{"id":798,"date":"2011-11-24T14:28:58","date_gmt":"2011-11-24T19:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.craigperler.com\/blog\/?p=798"},"modified":"2024-06-06T23:25:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T03:25:57","slug":"philosophy-of-ben-folds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.craigperler.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/24\/philosophy-of-ben-folds\/","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy of Ben Folds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I first heard of Ben Folds<\/a> when he played at Dartmouth in 2002, and it wasn’t until hearing his music that I realized pop-rock piano music existed.  Until Ben Folds, piano music was either classical<\/a>, jazz\/gospel<\/a>, showtuny Broadway<\/a>, or easy listening.  I’d always considered pop-rock as something you couldn’t do without a guitar or drums, preferably both.  What would show up as a power chord for a guitar, for example, would be transcribed as a few whole notes for a piano – and holding a chord for a few measures obviously doesn’t resonate the same on a piano as it does on an amp’d guitar.  Yes, I’d played Billy Joel and Elton John, but the more rock-like stuff by them just never sounded right on the piano for me, though over the years my view of this has changed a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Folds, piano holds its own in the genre: repetitive melodies and structures create a sense of percussion, and though the basic rock chord progressions are there, they don’t sound empty, like they’re waiting for a drum fill, due to embellishments and jazzy riffs.  Plus, I can play each successive verse louder than the last, and it’s ok. Much of Jason Robert Brown’s music<\/a> is in this same style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw Folds play at Yale once – he broke a piano string halfway through, so he finished the show on a guitar.  Very impressive stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Ben Folds Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, in honor of Folds voting to keep the Dartmouth Aires on The Sing Off<\/a>, here’s my attempt at Philosophy (the sheet music I’m using only contains snippets of the piano part, so I’ve taken extreme liberty with this rendition).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philosophy, by Ben Folds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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