 Hey everybody, a number of videos ago I asked for your questions and I said I was gonna do a Q&A. So I wanted to do a Q&A but I wanted to do it maybe in a little more of an interesting way than just me sitting here answering questions. So I thought I would just play a little bit and you know answer some of your questions as I go. So I don't know what I'm gonna play but I guess let's just jump into it. I don't make games and turn them into something that hopefully you enjoy. So I don't make, I guess I don't make them. I just use them. I'm a meme-poster. How do you get your hair to be like that? You know actually I'm not afraid to admit I blow dry my hair. You know why? Because it makes it do what I want it to much easier and then I just use like some gel or spray or whatever just to get it to kind of stick. How do you know what chord goes with what note while you're making the meme music? Short answer is I don't. But I can also kind of make it whatever I want it to be too because I put out a video a while ago called how to make any note fit in a chord in any key. So that might have some interesting information that you might find useful about how I kind of take whatever the notes that I transcribe from the speech, whatever those are, I can kind of apply them to anything because even if they don't fit into a traditional chord like it's the third or the fifth or the seventh, maybe it's some alteration that but it'll fit somehow. So yeah short answer is it doesn't doesn't really matter. How old were you when you started playing the piano? I was eight. Grandma was my first teacher. I would get off the bus at her house on Wednesdays and I would do my best to avoid taking the lesson and just wander around her kitchen looking for snacks but she always wound up dragging me to the piano and actually made me learn something which I guess I should be thankful to her for. What's your routine? Probably a lot more productive if I had one. I've tried different things in the past I've tried you know just sticking to that's my problem sticking to it you know if I come up with some really great idea I'm like oh this is gonna be really productive I'm gonna get so much done I just have a problem sticking to things so I need to be better at that and that's definitely something. How long have you been playing piano for? Well I said I started when I was eight so I'm 26 about sorry my phone started ringing 18 years I guess yeah any tips for us yes do what makes you want to play the piano you know studying classical has its benefits there's a lot of fundamental techniques and things that you really should do yes but and if you're serious about it it's gonna help you become a better player and there those are things that are good to do not if they're gonna make you lose interest what's better is that you continue to play so do whatever you do what you want and then if you're really serious and you want to get better then focus on the things that are maybe a little more tedious that aren't as fun. Do you play any other instruments yes I do I have played the my pedal keeps running away from me I gotta put something on the ground um I played trumpet since I was like nine or something like that I taught myself saxophone not well but a little bit I played drums for a while again not really well but I love playing them and it's something I want to get better at eventually what inspired you to make music out of memes well actually first let's change it up a little bit the first thing it is I made music out of tweets I pulled up an article of some of the funniest trump tweets and I started thinking what if these were songs and I was singing them to myself in my head and I couldn't stop laughing I was like this is the dumbest thing literally the dumbest thing I've ever thought of and so um and so I just made a few I found out later that I found out later that I guess Josh Groban did it I'm like Jimmy Kimmel or something so again not my um not my original idea but neither are neither is um putting uh putting speech to music transcribing the notes of speech and putting that to music that's been done you know before and actually I found um as early as the 60s with believe it or not John Coltrane he played along with the Martin Luther King Jr. speech and it wasn't exactly um what I do or what any of the other artists that have kind of done this sort of thing do but it was starting to hint at the concept really fascinating though um you prefer playing acoustic piano versus a digital one acoustic definitely I just don't have one because I can't really afford one right now and I don't have the space you sing in some of your videos have you always like to sing or is it just for the videos um I have always like to sing um I haven't always had much of a chance to but singing is an instrument just like any other just like any other instrument if you you have to practice and you get better as you practice it's not simply like you either can sing or you can't you know I mean maybe there's a certain amount of that but if you have any ability at all sing more and you will get better you know what I mean it's like who to thunk it right what kind of music training do you have where did you study so I have a degree in in jazz for whatever that's worth and I got it from the conservatory music at Purchase College just outside of New York City in Westchester County where I spent four years in the jazz program there which is really really phenomenal jazz program if anybody's considering you know going to school for jazz I highly recommend considering it it's like a um it's like a really cost effective alternative to places like Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard, NYU and half of the faculty is literally the same so you know um because they give a bunch of those musicians that teach at both places but I had a really great experience there really great education and then I got a piece of paper that's worth pretty much nothing but that's okay um do you watch other music related YouTubers yes I do uh any underrated channels you want to shout out sure yeah um in fact here's a couple people that have been doing this longer than me I guess I don't know I just was very fortunate to be the right place at the right time that I've grown um quickly which I'm very thankful for but uh Finn MK is one he's a really