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Carol Moxley, who writes the blog Bass-ically Speaking turned me on to a book on music theory that is available in a free, downloadable and printable (if you want to use a whole ream of paper) PDF, Basic Music Theory by Jonathat Harnum. The e-book is pretty comprehensive, starting with a tutorial on the history of music notation. It’s an easy read, however and you can skip the parts you don’t need, if you don’t need them.

Just for fun, and to keep the vidoes going, here are Larry Simms and Janet Burston in the 1941 film Blondie Goes Latin, singing We Hate Music Lessons. Music lessons are your friend. What they really hate is practicing. One thing that Harnum recommends in his e-book is that your always play and never practice. This includes doing your scales and arpeggios, though. It’s about attitude. I wish I had learned that when I was 9.

Larry Simms had a long career as a child actor, playing the part of Alexander (Baby Dumpling) Bumstead in 29 Blondie movies. He was also in It’s A Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington with Jimmy Stewart. After appearing in Blondie Goes Latin, Janet Burston replace Darla Hood as Alfalfa’s love interest for the last season or two of Our Gang, AKA The Little Rascals. She also appeared in twenty some movies as a child actor.

Mose Allison was born in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi in 1927. As a young child he learned to play the piano by ear, picking out the melodies of songs he heard on the radio on the keyboard. He played trumpet in high school and began writing his own songs, influenced by Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, and Nat King Cole. After a year at the University of Mississippi, he went to the Army in l946, playing in the Army Band in Colorado Springs. Allison returned to college twice, taking time off again to tour with his own jazz trio and finally graduated in 1952 from Louisiana State University. During the 1950s Allison performed and recorded with jazz greats Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Gerry Mulligan as well as with his own Mose Allison Trio.

Allison’s songs are extremely witty. I found a reference to him as the “William Faulkner of jazz.” His piano accompaniment is complex, yet the songs structure tends to be fairly simple. The Yardbirds, Leon Russell, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, even The Clash have recorded rock versions Mose Allison’s songs. At 81, Allison continues to tour and perform.

Here is Mose in an appearance during the 1970s, on the WTTW Chicago television show, Soundstage.

Glenn Gould was a notoriously eccentric prodigy of the piano. Born in Toronto in 1932 Gould developed an interest in the piano as a very young child. He is reputed to have hit single notes and held them listening to the note decay, instead of banging on the keyboard as other children did. Gould learned to read music before he learned to read words. He studied piano with his mother from infancy until the age of 10, when he entered the Royal Academy of Music in Toronto.

Gould made his first public performance at the age of 13, in 1945, and performed a piano concerto with the Toronto Symphony the next year. He began playing on the CBC, Canada’s public radio network in 1950, an association that lasted most of his life. His public performing career was short. After touring the Soviet Union in 1957 and appearing in Canada, Europe and the United States, to great acclaim, he gave his last concert in 1964 in Los Angeles. Thereafter Gould would record and play for the radio and sometimes for the camera, either film or television, but refused to play in front of an audience.

Throughout his career Gould always used a wooden folding chair that his father had modified for him. He carried the chair with him to concerts, sat on it in front of his own piano at home and took it to recording, television and radio studios. The chair was very small and became increasingly ratty, finally wearing down to a bear frame with no seat. His head barely rose above the keyboard when he played. In the first clip below a piano bench has been place next to Gould at the piano to obscure the chair he is sitting in, but it can be seen clearly when another camera angle is used.

Gould’s playing is phenomenally precise, despite his awkward sitting position. Some critics don’t care for his interpretation of Bach’s work, calling his playing as eccentric as his lifestyle. He sings along as he plays, although it is well masked in the soundtrack of this video. You can see him singing when a closeup of his face is in the shot.

Here is a short video in which Gould talks briefly about his chair.