Elton John piano comps - a tutorial/braindump

[fadibitz]

Bill, the interview you mention regarding Elton's penchant for hymns was likely from a 1991 David Frost interview. A snippet of the interview is here (add this after the "watch?" bit in the URL in any YouTube vid): v=KtDwqX1HNvU

[nikolas8ira4]

sorry for bothering you but i have been struggling to find a suitable comping technique for amoreena and i was wondering if you could make a video on bluesy,maybe country comping styles.thanks so much for your time

[nikolas8ira4]

I love Amoreena and Elton's piano style,especially on the album Tumbleweed Connection(Amoreena,Burn down the mission,country comfort,son of your father,ballad of a well known gun,my father's gun)..one of the best "piano albums" ever,yet so underappreciated....

[vanmail7]

Great video! Very helpful. Just so you know, I was attempting to pause the vid and hit the dislike button on accident. Sorry about that. Your video series has been very helpful. Thanks!

[billhiltonbiz]

@vanmail7 No worries - I've done that myself before....!

[texasbrian1]

Brilliant! Well done... I've noticed the heavy blues and classical influences, and although I had heard him mention writing hymns, I hadn't noticed the hymnal influences until now...

Do you hear any differences between his writing then (70s) and now?

[jeranbrown1]

Really great video, and exactly what I was looking for! I'd been searching for a primer of what Elton's doing between the chords. He stays pretty chord-based, and that's easy enough with practice, but it's the ornamentation that always stumps me. Thanks again!

[MJarmell]

Bill,

That was a masterful explanation, not only centering on the tune I had requested but explaining the wider and deeper concepts present in Elton's playing. Also, I like your call to practice and gradual incorportation of ideas, in general. I thank you.

[billhiltonbiz]

@MJarmell No problem at all - I'm glad you found it useful. Thanks also for suggesting Elton John - a lot of people really love his piano style, so I think this should be pretty popular.

It was also a good excuse for me to relisten to some of his music and think about it more deeply, so I really enjoyed making this. If you have any more good questions like that, fire them right on over!

[kakofatus]

@MJarmell I'm also a piano player and a big Elton John fan and already had lots of doubts about his comping and piano playing. Bill's video is fantastic, but if you want some complement to it, I recommend you the website: eltonscafe . com. It's not mine, I just came upon it a few years ago. It's got loads of his song's exact transcriptions into sheet music and some texts about them. It's really useful. I don't remember if Amoreena was there, but lots of the good ones are. Hope you like it.

[coolguy701]

what is the definition of comping? this was very helpful though thank you so much.

[billhiltonbiz]

@coolguy701 Glad you like it! The word "comping" comes from "acCOMPpaniment". A comp is what you play on the piano when you're supporting another voice or instrument. Most commercial arrangements of popular songs have the piano playing the tune, which is useless - in a pro performance the voice/lead instrument carries the tune and the piano provides harmonic and rhythmic support and colour. Most comps by people like Elton John are semi-improvised. You with me?