The keyboardist in Jacky Wu's Taiwan Variety Shows

[pf]

Hey guys...i wonder if anyone watches those Taiwan Variety shows hosted by Jacky Wu.

The content isn't much, just a whole lot of people and celebrities come and talk, sing, dance, sometimes kinda like "show and tell" stuff, etc. Mostly show casing pretty girls on the "Guess Guess Guess" show. The shows are pre-recorded before airing.

If you do, you might note that there is a keyboardist in the background. Most of the time, he provides the effects with 2 keyboards when the people are talking. He also provides live accompaniment when Jacky Wu feels like singing or when the guests sings.

I think that whatever is gonna happened on the show is communicated to the keyboardist beforehand (He has some sheet music on his stand). There might even be scripts for everybody and lots of re-takes. There might even be after effects sounds added in after as touch ups. But I think a lot still depends on the keyboardist's skills.

However, the spontenanity and the response in terms of choosing the right patches and playing is incredible as he needs to really pay attention to the people talking and react very fast! The people are back facing him and he really can't anticipate besides paying close attention to what everybody is saying. Quite amazing.

I'm now watching a re-run where the guests needs to do some impersonation of how certain celebrities would sing a Jay Chou song. Hence, the style of the song would change to how the celebraties which are impersonated would do it. Wow! From ballard to country to rock to heavy metal screamo, etc. It really test the keyboardist's knowledge of various improvisation styles!

Now (still watching the re-run) the keyboardist is doing effects as a magician shows and explains his tricks. And he is doing those mysterious sound effects, etc. Quite cool.

Anybody have such live experiences to share or know any such insider stuff? Should be interesting to know.

 

[hollowman]

he's called 'Ah Mi', and he does a few shows, like Kang Xi and Xing Guang Da Dao, plus a few more.

i think he had also put in hard work in learning the songs before he can play like what he is now. He's been active a long time also, so the experience factor is already there.

For Xing Guang Da Dao, he's the so-called 'music director', all the contestants rehearse straight with him, wanna go an octave up or down on your songs, all go through him.

For Guess and Zhou Ri Ba Dian Dang, his chemistry with Jacky is immaculate through years of experience, just that in previous formats he always play in the shadows, out of the screen.

He has appeared in some variety shows as guest, try youtubing. The above are just some of his background info. His exact jobscope, not very sure, but he sure is a busy man, according to himself.

 

[Pete_Wentz]

good thread, how the guy did has been mystery to me

 

[mrekoj]

=hollowman

ah mi ?

i thought they called him 'kong qiang lao shi' or something ? or another guy ?
is it the guy a bit plump and wear specs, always kana disturb when he is the guest one

 

[pf]

No, Kong Qiang I think plays for Zong Yi Da Ge Da before...but he's with a whole band, if I remember correctly....

hollowman, thanks for the info!

 

[bluelite]

Yup u're right pf..kong qiang only played for Zhong yi da ge da...hosted by Zhang Fei...haha..he's actually quite a popular figure in the taiwan music industry..he just doesnt appear much...

And then "Ah mi" has played for some pop stars in their concerts b4, including jay chou's..he's a very good music director..

 

[pf]

Oh cool...thanks guys!

Actually, the band in Zong Yi Da Ge Da didn't really catch my attention because most of the time they just play whats rehersed I think. Whereas in Jacky Wu's shows, he always start singing suddenly and music follows later...a couple of times duet with the guests as well. And Jacky Wu will ask the guests to sing their new release.

I think its impromptu because I felt that at times "ah mi" is following the guests. Doesn't sound prepared. Chords a bit out but still can flow thru. Very good. Kudos to him

 

[hollowman]

Anybody have such live experiences to share or know any such insider stuff? Should be interesting to know.

It wasn't a problem at all, just happened that i watched enought of taiwan variety shows....haha.

Couldn't answer your last qn properly, but my take is that if you are in a band with close friends, the chemistry is easier to build. Some say chemistry is natural, can't be trained, but i feel otherwise. This is when your band is a more 'casual' one (sorry couldn't find a better word) that meet up just to chill or to take part in gigs/competitions....

In the professional field, eg pubs, i do know some pubs (overseas too) that takes requests from the floor to play certain songs and it's usually a case of you know the song, or you don't, when considering whether to play or not. So naturally, it takes experience and years to learn all the songs. Although by the time you are good enough to play in pubs, you are already proficient enough to sight-read maybe, so rejecting a custmer's request wouldnt be nice. I think chemistry is less impt in this field, but still must have lah....it's just that you must know instantly when your bandmates make a mistake and cover up for each other. This is the chemistry i'm talking about. It's about playing experience and knowing your bandmates.

Taking Ah Mi back into our example. Actually he is the one controlling Jacky into his songs, like what everybody says. Everytime he's chatting up the girls, somehow or rather Ah Mi will break into the 'Sogo' music and Jacky will sing automatically, or when he plays the 'Tiao Dang' music, and Jacky will follow, i'm sure you also noticed that. These segments are not rehearsed according to Jacky, cos he doesn't do ANY rehearsals at all, but all the guests' songs I guess Ah Mi has the score, so when Jacky asks them to sing, Ah Mi knows what to play If not, then he's really good!! Sometimes, he's also following the guests with simple progressions.

Sorry, couldnt contribute any keyboard playing experiences, cos i know nuts about the keyboard. Above are just my 2 cents.

Cheers!

 

[pf]

Oh yeah! Great observations! Sometimes the music starts first. Hahaha...What a cool word to use, chemistry.

 

[denischeung]

Ya Ah-Mi lao-shi is v good! n I can assure you he doesn't have any scores or music sheets. He plays everything by improvisation! Of course he's got a very broad library and knows many songs right in his brain. Alot of time when the guests are introducing their new songs he tries impromptu accompaniment by purely listening. It's hard as I guess he doesn't have perfect pitch (but definitely a relative pitch), so he got to figure the key of the song in minimum time as possible, then listening to the melody of the song and construct the chords and predict the next chords by referring to commonly used chord progression, which is built up by his many years of music experiences. Sometimes he does miss when the songs are using uncommon chord progression, but through this we know he's really improvising at real-time.

What I'm most amazed is his prompt skills to play out the right sound effects at the right moment, which alot of them are not sounds from the keyboard's sound modules or effects. My guess is he has uses sampler (hardware or software) and program all the commonly used sound effects to different keys on the keyboard to trigger the effect or even songs (one often used song by him recently is Jay's niu zai hen mang). Alot of preparation is required for sampling like this.