[Joanna Funk]

Hi,

This song from “La La Land” has a lot of rubato, which is my favourite way to play.

I played the piano part first, then found it hard to play the melodica after, because I had to anticipate my own pauses and changes in pace on the piano (and of course with no one to watch as I played).

Afterwards, I came across a fantastic interview with composer Justin Hurwitz. He said Emma Stone sang the song on set in one take, while Hurwitz accompanied her on piano.

So Emma leads and the piano lags behind.

In the interview, Hurwitz said:
“That’s what happens when two people make music together; things are not perfectly in sync.”

I will make a second version of this, with the melodica leading, and the piano following.

I played from the “La La Land” songbook. It’s the first hard copy music book I have bought for myself in decades! I didn’t play the piano part note for note, more a mixture of guitar chords and some phrases.

Audition (The Fools Who Dream)

[Alan Brinton]

I find your playing so unpretentious, Joanna. It’s delightful.

[Joanna Funk]

Hi Alan. Thank you. That is what I want to achieve and your observation makes me happy. I don’t have the chops or the mental ability to be fast and complex on any instrument. So I strive for well-chosen notes to create simple, pretty music. I’m a bit “vanilla” and want to play more of the interesting notes to make things less predictable, but still clean. (That refers to improvisation. Here I was playing sheet music, but the song style is exactly what I like.) It is rewarding to be as bare as possible and share it here, because this is the place where people really care about the sound of the melodica.

[Author]

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