...? 😉

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Blumen | finale

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-11-02 | 🌼 "The Cove" out now - Streaming, physicals, transcriptions here | https://ffm.bio/blumenmusic

🌼 track 11, finale, inspired equally by J.S. "Josh" Bach & Josh "J.S." Martin, of Little Tybee fame.

🌼 So here we are at the end. Obviously this song sort of splits into two halves. The first I tried to make a bit contrapuntal and precise, inspired by my main man J.S. Bach (1685 - 1750 is burned into my brain). And of course to add to that sensation I doubled up most of the piano lines with the 1970s Baldwin electric harpsichord that we have - can be seen elsewhere on this channel, it's a marvelous instrument.

🌼 However, the ending section (and is foreshadowed a couple times earlier) is a result of taking some of Josh Martin's ideas to heart about incorporating certain rhythmic elements and drum rudiments to the instrument. Josh's complexity and boundary-pushing applications of rhythmic theory into playing & tapping on the guitar are mind-bending and you should check out some of the stuff that he cooks up. My own small foray into applying some of these concepts hasn't progressed much past trying to incorporate some rudiments between my hands, but even that feels like a whole new way of approaching rhythmic playing on the piano. Sure, there's plenty of modern music that might throw in a paradiddle or two between the hands, but getting comfortable shifting in and out of a bunch of different rhythmic patterns has been super excited and fun to get used to. Hope you dig the result!

☠ and yes this is the only song on the album that I actually recorded in two parts. My shame is unmeasurable. At this point in the tracking days, my hands were getting tired and I just couldn't get a clean enough take of going through this whole song, ending section kept sounding super weak. I throw myself on the mercy of the court.

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Blumen | sekrit

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-10-30 | 🌼 "The Cove" out now - Streaming, physicals, transcriptions here | https://ffm.bio/blumenmusic

🌼 track 10, sekrit. I was working on the synth stuff for track 7 "actuation" VERY late one night and messing around on the microkorg. Had a cool modified patch and was playing around with the arpeggiator settings when this happened. While it's a digital sound, this was all played 'live' on the microkorg in one go, only thing added afterwards was the gradual reverb tail. I remember that getting the timing to change chords and hit the octave shift button in time took a ton of attempts BUT as it was the middle of the night I wasn't thinking about filming, this was still in the writing stages.

🌼 Eventually I realized that there was way too much going on for it to remain as part of actuation, so I branched it off to this short interlude as a callback before the 'finale' of the album. It has a neat place in its role I think - a completely digital sounding track that still is 'live' or 'human' or what have you - As I wasn't overwriting any of the preset parameters on the microkorg this exact patch and pattern is lost and I'll never be able to 100% recreate it. Neat concept. Wish I'd filmed it 🤷‍♂️

🌼 b roll from our home, we have a wonderful assortment of trees and shade.

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Blumen | bröther

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-10-28 | 🌼 featuring Dan Blumenthal, saxophone. Check out his fusion jam band Sundrop Rise for more goodness | youtube.com/watch?v=3-IdQjeuTw0&list=PLIQ4pqoccsXpUMa96GmTQb4oEuxC8e91o

🌼 The track streams that will be uploaded serve double-duty as playthrough videos; The piano parts for each song were recorded and filmed live in single unedited takes, so we have footage of the album take for every song. Closest thing to a live album we'll make 😉

🌼 track 9, bröther. This is probably the oldest idea on the album actually, I had a video floating around of this tune being played on an old 50$ craigslist upright piano that we had as a junker in our previous apartment. The original inspiration was to get in and out of swing-to-straight feel, sort of a simplified concept after hearing the song "System" by Brotherly (which you should definitely check out). The additional layer to the title once my actual brother added saxophone lines was a happy little accident.

🌼 fun fact, this is the only track that has bass on it. Tracked with my ibanez sr505 but then a pretty strong low pass filter so that it just has this fat sensation of pitch without much actual articulatory character.

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Blumen | rancor

Richard M Blumenthal 2019-10-26 | 🌼 "The Cove" out now - Streaming, physicals, transcriptions here | https://ffm.bio/blumenmusic

🌼 The track streams that will be uploaded serve double-duty as playthrough videos; The piano parts for each song were recorded and filmed live in single unedited takes, so we have footage of the album take for every song. Closest thing to a live album we'll make 😉

🌼 track 8, rancor. Tons of sound design in this one - I had been on a sci fi kick in 2018, so after reading The Martian and Artemis by Andy Weir, hopped to the first couple books of The Expanse series. Had space on the brain and felt that some ominous spacey textures would go well with the TesseracT-inspired riff. I haven't done a lot of sampling or sound design before now so it was interesting to delve into some patch design from the ground up. Also used a waterphone sample library to incorporate a bit of an organic 'real' instrument as well, don't think I'll ever jump the shark completely to making solely electronic music.

🌼 fun fact, this is the first time I've ever used distortion on my piano recordings! Soundtoys Decapitator & Devil-Loc

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