Eu comecei a Tocar Piano Ao Meus 20 Anos - Um ano Depois Aqui Está o Meu Progresso! Video

I started learning piano in my twenties — one year on, here's how it went

First of all thanks to Rob Price for this article.

When I was about seven or eight, I went for a taster violin lesson at school. The idea was to get an idea for the instrument, and see if I wanted to learn properly. I enjoyed it — but the expected lessons never materialised.

A few years later, I asked my mother why: Apparently the tutor had refused to teach me.

It's fair to say that I am not a natural musician.

But at the start of 2016, I resolved to change that. I decided to learn the piano.

A year of immense frustrations, endless Philip Glass, and deep satisfaction later, here's how it went.

Why? I wanted to do something totally new

I'm 24 years old, I live in London, and I've gone through life without knowing the first thing about music. I love to listen to it — I've got a pretty big collection, and I go to gigs regularly. But how it's made has always been one great big opaque mystery to me.

Both of my brothers play — saxophone and guitar, respectively — but the extent of my musical education was tapping out basic beats on a glockenspiel and learning the first few bars of "Neighbours" on the piano at school. So why did I take the plunge now? Well, there were a few reasons:

• I wanted to challenge myself. 2016 was the start of my third year living in London. I'd settled into a routine, and wanted to add some variety to my life — and something that would push me in a new direction.
• I wanted to do something totally new. Learning music for the first time isn't like taking up a new team ball-sport, or an unusual arts-and-crafts activity. Music is an entirely new category of human endeavour I have never meaningfully engaged in before. That makes it pretty exciting — and intimidating.
• I love music. Pretty self-explanatory. I hoped that learning an instrument for the first time would enrich my appreciation of the artform.

I also set myself a few goals — some strict, and some more nebulous.

• Pass my Grade 1 piano exam by the end of 2016. If you're not familiar with the system, you can take exams as you learn instruments, from Grade 1 through to Grade 8. A clear target of reaching Grade 1 by the end of the year would give me something to work towards, a way to measure my success or failure.
• Improve my knowledge of classical music. I had no strict timeframe for this, or a set point when it would be "completed." But I've never known my Bach from my Beethoven, and I wanted to change that.
• Learn "Metamorphosis II," by Philip Glass. This was a longer-term goal, beyond 2016 — it's a beautiful, flowing, and technically tricky bit of music that I wanted to work towards as I got better.

How did it go? The short version is that it was fantastic — I'm extremely glad I did it, and I'd strongly urge to anyone thinking about taking up an instrument to do it, whatever your age.

It wasn't all plain sailing, however.

Learning something new is a lesson in humility and patience

Note: The following sections go into some detail on what and how I learned. If you just want to know whether I passed the exam or not, skip down to the "arcane mystery" section below.

Let me make this clear: Piano is hard. Really hard. It requires you to think in a way you've never done before, juggling a thousand balls simultaneously. Interpret the music. Keep the tempo. Vary the volume. Move both hands independently of one-another. Make sure it all actually sounds good.

You know that brain-straining feeling when you try and multiply three three-digit numbers together? That's what it felt like to be interpreting and playing music on the fly.

To learn, I bought myself a new Yamaha P45 electric piano to learn on. (It goes for £350 in the UK, and $400 in the US.) I needed something with a full 88-key keyboard (like a traditional acoustic piano), touch-sensitive weighted keys (so it actually sounds and feels like a piano), and I didn't care about fancy voices and modes.

I also decided when I began that I was prepared to invest real time and money into this, and pay for a tutor to give me lessons on a (near-)weekly basis. This obviously isn't an option for everyone. But having a tutor means you get expert guidance and avoid learning bad habits — and I'm very glad I did it. For me at least, learning independently would have been far more difficult and infuriating. If you care about something, invest in it.

Though I had committed to learning piano by the end of 2015, an accident involving a very sharp knife and my thumb meant I was only in a position to buy the piano and start learning at the end of January 2016. For the first week or two, I tried learning using Yousician, a freemium app that can teach you piano and other instruments. It was better than nothing — but it was also limited, and I quickly began looking for a human tutor.

My first songs were simple, five-note affairs: "When The Saints Go Marching In" was a particular favourite. But an early frustration was the basic-ness of the stuff I was playing, often simplified versions of popular songs. I wanted to be better than I was. I wanted to play stuff I wasn't capable of.

