Sophie

Ib     034

Sonni on piano and Sophie on two accompanying tracks.Sophie is a student of mine. There are several other pieces of music in my tracks list that she either wrote and played herself or she added tracks to something I recorded. We  have spent the last 2-3 years working on her ability to play improv. Hearing where the music is going and sensing how to play with it. I am very proud of her progress. She is developing a sensitive, emotional touch to her music to bring out the feeling. She is currently 12 years old

Everything Will Be Alright

This is the second version of this piano improv. I asked Sophie, my 13 yr old student to add to the music a cello part the way she felt it. She has good instincts for someone so young. She has played several other pieces of music in the past 3 years that you can easily find gong down my list of tracks. she listened once to the original music and then added the cello.  I was pleased with what she played because she was able to feel where the music was going.

Insomnia (Collab With Sophie)Version 2

hey-that's your holiday gift-to all those who made it out Happy 2025!

No Slip Ups

dedicated to my sister Cindy (more to com)

During Sophie's last piano lesson I asked her to improvise a track on this piece. ( the mid range strings)  Then she started to improvise more.  I picked a key and told her to keep playing.  She did. She played beautiful music and she realized that she no longer needed music to play.  The light bulb turned on and she smiled.  People who only memorize music will forget it if they don't keep playing it.  When you can improvise in any key, you never forget that. You will always be able to play any time you sit at a piano and have no fear that you won't remember what you knew. it's important to know how to read music and the theory that goes with it,  but if that is all you can do, find a teacher who can teach you improv.  I'm very proud of her.  She has talent. 

Learning Forgiveness - Collab with Sophie

Fresh recorded boogie funk & disco mixtape featuring some of my heaters....🔥

Army Of One [Chapter 5] (Rayko Electrik Groover Mixtape) March 2025

Artist: Dee Montero. Elu
Title: Fade Into Me
Label: Futurescope
Cat: FSCP018
Genre: Organic House
Release Date: 13.03.2025
Buy Link: https://www.beatport.com/release/fade-into-me/4961239

Belfast-born DJ/producer and label boss Dee Montero returns to Futurescope with ‘Fade Into Me’, a captivating new single featuring the enchanting vocals of Northern Irish singer/songwriter Elu. Since breaking through with the anthemic ‘Halcyon’ —crowned Pete Tong’s Essential Tune of the Year in 2017—Montero has remained at the forefront of melodic house and techno, with his productions and DJ sets transporting listeners to otherworldly realms, from the Playa of Burning Man to intimate underground clubs worldwide

SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/deemontero

Curator:
Enrico Cherbino

Follow Us:
soundcloud.com/connectch
facebook.com/connectch
youtube.com/connectch
instagram.com/con_nectch

Buy now on Beatport

PREMIERE: Dee Montero, Elu - Fade Into Me (Vocal Mix) [Futurescope]

Music : Janne Hennie & Little Man
Vocals & lyrics : Janne Hennie

You once told me I didn't have enough
To offer you
Well, that might be true
But I got something I know you want
I've got bippetibopp

Chorus.
I may not be the prettiest girl you've ever seen
My wallet is cold
My pocket ain't full of gold
But I do something no one else can do
I Bippetibopp with you

Bippetibopp

I've got something I know you want
I've got bippetibopp

Chorus

If you replace me with someone new
You might end up miserable and blue
Cause I've got something I know you want
I've got Bittepibopp

Chorus

Bippetibopp

I've got something I know you want
I've got Bippetibopp

Are you sure you really want to go?
You will miss out what you already know
I'm the only one who can do
Bippetibopp with you

Chorus

Bippetibopp

This is the 137th release of Ole White, Deep House Music, with 2 cool original mixes from our Romanian Artists Gabriel Esef and Albin Kaczka! Play, enjoy and download, thanks all for support! AVA now on Beatport!
Mastered by Audio3K Mastering

Need It EP

Gabriel Esef, Albin Kaczka - Need It Snippet

This is Sophie, a 10 year old student in her second year of music study. She is learning to improvise - feeling the music and the space between the notes. I improvised a piano track. She listened once. I told her to play what she felt and I recorded what she played. The chose the flute. It doesn't come in right away, 18 seconds. Toward the end she starts to harmonize with two notes. We talk often about dissonance and how it adds an edge to melodies. She practices everyday when she gets home from school.  I don't teach her like a child. I go way over her head with theory but she gets it. She can already play all of the sharp scales 2 octaves, chord inversions and understands going from  one chord to the next using the closest inversion. 