really talented puts out great videos and also there's a drummer named David Dockery who I didn't know about until I started making these videos and people um kind of like they told me about them and then I went and checked out his stuff and I was like wow this dude is this dude is like really great drummer and then he also kind of does the same sort of rhythmic thing where he puts the the drums to to videos like I do and really really amazing both of those guys are great definitely check them out would you like to learn more instruments anytime soon sure um I'd love to get better guitar I know like nothing like I know a very very small amount but that would be something that I would imagine would be really useful to know and I'd like to explore that more definitely and uh drums that's another thing I play a little bit um but I want to get more serious about it yeah yeah drums I want to I want to actually spend some time like actually focus on doing it the right way which video of yours is your favorite so far it's hard to choose a favorite but I yeah I really enjoy the um have you ever had a dream kid just rhythmically the way that kind of came out whoops the way that kind of came out it just was a ton of fun I was really happy with some of the rhythms that kind of resulted in that one but uh any tips on practicing identifying music notes by listening yeah come up with reference points there's certain songs that you hear and you hear them in the key that they were in like okay so this is E flat green dolphin street always hear E flat because I can kind of hear green dolphin street so that's one so just find a reference point that you can remember really easily and then you can sort of inner valently find other notes from that point what has brought you to this and what's kept you doing it well what's brought me to it is just kind of coming up with an idea that I thought would be fun to try and I tried it and people liked it and that's what keeps me going is that you guys keep watching and hopefully enjoying which I'm really grateful for but uh yeah I mean I'm having a blast doing it and I'll keep doing it as long as people enjoy it so thank you for that um how do you jazz I don't I don't know I wish I it's a constant struggle it's a lifelong it's a lifelong project that I don't know if we ever really figure it out in what other ways do you use your musical talents well I make real quote unquote real music not that this isn't but you know I have a basically I have an album it's called tails it was released in July you can find it on any major streaming platform um and that's kind of like a good example it's all original it's all stuff that I wrote and I'm really happy with it really proud of it really proud of the guys that played on that record so if you want to go check that out I'll put a link uh down in the description to it how are you that's really nice thanks um I'm well how about you are you play that too many times did you always want to be a youtuber yes actually and this is this is what's been so crazy about this because um yeah this is this is really this has always been a dream of mine and I've tried so many different things there's so many videos uh yeah but there's like hundreds of videos probably on my youtube channel that are not public that just me trying things and you know trying um different types of like vlogging and things like that and and nothing ever caught but I always really really wanted to do this my goal was to build an audience that I could create meaningful content for that I enjoyed making that hopefully people enjoyed consuming um so the fact that this kind of have has has all happened is really insane to me because I've just been trying for this for so long so this is really like a dream come true and of course you know I have all of you to thank for that so yeah this is super cool um what's a good place where's a good place to start for someone wanting to learn to play the piano listen to the music you want to play and then again like I said in the beginning do the things that make you want to play don't do the things that will will will keep you from playing um because those things will you'll stop playing the piano all together you won't want to continue favorite genre of music to play and why jazz you know in the widest possible context meaning like um uh yeah you know just the freedom of improvisation whether it's more classic sounding like you know traditional jazz or more modern stuff I just yeah it's it's it's so much fun to play so I would yeah I would say roughly like jazz principal jazz influences I mean aside from like all the basics that everybody I mean I say they're not basic by any means but the people that everybody who gets into jazz checks out you know of course at all of them the first person that got me into jazz that made me decide that I wanted to learn how to play it on the piano was Oscar Peterson so yeah that's like he's like the number one dude for me uh recently um I've been super into this Armenian jazz pianist named Tigran Hamasian his rhythmic style and his harmonic style is just unbelievable to me and he's really opened my ears rhythmically to kind of like think about poly rhythms and you know poly sort of meters on top of each other differently than I ever have and that's just been super crazy to get into has anyone in your videos reacted to them yeah I mean the whole thing started because Cardi B I gotta get out of here let's see break that sort of harmonic idea for a second Cardi B retweeted the original Cardi B video that I did and that's kind of what triggered everything to start so that was nuts um Snoop Dogg also shared that one to his Instagram which it's things I never thought in a million years would ever happen to me um how do you choose which means to means to accompany well partially by user request hint hint nudge nudge wink wink um yeah when you guys say you want something I I pay attention I read the comments and I try to do as many as I can you have perfect pitch I do not have perfect pitch do you have relative pitch I think so I always get confused at what relative pitch is but I think that's what I have I don't have perfect pitch your opinion on the Katy Perry Dark Horse fiasco um it's ridiculous uh and I I Adam Neely can tell you far more about it and why it's ridiculous but I