anyone ever play John Cage's 4:33 on a tele?

[firewire]

Just curious if this has ever been done before. What amp works best?;>)

How do audiences react?

Don't mean to brag...but this is one piece I can play perfectly.

firewire...

[jazztele]

i just know the intro. i play it everytime i step on my cable and it pops out of the jack.

[stephent2]

I'm playing it right now. Be very very quiet!

[aram]

i only play it on an esquire.

the neck pickup on the tele messes with the strings, and the piece just doesn't sound as good.

[J-man]

One of my lecturers performed it on the flute.

[jaydawg]

This is just silly..........

[rhinocaster]

There's no way that I could spend that much time with a Tele in my hands without doing anything.

No way.

[boneyguy]

I've been practicing it quite alot and I can actually do it in under 4:00 minutes now.

[graham232]

At college (way over 20 years ago) we "arranged" it for ensemble at one of the weekly concerts. I was on percussion and a mate on paper and comb along with a dozen or so others. Amazingly over half the lecturers did not get it (except the one who put us up to it, presumably to show them up).

[byrdbrain]

Can't say I have, but I'm working on a transcription for Tele
of LaMonte Young's Piano Piece #1 for Terry Riley.
Here's the original score:

Push the piano up to a wall and put the flat side flush against it.
Then continue pushing into the wall. Push as hard as you can.
If the piano goes through the wall, keep pushing in the same
direction regardless of new obstacles and continue to push
as hard as you can whether the piano is stopped against
an obstacle or moving. The piece is over when you are
too exhausted to push any longer.

[teleyouk]

I play 4:33 on a tele, but only with 9-42 gauge strings.(it's much better).

[octatonic]

Careful... this might happen to you.

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/...23/uk.silence/

[fraxs]

I saw the Melvins perform this, but Buzzo was playing his trusty Les Paul

[fuzz1812]

You are all quite ambitious to interpret this as a solo piece - I've really only heard this done as an orchestral piece.

[Dan German]

Originally Posted by fuzz1812

You are all quite ambitious to interpret this as a solo piece - I've really only heard this done as an orchestral piece.

I'll fess up and say that I kinda cheat. I play it with recorded accompaniment. And I lip-synch. But then again, I have no formal training. Hell, I don't even own a tux.

[Telakaster]

I think they were all lip synching.


edit...Drat! Beat me to the punch ,Dan.

[Larry F]

Originally Posted by byrdbrain

Can't say I have, but I'm working on a transcription for Tele
of LaMonte Young's Piano Piece #1 for Terry Riley.
Here's the original score:

Push the piano up to a wall and put the flat side flush against it.
Then continue pushing into the wall. Push as hard as you can.
If the piano goes through the wall, keep pushing in the same
direction regardless of new obstacles and continue to push
as hard as you can whether the piano is stopped against
an obstacle or moving. The piece is over when you are
too exhausted to push any longer.

There were a ton of these instruction pieces written in the 60 and even into the early 70s. There is a journal called Source that contains many examples. In Britain, Cornelius Cardew led the Scratch Orchestra, which played music determined by very complicated sets of rules. Do this until that happens, do this except for that, etc. It seems to have been very interesting to think up this stuff, as well as to realize it in performance. Sometimes my students get the idea to write a piece like this, but they generally don't pursue it.

[tboy]

Know it? I wrote it! If you consider that every player who's not playing is always playing it, imagine the residuals.

Maybe a nice addition to the American Idol repertoire?

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by Larry F

There were a ton of these instruction pieces written in the 60 and even into the early 70s. .............

The heyday of LSD consumption. Coincidence??

[MatteusNova]

I read somewhere that Frank Zappa recorded this piece, was it not on a Cage tribute CD.

[graham232]

Originally Posted by MatteusNova

I read somewhere that Frank Zappa recorded this piece, was it not on a Cage tribute CD.

He did, apparently the first digital recording of the piece!

[tpaul]

the problem with recording it is, it gets so little air play...

[pchilson]

I have to admit, I've never heard of this. Now thats just feckin stupid. Who is this brilliant John Cage character anyway? Anybody can do that...

[firewire]

The first time I heard, er saw, this performed was by musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra (i.e., world class musicians). At the time, I remember thinking, "music cannot get any more 'modern'" - and so, to me it represents the beginning of the post-modern (pomo) era. So for that reason, it may be silly, but to me it's important.

I've heard that Cage considered it one of his most important works.

OK, who on this board is going to make history? Be the first to post it on You tube and you could go down in the history books as a world tele premiere.

The only reason I brought this up is that I've been playing it a little too much lately...I need to try some roy/danny for a change...

thanks everyone for the great discussion

[eddie knuckles]

How about a room full of tele's?

That would most royally rock.

Who's that guy with a wall full of teles? - HE should do it solo....

[bradpdx]

Once I played this at a gig, but then found out that my amp was on standby. Damn! I did it perfectly, too.

[tboy]

If he had named it 9:06, would that pay twice the residuals?