I love Lana Del Rey, and her music. Her album Born to Die is so beautiful, so here is my rendition of both 'Video Games' and 'Off to the Races' below, with the tutorials. I have always imagined Lana Del Rey in a red dress, so for this artist I did a photoshoot with my favourite red dress to recreate the vision... These images are taken in Auckland city, and I felt like the classy buildings spoke for themselves, and added to the sophisticated ambience. (I'm not usually this sophisticated).
Enjoy the class while it lasts!
Lana Del Rey ♥
All images copyright Katherine Ann-Marie Tuenter, The Undefined Photography, 2014
I am in love with "Off to the Races" in fact, it is probably my favourite song on the album. Kanye West thinks so too cause he did a cover of it too. (Apparently). The chords and harmonies are mine, it sounds pretty this way! So much attitude. So much class. Lana Del Rey ♥
I'm baaaaaack! So exams are over and it'll be just you and me over the summer holidays lovelies!
I have so much planned I'm way too excited. Okay so first off, I am doing some recording today so I got a couple songs for ya. Let me know what you think :)
Tip of the Week! Now this one is for singing, it's a little tip I was given by my singing teacher a long time ago and it's really useful. When singing 'high notes' come 'down' on them and pretend you are singing low notes, it will help the note to be clear and not pitchy. The opposite applies for low notes - pretend they are high and VOILA you can extend your range.
So I have finally finished the tutorials for 'Buy the Stars' and 'Zero Gravity'
Check out my playlist 'Song Tutorials' to see them. 'Buy the Stars' is in two parts because it's such a long and complicated song and I wanted to make sure I explained it simply enough.
Now I am behind two weeks on our 'Acoustic' genre, namely John Mayer & a surprise artist. I was very sick! But more on that soon, I intend to do a few songs and a few tutorials this week, hopefully! On Thursday which is the usual day I record. Anyway got an awesome song for you that I'm into at the moment, and of which I have an AWESOME arrangement and tutorial coming very soon....
'Maroon 5 - One More Night'
I love this song! Damn it's so catchy. Anyway talk soon and hopefully I'll be up to date by the end of this week. More details coming soon.
Hello everyone, I am excited to announce that I will be doing a LIVE TUTORIAL via SKYPE for a group of 3 people maximum on the first week of September! I will be teaching piano tips, tricks and you can join in the conversation, asking as many questions as you like throughout that hour. This includes song chords, whatever you want to know.
If you would like to register for this lesson (Time will be decided according to your timezones) then email me before the 29th of August at: katherineannmarie@gmail.com. Cost is $25 US per person.
A PDF covering all the topics and notes that I will cover on the day will also be sent out for you to follow along with.
Places are limited to ONLY three people so register now if you would like to have a spot reserved.
Hey everyone! So we have covered the pop genre last month, and this week is the first week of the acoustic genre! Which means we will be covering and looking at artists that tend to be strongest when playing live or with minimal backing. Some of my favorite artists fit in this category, and they are often the best ones to cover as live music tends to work well with piano.
So here's a list of artists I will be covering this month:
John Mayer. My first love! Haha no this guy is seriously talented at guitar. Interesting fact- he says happily how he 'steals' Eric Clatpton's ideas for his music. Eric Clapton was his idol and inspiration growing up and there is even YouTube videos of them playing together:
'Crossroads' (From Mayer's album Battle Studies) with Eric Clapton.
John Mayer has released a number of albums now, but if you haven't already heard his stuff I suggest you listen to his album Continuum or recent release 'Born and Raised'. I have been a devoted fan since his first album release in early 2000's. He was best known for his song 'Your Body is a Wonderland'.
Regina Spektor. This girl is pure magic, she is actually a lot older than she looks too! 30-something. But she looks only 25. Regina has mostly got recognized from her song 'Fidelity'
'Fidelity' by Regina Spektor.
Anyway she plays piano like nobody's business, she started off her career playing in bars, and she is beautiful live! Very quirky and full of personality there is no one else quite like her. When I first heard 'Apres Moi' I couldn't help but cry, she is a beautiful composer, singer, and all round instrumentalist. She also is Russian and speaks multiple languages... very talented! Regina has recently released a new album 'What we saw from the cheap seats'. Every album just gets better and better. Look her up, well worth the listen.
Vanessa Carlton. Well anyone who has followed me knows how close Vanessa Carlton is to my heart as a musician. I followed her very closely in my early days and I will always be in love with both her first two albums. After that she went and experimented a bit, with hip-hop producer Irv Gotti to finally releasing her own indie album last year called 'Rabbits on the Run'. Which is very beautiful in both prose, style, production and musically.
'Carousel' by Vanessa Carlton
This is her most recent release, and was entirely self produced so good on her. I have a lot of respect for her doing her own thing despite commercial pressures. With 'A Thousand Miles' creating a lot of expectation , it's understandable she has always been searching for that one 'something' with her music since then. She is a true artist.
The final fourth artist I haven't yet entirely decided on, I'll keep it a surprise ^_^
Anyway these are just some of my influences, in the acoustic genre at least and there are plenty more to come! As usual I will feature a couple of covers and tutorials too for you lucky lucky people.
Gotta get back to writing more music for you. Love you all! Talk soon
Hey guys! Was finally able to upload the Ellie Goulding 'Lights' tutorial, hope it's not too confusing, I explained it and left a bit of room for creative input on your part so you can improvise a bit but hopefully that doesn't make it too confusing. It's a bit longer as I explain the details and the main chords,
Recorded some new stuff today! Just got to edit them then they will be up shortly... including tutorials. I am really committed to the new YouTube vids. Got more for ya tomorrow too.
Hey guys! Here are all the tutorials I made between 2007-2010, they are all link only. Alphabetically organized by Artist. You can also subscribe to my Vlog by email, on the side bar there is a link. Or you can follow me!
Let me know if I have missed anything, info or otherwise. I will be making public and improved tutorials of most popular VC ones such as Twilight in the near future. At the moment just focusing on getting everything up. ^_^
