Warm Strangers songbook now available

[dbeattie]

As announced on Vienna Teng's twitter and facebook, the Warm Strangers songbook is now being printed. Orders will ship on Dec 20.

http://viennateng.portmerch.com/stores/ ... ctid=17600

[Lirulin]

This was my initial reaction to that email:

I HAVE BEEN AWAITING THIS FOR LIKE THREE YEARS EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Thank you Mr. Beattie!!

[Scot]

I HAVE BEEN AWAITING THIS FOR LIKE THREE YEARS EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Thank you Mr. Beattie!!

Indeed - thanks and congrats!

scot

[marathonmark]

Same here...I ordered immediately...notification was sent today that it shipped this morning...

and now I'm imagining my songbook riding along the interstate somewhere in the Midwest...

[Luminosity]

Sorry if this question is redundant, but does the Warm Strangers songbook include "Boy at the Piano"?

[aaparallel]

Sorry if this question is redundant, but does the Warm Strangers songbook include "Boy at the Piano"?

Nope, Boy at the Piano's not in there.
So there's an official recorded version of Boy at the Piano somewhere? In the international release?

[Michele]

So there's an official recorded version of Boy at the Piano somewhere? In the international release?

It's a live version on the Canadian release.

I can't find the posts for reference, but I was mighty bummed when it seemed like Inland Territory and Dreaming were going to be worked on before this one. These songs are still very dear to me, and also I figured a few of them are probably the only ones of Vienna's that I have any hope of being able to play. Well, I opened it and changed my mind but I'm still happy. (I'd just have to practice, really...but sadly I don't see that happening.)

Question...what's that snowflake at the top of page 20?

Thanks for your hard work, David! I was pretty shocked to see this get done before Christmas! That said, I kinda hope we get one sometime that has some extra pictures/note from Vienna/something else in it, that might make non-musicians interested in picking one up as a collectible.

[aaparallel]

It's a live version on the Canadian release.

Ah, thanks for the info.

Question...what's that snowflake at the top of page 20?

That's the symbol to release the pedal after pedaling for the previous measures.

[juliekaye]

Can anyone tell me the difficulty level on these?

[aaparallel]

Can anyone tell me the difficulty level on these?

Depends on what your skill level is. Some of the rhythms are pretty advanced, but the chords are relatively simple.

[Reileen]

Anna Rose and The Atheist Christmas Carol are pretty simple, I think. I also didn't have any major problems with Homecoming. Harbor is about intermediate. My Medea's left hand can be difficult to do smoothly if you haven't been exercising your fingers. Shasta's rhythms take some getting used to, but after that I think it and Homecoming are about equal difficulty.

Aaaaand that's it for my two pesos. I haven't tried the other songs in the book yet.

[dbeattie]

So there's an official recorded version of Boy at the Piano somewhere? In the international release?

It's a live version on the Canadian release.

Thanks for your hard work, David! I was pretty shocked to see this get done before Christmas! That said, I kinda hope we get one sometime that has some extra pictures/note from Vienna/something else in it, that might make non-musicians interested in picking one up as a collectible.

Wow, I didn't realize there was a Canadian release until I read this post. That explains better the several people wondering if Boy at the Piano sheet music would be included in this album book, whereas I didn't know how to explain that phenomenon before now!

I do want to make Boy at the Piano sheet music some day. I don't know when, or how it will get published. Probably just given away as a free PDF download, but don't quote me or hold me to it.

In terms of more well-produced sheet music books, with artwork/collectible type content... I'm afraid the lack of that can be partly traced to my extremely last minute deliveries of completed sheet music to Vienna's people, such that they wouldn't have had time to prepare that after I was done. Without a hard and fast promise of completion (or, even better, getting it done several months in advance), they may not have wanted to devote the effort to creating the extra content, if it wasn't for sure that the sheet music itself would be done in time. (They would have had to have been working on that in parallel, which of course they could have done.) So I don't really have any ability to comment on whether they might want to include extra printed artwork in future books, or even in re-printings of the books that exist... but I do hope to be able to get the sheet music to include in the books to Vienna's people more in advance of a deadline in the future. (I will try.) And if the subject comes up, I will mention about the at least one person on the forum who asked for it.

[juliekaye]

Depends on what your skill level is. Some of the rhythms are pretty advanced, but the chords are relatively simple.

Thanks! I'm an intermediate or so player but if I focus really hard, I can master some advanced things. I'm a bit ADD when it comes to learning new things so the harder stuff doesn't generally happen unless I'm super dedicated. After a week or two I'm thinking "Ooh, wanna learn that song now!" and completely lose interest in the other sadly. Really need to go back to lessons so I'm "forced" to stick with pieces. But, I am too broke for that sadly.

Anna Rose and The Atheist Christmas Carol are pretty simple, I think. I also didn't have any major problems with Homecoming. Harbor is about intermediate. My Medea's left hand can be difficult to do smoothly if you haven't been exercising your fingers. Shasta's rhythms take some getting used to, but after that I think it and Homecoming are about equal difficulty.

Awesome, thanks! I may get it then when I have an extra few bucks. Just wanted some idea of whether I might be able to play them or not. I can play almost anything if I want it bad enough but generally I move on too quickly to do that. haha

[aaparallel]

Harbor is about intermediate.

Yeah, but the rhythms and the accents are pretty tricky to get really accurate. I guess you can get away with listening to VT play it over and over again, but to really "get it" you'd have to be pretty precise with counting and accenting.

Aaaaand that's it for my two pesos. I haven't tried the other songs in the book yet.

OMG You should try Feather Moon. It's fun and really pretty. Not too hard either.

[Reileen]

Yeah, but the rhythms and the accents are pretty tricky to get really accurate. I guess you can get away with listening to VT play it over and over again, but to really "get it" you'd have to be pretty precise with counting and accenting.

The chorus is the area I have the most trouble with, I'm not sure why. I think I'm okay with the rest of the song, more or less, but I tend to fumble the chorus. Both the piano part and the vocal part. Though I've gotten better. But although I enjoy playing the piano part, I'm no good with singing it, so I haven't really been practicing.