Onhell
Infinite Dreamer
Unlike many of the thoughts that nag at me during the day this one I just had to write down. I was listening to Avenged Sevenfold's Seize The Day, their power ballad on A City of Evil, and like many power ballads I noticed their use of the piano.
As many of you may or may not know the original name of the piano was Piano Forte. Italian for Soft Loud, because unlike the harpsicord, which it eventually replaced, its range was much wider in terms of volume and tuning. Eventually only "Piano" stuck and to many hard rockers today it makes since for it to be considered as a "soft' instrument as hard rock/metal bands from Kiss (Beth) to, well, Avenged Sevenfold use it to show of their more sensitive side. Now-a-days, classic rock and symphonic metal aside* Rock bands use the soft attributes of the piano to no end. The only two mainstream rock(some may consider them pop) acts I remember using the piano regularly to almost exclusively were Elton John and Billy Joel. This is understandable as they are Rock 'n' Roll acts and the piano was a rock 'n' roll mainstay during the 50's. However it fell out of favor for the more practical guitar (hard to carry a piano from gig to gig
) and aside from classical rock acts like Meat Loaf in the late 70's early 80's the piano only saw the light of day when bands wanted to coax women into throwing their undergarments on stage.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, it would be nice to hear more piano dagnabit! Time to bring back the FORTE!
*Symphonic metal is the only Metal subgenre I can see in which the full range of the piano is used, along with the organ and harpsicord. Even Power Metal bands use it for their "ballads" opting for the synthesizer on 90% of their compositions.
As many of you may or may not know the original name of the piano was Piano Forte. Italian for Soft Loud, because unlike the harpsicord, which it eventually replaced, its range was much wider in terms of volume and tuning. Eventually only "Piano" stuck and to many hard rockers today it makes since for it to be considered as a "soft' instrument as hard rock/metal bands from Kiss (Beth) to, well, Avenged Sevenfold use it to show of their more sensitive side. Now-a-days, classic rock and symphonic metal aside* Rock bands use the soft attributes of the piano to no end. The only two mainstream rock(some may consider them pop) acts I remember using the piano regularly to almost exclusively were Elton John and Billy Joel. This is understandable as they are Rock 'n' Roll acts and the piano was a rock 'n' roll mainstay during the 50's. However it fell out of favor for the more practical guitar (hard to carry a piano from gig to gig
) and aside from classical rock acts like Meat Loaf in the late 70's early 80's the piano only saw the light of day when bands wanted to coax women into throwing their undergarments on stage. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it would be nice to hear more piano dagnabit! Time to bring back the FORTE!
*Symphonic metal is the only Metal subgenre I can see in which the full range of the piano is used, along with the organ and harpsicord. Even Power Metal bands use it for their "ballads" opting for the synthesizer on 90% of their compositions.
