Did Stevie give herself credit for playing on 'Bella Donna'?
 

She plays tack piano on "Outside the Rain" -- did she give herself credit on the sleeve?

She might be playing on each one of her solo albums, but I don't think she gives herself a credit line on anything but TISL, right?

On TOSOTM, she is credited on several tracks for playing percussion and tambourine.

Or were you only wondering about piano credits?

She is also credited for playing the synthesizer on "The Nightmare" (along with Charles Judge and Rick Nowels).

And of course, the rhythm guitar and harmonica on "Free Fallin'", if Enchanted counts as an album :)

What did she play on TISL and what is "tack" piano?

I had no idea she played an instrument on that song, much less the harmonica.

She plays the electric piano chord changes on "Love Changes" -- she hits the chord, holds it throughout the measure, & then hits the other chord. The two chords alternate throughout the verses. That's Stevie playing that! Isn't it cool?

Sounds as if she's playing an octave above middle C: a C triad in the right hand, 2nd inversion, with a single A in the bass, & then modulated to an F triad, root, in the right hand with a single F in the bass. Just back & forth & back & forth throughout all the verses, & then on to the chord progression in the chorus & the bridge.

Tack piano is an acoustic piano whose strings have been tampered with in some way. It used to be called a "prepared piano": on a grand where the strings lie horizontally, you can stick bits of business (wood, metal, even pieces of paper) in between the plate/soundboard & the strings & get a honkytonk, barrelhouse sound out of your piano. If you listen to the piano on "Outside the Rain," you'll hear that seedy barrelhouse sound on the blocky chords she plays. She uses the tack effect a lot: on a bunch of Gypsy demos where she's playing acoustic piano, for example. At piano camp, we used to stick our songbooks between the frame & the strings & then play Chopin preludes. It was irreverant, but it was fun experimenting with the different weights & types of tamper material, & how that affected the sound. Piano strings are made out of very tough steel, so you can tamper all you want with them, short of blowtorching them.

Christine used to use this effect, too, although in her case a mechanism was built into the piano to create it. You can hear it on "Not That Funny" & "Sara."

Wow thanks for all that David. I had no clue about Love Changes. I need to go back and listen now. Only I didn't understand some of the technical stuff you were talking about. What words is she playing over in the song?
Pretty cool about the tack piano. You are so lucky you play piano. If I could play one instrument it would be piano. I took lessons as a kid but never stuck to it. Sure wish I had :(

This one time...at piano camp....


























:sorry: I couldn't resist. :xoxo:

THUD - you may burn on Hell for that :laugh: :laugh:

My teacher used to scream - USE THE PEDALS :laugh: Then again, I grew up with and laerned on a piano with 97 as opposed to 88 keys and I would infuriate the teacher by playing in the extra keys in which almost no music is actually written -- ah good times. Of course, if I had paid more attention, I probably could actually play the piano these days instead of tinkering around on it :laugh:

Ummm.. scuse me, but how do we know Stevie actually played on those recordings (like Love Changes) and it wasn't another musician that was credited?

She's credited for keyboards on "Love Changes," so she's definitely playing something.

The short version:

Tack Piano = Thumbtacks are stuck on the ends of the hammers that strike the strings giving the piano a metallic tone...ie, a pizza parlor honky-tonk piano sound. That same sound can be gained nowadays with EQ tampering.

Ok, here's what we know for sure (per album liner notes and interviews) regarding what Stevie has played on various albums.

Piano on "Sara" and "Rhiannon" ('Enchanted' version)
Synthesizer on "The Nightmare"
Percussion on "Rooms On Fire," "Whole Lotta Trouble," "Twisted" ('Enchanted' demo version) and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" (from Chris Isaak's 'Christmas')
Tambourine (I know, I know -- but it's credited) on "Long Way To Go," "Ooh My Love," "Ghosts," "Fire Burning," "Juliet" and "Too Far From Texas"
Rhythm Guitar & Harmonica on "Free Fallin'"
Guitar on "Twisted" ('Enchanted' demo version)
Synth Guitar & Synth Strings on "Sweet Girl" ('Enchanted' demo version)
Keyboards on "Planets Of The Universe," "Love Changes," "Bombay Sapphires," "Running Through The Garden" and "Silver Girl"

Has Stevie ever played the piano live on stage during a performance?

Yes, during her Storytellers episode. She played the Enchanted piano version of Rhiannon, and teased the audience with a short snippet of Sara. I've never heard of her playing anything on tour (except tambourine, of course :D ).