think he's absolutely right in that it sets a really dangerous precedent because you have a jury of people who whom I can only assume are not musicians and don't know what they're talking about and are just issuing an opinion based on not really much valuable information because the two things don't sound alike I mean they might sound roughly similar but they don't share a melody they don't share a sound they don't share a tempo they don't share a drum beat they don't share a chord progression none of that what else do you need besides an opinion just to say well I think it kind of sounds like it you know and like there's also the aspect too of like I feel like a jury of people that recognize Katy Perry's name obviously and then they're saying oh here's this you know this Christian rapper and stuff like and they're thinking like here's somebody who's much smaller who's who's they're they're having their livelihood hurt because this giant person Katy Perry came in and stole their stuff and it's like it's like they're I feel like a lot of people might want to find an issue with Katy Perry in that sense because they're trying to protect the little guy you know what I mean and like I get it it makes sense but at the same time it's not based on anything real it's like yeah I don't know anyways again Adam Neely can explain it much much better than I can did you ever expect to reach as many subscribers as you have now you know that's interesting because no I didn't expect it um but like I said before I've really always wanted to be a content creator and uh I've been trying for a long time so I guess I sort of believed that I would eventually because I always thought it was gonna have I was like I'll find something I will find a way I was kind of like just determined in that and and uh I just didn't know what it was gonna be I definitely didn't know it was gonna be this but uh I didn't expect it no especially doing this this has kind of been crazy to me for sure what's an altered scale seventh mode of the harmonic ah seventh mode of the melodic minor scale not harmonic sorry can I pay you to be my music instructor why yes you can I've uh yeah no I've actually been doing some um some online video lessons with people from all over the world this just in the last week I started doing it I'm having a blast and it's a ton of fun to meet some of you guys and talk about what you're working on musically so if you want uh I have a link in the description where you could go and check to see if there's slots available if there are feel excuse me feel free to grab one and um and I'd love to yeah I'd love to chat about what you're working on and what what you want to improve on all that stuff what's your favorite mode um either lydian or dorian depends on the context how do you not laugh at these videos because once you've done them a thousand times to try to record them perfectly they stop being funny and normally when I'm recording uh or rather when I'm editing they're still not funny even once I finish them I have to come back like an hour later after I've kind of got it out of my head and go you know is this is this funny and then then it'll it'll be it'll be better but uh when I'm doing them you just you get so used to what you're trying to emulate that you start it stops being funny so that's how um other hobbies that bring you joy I am crazy passionate about skiing um I moved to Colorado like three quarters the reason was to ski so um yeah I love skiing I love mountain biking preferably downhill so yeah those types of sports I'm really I spent a lot of time doing as much as I can anyways does your music theory get in the way of enjoying music this is an interesting you know what I'm gonna stop for a second because this is actually a really interesting question short answer yes but also like you're asking doesn't enhance the experience it can when music is really great I feel like knowing theory and being able to understand it really enhances the experience and it makes it that much better uh because you get what's going on and sometimes you understand why something is so awesome at the same time if something is really lazily written or just doesn't contain anything really of value um and of course that's also you know subjective but but knowing music theory can certainly inhibit your ability to kind of take that in and really enjoy it so yeah it does it does make a difference for sure um hardest part of learning music theory applying music theory where are you from um so sorry I'm distracting myself um I'm actually from like four hours straight north of New York City uh in a really really really small town called Hartford whenever I say Hartford people go oh you're from Connecticut nope there is a Hartford New York believe it or not there's like 2 000 people there really really small bunch of farms I grew up on a farm um but that's where I'm from and I just recently moved to Denver which I'm loving and I really enjoy being here but home um is upstate rural northern New York definitely so uh where are you uh I just read that question why are you in another room in your latest videos this yeah uh I made a change because I felt like some of the videos that I was putting out were kind of distracting because the video that I was trying to show amidst the background of like my kitchen um it was kind of sometimes hard to make out like the edges of that video um and I just felt like hey this would probably come out a lot clearer on a more solid background but uh I'm actually planning on moving soon because a lot of people always say why is your piano in your kitchen it's not that's like my whole apartment so when you have two people in a dog living in this place it's like um it's it's tough especially when I've taken over the entire thing to be my studio which was never the intention when we moved into this space so we're working on getting a new space where I can build a new studio and so hopefully that will all change pretty soon uh but stay stay posted for that anyways that's uh that's all I've got for right now thank you so much for checking it out I hope that was uh somewhat interesting or somewhat entertaining or whatever but um yeah if you have any other questions please leave them in the comments below and we'll do this again sometime so thanks for watching I'll see you next time