When I was ten years old I decided I wanted to be a piano teacher when I grew up and started dragging my friends in from outside to teach them even though I knew very little. I am not a conventional teacher who goes through method books that only teach a student how to read music and interpret what other people  have written, but I haven't seen one beginner book at any age level that even mentions how to create music. The two should be taught side by side. Adults who took piano lessons as a child rarely can play as an adult because they forgot anything they memorized and can't read music anymore. they couldn't play as well as they did as a child so they don't embarrass themselves. A student should be taught so they can make their own music and grow with it as they mature.

I'm sure you'll hear more of Sophie's as time goes by. Her grandmother in Korea will finally be able to hear her, too.

Sophie's Song

This is Sophie last week, June 28th, on her 11th birthday. You can listen to her first recording with me last year soon after we started lessons. We recorded this piece last week and today we uploaded it to SoundCloud. Her track is the sax. This one was harder than the last one we did because it is in the key of A flat - 4 flats. She listened to what I played while keeping in mind the scale of A flat. She practiced the scale a few times to take note of what keys she could play while she listened to me.  We kept her second try. It is easy for an improv player to play in C or A minor because you can play just about anything on the white keys and have it sound good while keeping in mind the time signature. Self-taught Improv players usually rely only on sound but do they take the time to teach themselves the language of music theory? Without knowing it, it is like knowing how to speak but not being able to read and write. I have met extremely few teachers who can teach the concept of improv because all they can do is read music themselves and teach through method books, so students grow up with no knowledge of how to develop their own sound and by adulthood, most have quit playing entirely. Sophie is a gem. We work for hours at each lesson. I teach her like I would teach an adult, not a child. No method books. I don't teach someone else's style of learning how to play the piano. I push her beyond her capabilities and she keeps right up with me. 

Right now we are working together on writing a new piece with three movements and she is hand drawing the chart vs improvising. After we record it she will improvise at least two other tracks. Computer printouts of the music that is played make musicians lazy and they are usually wrong. If you don't know music you wouldn't know if it is wrong, but it looks good. If you want to know what I teach I do teach online - but not with a prepared package you can buy. I usually only teach those who are already playing but know they need more.

Improv in A Flat - Sophie on Sax

This is the first piece by Sophie, an 11 yr old student, where she did the entire piece by herself and did all of the recording of tracks as she learns to listen to the music and play other melodies with it. She has studied with me for 1 1/2 years and learned the basics with another teacher the year before me.  It is typical for teachers to go through a series of method books that teach students how to read music but doesn't teach them how to create it, because they can only teach what they have been taught. Sophie is exceptionally bright. I teach her the same as I would teach an adult and she grasps the concepts. I am opening up her own SC account and transfer any music she has recorded with me.  I want her to develop her own following. I'll keep you posted! 
You can find her at https://soundcloud.com/user-41416419

End of Summer by Sophie

My music pieces are all piano improvisations expressing emotions. It is music telling stories without the words. In my earIy years I sang and played piano in piano bars or fronted bands of different styles, from country to heavy metal and to 40. I've been composing, teaching and performing most of my life.  I'm getting old(er) now 😔 but the great thing about creating music is it gets better the longer you play, and you have more to write about! 

This is what I leave of me to my generations to come who wonder where their desire to make music comes from. My mother, grandmother and great grandmother were both accomplished pianists when they were young. My son is also exceptional.  My great grandmother and gr grandfather sang and danced in minstrel shows (vaudeville) in the early 1900's. Kids today have no idea what life was like before moving pictures.  I now have great-grandchildren. They will know who I am through my music. When I am gone my music will still be here. What a wonderful thought! 

Learning Forgiveness - Collab with Sophie

Sonni Quick