PIYW #11 — Meta Feedback

rsl12 · 2026-08-16T04:58:45+00:00

Update 2: 15 October 2026 "Play 'Don't Know Why' Your Way" is now live! Click to listen. KevinM Simonb Platybat Platybat WieWaldi diretonic You can continue to use this thread to discuss your preparation of the piece, or to discuss any other matters regarding Play It Your Way. Update 1: 16 August 2026 PIYW #11: Play "Don't Know Why" Your Way Play It Your Way is a quasi-monthly event for beginners, professionals, classical, jazz, or pop pianists and everyone in between! We are starting work on "Don't Know Why" by Jesse Harris. Use the links below to find the sheet music you like, and when you are ready, post your performance in the submission thread. Perfection is not expected! Previous PIYWs: PIYW #10: Play "Last Song" Your Way PIYW #9: Play Chopin's "Wiosna (Spring)" Your Way PIYW #8: Play "How Long Blues" Your Way Full List of Previous PIYWs Thanks to Rsl12 for this month's selection! Please suggest pieces for future "Play It Your Way" events by using the suggestion box. The theme of the next PIYW (to be announced in October 2026) is "Winter Holiday", but feel free to submit good ideas across all genres. Guidelines This is not a contest! It is meant to be a casual and fun event. You can use this thread to discuss your preparation of the piece, or anything else related to PIYW. To submit a recording of your performance, go to the submission thread. All PIYW submissions will remain hidden from public view until 15 October 2026. However, there is no deadline for when you need to submit your performance. Although most participants submit their recording before that date, you may submit at any time. Use the recital schedule to plan your participation in future recitals! "Don't Know Why" by Jesse Harris (1999) Norah Jones' version (2002) is best known... ...but the original version (1999) was written and performed by Jesse Harris From Wikipedia: "Don't Know Why" is a song written and composed by American singer-songwriter Jesse Harris that originally appeared on his 1999 album, Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos. A cover of the song later appeared on Norah Jones' debut studio album, Come Away with Me (2002), and was released as her debut single on January 28, 2002. Jones' piano-playing has been compared to that of Floyd Cramer, having a "style and grace, a musical maturity not found in many keyboard players today." From an interview with Jesse Harris: Expressiveness on the whole is not Harris' forte. His lyrics are slippery and ambiguous, rarely confronting anything head-on. Sometimes this makes them seem merely vague, but in his better moments he manages to be evocative without exactly defining the thing he's evoking. The songs are mostly about relationships of one kind or another, and they tend to involve someone or something fading or leaving or not arriving at all (as in "Don't Know Why"). Who or what is actually at stake is left to the listener to decide. "Songs kind of exist in an abstract place," Harris says. "I've never been one who wrote autobiographically. I keep a journal, and so maybe because of that I don't feel a need to articulate things in my life, I don't need to find expression for them. So songs can kind of exist in a world of their own, and they don't have to bear the burden of me talking about my personal life. He finds the best analog for his method in blues songs, with their succinct metaphors and repetition. "Great blues tunes are quite abstract and sort of universal," he says. "It doesn't have to be that person's story, you know?" At the same time, Harris resists categorization as a traditionalist of any stripe. His sepia-toned cover photo notwithstanding, he insists he's not trying to revive anything. "I don't know, it seems any time you try to do something in a 'traditional' way, it seems kind of hokey, or like a put-on," he says. "I don't see myself as doing anything in a traditional way -- just making music that appeals to me in the best way I know how to do it." Links to Sheet Music / Lead Sheet You are not limited to only the music linked below. Feel free to find or create your own version. You do not have to complete or perfect the piece to submit it, and don't be afraid to simplify or shorten the piece. Improvisation, backing tracks, and backing humans are all allowed. Sheet music (special thanks to ShiroKuro for providing many of these links!): Easy: https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/lisa-donovan-lukas/dont-know-why-easy/MN0289472 https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/dietmar-steinhauer/dont-know-why-easy/MN0285295 Early Intermediate: https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/jennifer-eklund/dont-know-why-early-intermediate/MN0231564 Intermediate: https://www.musicnotes.com/marketplace/sheetmusic/MK0104779 https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/lisa-donovan-lukas/dont-know-why-intermediate/MN0289399 https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/william-haviland/dont-know-why/MN0239920 Piano with Johnny Version #1 (Video Link) Piano with Johnny Version #2 Jennifer Eklund's version (Video link) Christian Fuchs' version (Video Link) Lead Sheet Lead Sheet (Beginner's Guide to Lead Sheets)

KevinM

I have only just looked at this for the first time today other than listening Norah Jones singing it.

Starting late and not having much free time outside of my usual pieces I limited myself to choosing only from the simplest arrangements.

The very first and simplest arrangement is the one I have chosen, of the simple arrangements it has that languid feel to it that Jones brings out.

Of course any wrong notes or ones with unexpected loudness are going to stand out when the score is sparse which provides a different kind of pressure.

There will be no singing and I promise you that will
save your ears.

diretonic

TulipAcid I don't know why I don't understand all of this.

Guess I need some Jazz Theory!

I was about to post before yours, suggesting that there was a risk that rsl12's display of chordal busyness might intimidate others or, worse, make them feel that in not following his workings they might somehow be missing out.

rsl12

TulipAcid I think the gist is that you're comparing these arrangements measure by measure to understand how they differ.

Yes, and to understand the logic behind what each person is "saying".

TulipAcid I have a vague notion that doing so gives a sense of the stylistic language for each of the arrangers...Jones has several layers...I'm guessing these are variations by verse?

I didn't do the whole recordings--just little snippets. Some people repeated the same harmonies every time, but some vary quite a bit. For Norah Jones, I wrote a couple variations that she uses. (For Pat Metheny, he starts almost exactly like the lead sheet, but it goes to places that will require more time for me to transcribe.)