In that sense, it was a lesson in patience and humility. It's increasingly rare that I go into something completely blind, starting from first principles. You gravitate towards fields and pursuits you're good at, and away from those you're not. Learning piano forced me to face my ineptitude head on, and try to change it.

Slowly and surely, I improved — and it made a world of difference when I could begin playing stuff that didn't feel dumbed-down. John Cage's "In A Landscape" is haunting, and relatively technically simple. And Philip Glass's Metamorphosis II is actually very manageable, before the rapid-fire arpeggios begin. Without a doubt I've played it more than anything else in my repertoire — to my flatmates' resigned amusement.

Can you hear the mistake? Here's a live version of the full song. The finger-melting arpeggios start around the two-minute-thirty mark.

I expect I could have progressed faster had I applied myself more. Lessons, nominally once a week, sometimes happened much less frequently, and I had a gap of a month or two during the summer when I didn't play at all.

But in the early Autumn, I agreed to try for Grade 1 before the end of the year — and that's when it got frantic.

I forgot how much I hate exams

Having a play on the piano at my parents' house. Rob Price/BI

Exams! Studying! Tests! Revising! I thought I'd left this all behind when I left university.

Music exams are set and administered by external exam board organisations (I went with ABRSM). It involved learning and performing three pieces from a selection available, memorising scales and broken chords, doing sight-reading, and an aural test (listening to music, identifying traits, and singing it back as an "echo.")

In short, it aims to test the full range of skills required for you to be considered "good" at playing a given instrument.

It's all scored out of 150. You need 100 or more to pass, with 120 to 130 considered a "merit," and 130 above classified as a "distinction," the highest grade. The lion's share of the marks come from the three prepared pieces, worth up to 30 each, with the other three around 20 each.

After agreeing to take the test, I quickly realised I was nowhere near ready. My tutor must've rescheduled it at least half a dozen times to give give me more time to prepare, and I was practicing morning-and-evening by the end to try and get up to speed.

I ended up taking it in the first week of December — the last week available to do it before Christmas. I turned up with only minutes before it began, butchered the sight-reading, and actually felt my hands shaking at one point while performing. Not a great experience.

So, how did I do?

The Lincolnshire Poacher, above, was one of my exam pieces. Playing from memory without the sheet music in front of me, I'm wobbly on one or two bits.

Music is an arcane mystery I wanted to unravel

Part of the allure of learning music for me was the arcane mystery of it all. From the outside, the rules of music bear to no discernible relation to the "real" world. It has no clear grounding in scientific thought. Why are there only seven notes? Why is it written the way it is? Why do some notes have sharps or flats, and others don't? Why are some combinations of notes good, and others bad? Why is everything in Italian?

And yet somehow, it all comes together, like nothing else on earth. Like magic.

However I did in the exam, I knew that I'd made a little progress down this new road. I had learned the basics of a beautiful alchemy, of organic aural creation.

At least, that's what I told myself as I anxiously waited for my tutor to get back to me with the results.

After two long weeks of waiting, I finally got a text on Wednesday December 21, 2016. I passed!

In the end I did rather better than I thought would be, scoring 126, a merit. Even my sight-reading — which I had thought was diabolical, out-of-time, and incorrect — scored 16/21.

Na Krmitku, by Czech composer Petr Eben. This was my best exam piece — I scored 28/30.

I've got a long way to go — but I'm proud of what I achieved

All my life, I've loved drawing and painting. As such, I'm pretty good at it, and it rarely feels difficult. While I'm sure I struggled with it in the past, because I have two decades of experience to fall back on — much of it as a child — I can now produce relatively sophisticated pictures fairly easily. I don't really remember being "bad" at art.

Piano is not like that. I have to work at it constantly. I remember clearly when I sat in front of the keyboard, barely able to create a simple melody. Every plodding step and slow improvement I make, I have earned. And that makes it all the more satisfying.

Sure, I've got a long way to go until I'm as good as I want to be. Grade 1 is an exam more commonly associated with eight-year-olds than grown men. My rendition of "Metamorphosis II" is incomplete, and my education in classical music is still largely restricted to composers I have direct experience playing.

But I'm proud of what I accomplished, and I'd recommend it to anyone, regardless of age or ability. Take the plunge, you won't regret it.

É Bach Ou Um Computador? Vídeo

Is It Bach Or A Computer?

First of all thanks to my friend BOBBY OWSINSKI  for this article.

