Hint: there's a lot of stuff having to do with chords

March 31, 2017 6:49 PM

Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzalez breaks down recent pop hits for a German media group in his Pop Music Masterclass series.
posted by Shepherd (17 comments total)

[groucho]What a German media group was doing in his Pop Music Masterclass series, he'll never know. [/groucho]
posted by Naberius at 6:58 PM on March 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

Cool! Right in time for the weekend, even. There is so much high quality music instruction on Youtube now (example: Rick Beato's channel, and I will add this to the list.
posted by thelonius at 7:08 PM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]

Super interesting. Thanks.
posted by veggieboy at 7:23 PM on March 31, 2017

I liked that when he played Fur Elise as an example, he transposed it up a minor third.
posted by metaseeker at 8:10 PM on March 31, 2017

Just popping in to say that Chilly's new album with Jarvis Cocker of Pulp is pretty great! A concept album about old Hollywood called Room 29.
posted by ericthegardener at 8:20 PM on March 31, 2017 [4 favorites]

Someone posted a link to one of his videos as a comment to another post somewhere and I was sucked in, watching most of his other videos. They're really enjoyable and impressively concise for all the great information or ideas he brings out from looking at single songs. I have to admit being more than a little jealous of that, but not so much as to keep me from wanting to see more from him.
posted by gusottertrout at 8:47 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

His explanation of the chords to Get Lucky being so consistent goes a long way to explaining why these two songs exist in the same space in my brain.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:18 PM on March 31, 2017

Really interesting, but I had to stop when he mentioned Fur Elise, or I would have had that thing ringing in my head for the next 10 days...I guess a trigger warning for this is an unreasonable request, but still.

Will check out more of Chilly, for sure.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 9:44 PM on March 31, 2017

Very cool.
(Always feel a little awkward about the whole 'they're Canadian' thing whenever any public/well known person pops up in discourse and they happen to be, you know, Canadian and I always call it out... didn't know The Weekend was Canadian. Until in now.)
posted by From Bklyn at 11:33 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow. This is great. And I want me that sparkling D (along with a place big enough, good enough, for it)
posted by bz at 11:39 PM on March 31, 2017

Now I'm no big city music guy, but that chap seems very handy on the piano to me.
posted by StephenF at 12:40 AM on April 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Chilly is AMAZING and the more people who know about him the better. I would direct you to his two acclaimed Solo Piano albums but also his classical rap work.
posted by cacophony at 1:48 AM on April 1, 2017

Great videos, and also holy crap am I reeling from temporal vertigo. This track by the same guy – just 'Gonzales' as he went by back then – was one of my favourite things that came out in '02, and I had completely forgotten he existed until now.
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:49 AM on April 1, 2017

previously
Heh, they've asked him to stop introducing himself as "... the musical genius".
(They've also learned to mic him better.)

Don't miss the class on "Tuesday"!
posted by progosk at 4:05 PM on April 1, 2017

Wait...why is a descending bass line (the technical term, which he avoids) a "loop of infinite sadness?" Aside from the hyperbole, it isn't really a loop, is it? Annoying.
posted by kozad at 4:37 PM on April 1, 2017

Those are great, thanks for linking them. I've seen a bunch of his stuff over the years and never a dud.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:21 PM on April 1, 2017

Wait...why is a descending bass line (the technical term, which he avoids) a "loop of infinite sadness?"

I take it as the "loop" referring to the repetition of that descending bass line throughout the song save for the moments of relief or alteration provided by/in the chorus.
posted by gusottertrout at 10:58 PM on April 1, 2017