MicroRock

I've just completed, for Boosey & Hawkes,  MicroRock - 20 pieces in rock style for easy (5-finger easy) to intermediate piano. It was a fun book to write - I downloaded lots of classic rock tracks from itunes and then tried to find ways to make interesting piano parts that weren't too hard but were still very much part of the total band effect. There are terrific backing tracks on CD with the book and I advise their use - that way (particularly with headphones) you really do feel like you're stage-centre with a live rock band.

Above is the music to one of the pieces - The gig. It's in a late 60s rock style, reminiscent of Bad Company. The piece is all based on E pentatonic minor (in true rock guitar fashion) and almost in 5-finger position in both hands. Enjoy!

Recording this week

I'm in the studio this week recording with UK-based gospel singer John Pantry, who is not just an excellent songwriter, but also a popular presenter of the morning programme for London's Premier Radio (www.Premier.org.uk) 

John came to me with a demo of the songs - I transcribed them all - this included getting John to play his piano parts into a music sequencing programme. I then exported those parts into Sibelius and edited them so that we ended up with parts playable by the average player. Once I had this edited piano score, I arranged the pieces for 4-part choir and sent them to an excellent local choir, Adoramus (www.adoramus.com) and they began rehearsing. At the same time, my team began to create tracks based on the piano scores and the choir were sent these as well.

We recorded the choir a few weeks ago, using 53 sets of headphones! It was a lot of fun and the choir loved the songs. The songs are largely based on the Anglican service and are destined both for choir use and for congregational use as well. 

Now that we're in the studio, we have added guitar parts, done remotely by an excellent session guitarist and sent to us on DVD. We have also had backing vocals done by a great singer in Seattle - Ingrid DuMosch - and saxes and flutes, again recorded remotely, done by a player in London. The end result is rich and full and we hope radio-friendly!

I own publishing rights in this project, as well as the recording. It has always been a significant part of my work to be involved on all these levels - transcription, arrangement, recording, publishing and licensing - and I have also found distributors for both the audio and sheet music.

Kaiserslautern, Germany 12th November 2008

Last week I did a workshop in Kaiserslautern, which is in the Rhineland in central Germany. It proved quite an adventure - an early flight from London City Airport to Frankfurt was great but all passengers who had luggage in the hold found that it was all lost on arrival! I still haven't got it back - camera, speakers, projector, a complete set of books.

I hired a car at Frankfurt and drove to Kaiserslautern, a charming city which has a large Nato military presence, a well-known university  and a number of international research institutes. Fortunately I had my laptop with me, so we managed to find equipment that did the job, including a projector and screen and a little speaker for backing tracks. Phew!

The shop had done a good job of publicising the event, which was actually in the shop (www.musik-schaller.de) and we had quite a good crowd. One of the people there was English but had lived in Kaiserslautern for over 40 years, so I had an excellent translator! It was an introduction to Microjazz (and Microstyles, The Easiest Way to Improvise, the Concert Collections and Preludes) and of course I found quite a few people who had never heard of me or my compositions! I quite like the feeling of having to start the process of creating market awareness which began 25 years ago and which never really ends. I got the audience to clap and even to sing - we will post some video footage of this soon!

The second part was about the Latin elements in Microjazz, although I also made quite a feature of MicroLatin, which is so new I haven't really ever publicised it. Again, there were lots of things to do for the audience, including some of the clapping exercises found in the forthcoming Guide to Microjazz, written in conjunction with Scott McBride Smith (www.iiym.com) 

I had hired a car and one of the many things lost in my luggage was my own GPS unit - the one supplied in the hire car simply would not find Frankfurt airport, so I had to drive right into Frankfurt and hope I found airport signs! Fortunately I did and got a flight back to the UK late that evening.

The shop in Kaiserslautern have written a report (in German) on the workshop which will be posted on the my Boosey & Hawkes website (www.christophernorton.com) They hope to have an American Popular Piano workshop next year.

Workshop in San Mateo, CA

The MTNA teacher group in San Mateo gave me the opportunity to present a workshop on American Popular Piano in the very attractive Oak Room in the new San Mateo library building. There was a very good turnout for this and Janice Sheng is to be congratulated for hosting an extremely well-organised event. Some teachers were aware of the new series – at least one teacher had bought it over a year ago and was not sure how to use it, so she had come to find out! So my session very much emphasized how to use American Popular Piano – the teacher in question was my “student” when I went through some of the ear-training and sight-reading components in the Skills books. Other teachers were delighted to try improvising for the first time.Everyone went away feeling comfortable with how to use the series – they like the material but needed a chance to see how this new concept worked. We will continue to do what we can on the website to communicate the “how to” aspect as clearly as possible.

A final quote from Janice Sheng:

"Christopher Norton's presentation on the APP Series was not only informative but also exciting and inspiring.  The teachers of MTAC San Mateo branch had a great time.  We learnt new concepts and tricks, and we cannot wait to get our hands on the innovative APP materials!"