Because of the sheer volume of content of the net it is more than likely that a few gems will be missed when they first premiere. The other side of that coin is that as it stands now, those gems do remain for your “discovery”. Did I mention how this webisode is just about everything. Like everything.
If there was a way to put this type of information on par with what the music curriculum has been for many a year in certain places there’s no telling what the result could be. Like other instruments The Fender Rhodes has it’s own lore because of that sound. A true testament to the vitality of the instrument is that it is still in use. Oh yes we can try to emulate whatever we want but there is nothing and I mean nothing like the real thing.
What’s also very real is at the end of this webisode when Greg Phillinganes plays an excerpt of one of my favorite Stevie Wonder penned Michael Jackson recorded compositions of all time: “Can’t Help It”. For me it was like sitting in the control and hearing that track soloed… all the nuance and color, the feel and the knowledge that you’re listening to the person that laid it down in the first place is in a word: everything!
We will definitely be posting more of the “Down The Rhodes” series in the weeks and months to come.
Ivan Orr is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and writer. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia Ivan was involved with the forming and nascent days of The Music Resource Center as its first Program Director. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music, Ivan currently resides in Richmond, VA where he maintains an active performance and production schedule while serving as the Music Editor for Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2010.