TulipAcid sus is sus to me.

You should definitely learn sus! "Last Song" was full of them!!

TulipAcid Be that as it may, I also guess, by knowing the jazz chord progressions, and the melody, you can wind your way through those chords, add embellishments and prepare for your improvisatory solo?

There are two aspects to how this helps me. One way is to strictly copy what others have done (either note-for-note or just harmonically). I always think imitation is a very good step to being original. The other way is to be inspired by the approach and find variations to what others have done. In either case, I find the interesting paths (and their variations) during practice, so that during performance, I know that those pathways exist and I can travel down them if I choose to do so in the spur-of-the-moment.

rsl12

diretonic I was about to post before yours, suggesting that there was a risk that rsl12's display of chordal busyness might intimidate others or, worse, make them feel that in not following his workings they might somehow be missing out.

Yes, that's the last thing I want to do! I want to show my process for preparing a tune, but I don't to scare off anyone, and I certainly don't advise using my method if it won't benefit you!!

TulipAcid

rsl12

Hopefully people are curious!

I'm still looking at the piece off-and-on myself, though don't have much hope I'll have the version I chose ready any time soon.

As a rank beginner at jazz things, I decided that reading the thing note by note wasn't getting me very far, and the next thing I needed to do was to play the chords by themselves and that would hopefully reveal more as to the logic of the arrangement. How the chords and the notes are connected, how necessary the embellishments are...

I do know the tune, though I'm looking across a gulf of being alternately attracted to and put off by some of this realm.

Even "smooth jazz" when experienced in a live environment is subject to off the wall cadenzas (I know, improvisations...) that sometime leave me looking for the exits/a bathroom break, er, I mean striving to appreciate them.

TulipAcid

rsl12 You should definitely learn sus! "Last Song" was full of them!!

Loaded indeed. To almost an unforgiveable extent. At one point I was going "come on now, how many times are you going to do this?"

WieWaldi

TulipAcid I don't know why I don't understand all of this.

My first impression was:

I know this picture... Have seen it before... yes - here:

rsl12

TulipAcid As a rank beginner at jazz things, I decided that reading the thing note by note wasn't getting me very far, and the next thing I needed to do was to play the chords by themselves and that would hopefully reveal more as to the logic of the arrangement. How the chords and the notes are connected, how necessary the embellishments are...

If it helps:

Starts on I, goes smoothly to a I7, and the I7 (as described in my earlier post) acts as the V of the IV, allowing us to resolve solidly into...
Measure 2, which is the IV, pretty standard. Blues, for example, starts by going I to IV. Then we smoothly go down chromatically to III7 (smooth chromatic movement sounds good). (Your version may be some other variation of III, such as III aug or III alt)
This III7 starts a variation of the standard progression iii-vi-ii-V-I. Similar to "Heart and Soul". In this case, the variation is
III7-vi-II7-Vsus-I. This goes through the circle of 4ths, where each chord is the dominant of the next chord, and therefore it feels like it's sort of resolving after each chord change.

TulipAcid I do know the tune, though I'm looking across a gulf of being alternately attracted to and put off by some of this realm.
Even "smooth jazz" when experienced in a live environment is subject to off the wall cadenzas (I know, improvisations...) that sometime leave me looking for the exits/a bathroom break, er, I mean striving to appreciate them.

Well, like any genre, you're bound to have some stinkers, and some musicians more interested in showing off than in expressing emotions (and unfortunately, some consumers that devour that kind of music). And it doesn't help that a beginner jazz players produce some of the hardest-to-listen-to music ever, but it's part of the process of becoming good...

Nightowl

rsl12 Even the "simple" arrangements of this piece look tricky to me. The advanced pieces look insanely difficult. I look forward to watching the vids but I'm so glad I didn't attempt this piece.

diretonic

I've fallen in love with Metheny's version. His picking at the beginning is delightful and easy on the ear but he's tortured it a bit in the key change. I'm tempted if only to encourage protest.

rsl12

diretonic If you mean you're thinking of following in his footsteps, then I can't wait to hear your version! Like you, he has a way of making hard things sound easy.

diretonic

rsl12 I'd been working on my 'own thing' but the Metheny stopped me short. Latest plan is a partial Pat plagiarism coupled with a couple of my own ideas if I can make them work together. Well see! He treats it almost like a ballad - that hadn't occured to me. And the bridge is absolutely gorgeous, reminds me of the zither in the 40's film The Third Man. Not sure if his dissonance in the key change isn't a bit too salty for the tone of the piano. If I tackle it at all (the key change) I'll put it in dorico and paste it here.

diretonic

Aha!...this saved me some time...

A little faster and only marginally less wonderful than the recorded version.

rsl12

Thank you, that saves me time too!

twocats

Two more weeks!

ShiroKuro

I haven’t practiced this in… I’ll have to go back and look at my notes, but at least since before I finished my Last Song recording, so maybe three weeks.

I may not be able to put it back into my practice rotation… also, although the arrangement I picked should be easy enough, the jazzy phrasing (or something jazzy about it) eludes me and it just sounds drab when I play it, and I think that makes me not want to pursue it more…

KevinM

I attempted a recording a few days ago and it wasn't pretty. I selected the simplest of the sheet music options, and even small hesitations stand out like a sore thumb when there is little other musical noise to hide behind.

I'll keep trying and have another go, but no promises.

ShiroKuro

KevinM the simplest of the sheet music

which one, if I might ask?

KevinM

The Lisa Donovan Lukas one.

KevinM

Just submitted. It can certainly be improved, still some hesitations (but fewer) but I think I'll leave it there. No singing involved so you all should appreciate that I resisted that torture method.

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