Johann Sebastian Bach is generally considered to be one of the great classical composers, with compositions that exhibit a technical mastery of harmony and counterpoint. One of the things he excelled at was writing short polyphonic hymns known as chorale cantatas (he wrote over 300), which are short 4 voice pieces rich in harmony. As it turns out, computer scientists find these pieces very attractive because of their algorithmic-like structure. The problem is that even though you can teach a computer to compose using a similar algorithm, it’s never been particularly convincing. Until now.

Thanks to the work of Gaetan Hadjeres and Francois Pachet at the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Paris using the artificial intelligence of a machine they call DeepBach, they’re able to produce very convincing choral cantatas that even some pros think were composed by Bach himself.

Essentially, they trained DeepBach’s neural network by teaching it all 352 of Bach’s cantatas, then transposing them to other keys for a data set of over 2,500 chorales. The machines then does its thing and before you know it, it’s composed a cantata that’s contains so much of the Bach style that even many trained listeners believe it came from the great composer himself.

How much so? A study was launched with 1,600 people (400 were professional musicians or music students) who were asked to compare two different harmonies of the same melody, then determine which of the two harmonies sounded more like Bach. When given the music from DeepBach, about half thought it was the real thing. Keep in mind that when given an authentic Bach piece to listen to, only 75% thought it came from Bach.

This is actually a very interesting step forward not so much from a composition standpoint, but more about music analysis. Bach cantatas follow a very precise structure that most other music doesn’t adhere to, but as a producer, I look forward to the day when I can get a readout as to the inner workings of a hit so I can learn from it. Hopefully DeepBach is a step towards that.

Listen to what DeepBach came up with.

Read more: http://bobbyowsinskiblog.com/#ixzz4UEGl9Wg2

O Que Você Faz? " Eu Componho Músicas Para Filmes E TV"

What Do You Do? 'I Compose Music For Film And Television'

There are some truly fascinating jobs out there. What Do You Do? aims to highlight unique jobs and the interesting men and women behind them. The goal? To encourage the next generation to pursue work that inspires them through relatable role models.

Ben Fox is a musician who primarily works in film and television. 

Image credit: Joel Clifton.

Can you describe your job? What do you do for a living?

I’m a composer for film and television, which means I’m hired by filmmakers to create original music for their projects. My job is essentially to work collaboratively with directors to write and produce the music that will underscore their film, guide the emotion of the audience, and bring a new dimension to the story being told. 

What attracted you to this type of work?

I grew up studying music and singing in choirs before spending several years focused as a recording artist, songwriter, and touring musician. It led to a lot of time spent in studios, learning over the shoulders of some super talented recording engineers, and developing skills as a music producer. Transitioning to film was really natural for me. I feel like film is maybe the most complete art form, in that it’s the result of a whole number of distinct art forms coming together to tell one story–the writing, the actor’s performance, the cinematography, set design, the music. When all of those elements are locked in and pulling in the same direction, it can be something really immersive, complex, and powerful. And music is my way to contribute to that.

Film composing is project-based, so I dive deep into one project, inhabit it for a while, then it’s over and I’m on to the next. It’s a fresh start every time, a different team, a new aesthetic, something totally different. So from a creative perspective, I love that this type of work has me constantly flexing new muscles and forces me to push the boundaries of my abilities. 

What kinds of everyday practical skills matter for the work that you do?

When you’re hired as a composer, your job is not only to write the music, but also to manage all aspects of the production of the film’s score. It can be approached in a lot of different ways, depending on your particular skillset. But typically, it means writing and orchestrating the music, performing, preparing sheet music, hiring musicians, contracting recording sessions, and working with software like Pro Tools and Logic Pro to mix and produce the final score. And because there are so many facets that go into creating a film’s score, you build up a network of specialized professionals you can turn to for specific tasks along the way. 

Scoring films is a totally different ballgame than recording albums, since you’re a part of a larger creative purpose and the music you make has to support and enrich the story being told. So it demands a lot of creative flexibility, and a willingness to listen and collaborate.  You have to always see the big picture and work towards the collective goals of the film. 

Beyond musical ability, what other skills do you cultivate to flex your creative muscles?

It’s a freelance career, so you have to be motivated. No set hours means you have to be organized with good time management to stay on top of deadlines as well as your business management and accounting. You have to be constantly expanding your network of collaborators, and you have to be eager to embrace new technology and constantly be learning and developing your skills.

But I think the biggest non-musical aspect of the job is the interpersonal skills. Navigating personalities and being a good collaborator is a huge part of the job. As a composer you build an intimate relationship with each director. You get inside their heads and have a front-row seat to their confidence and insecurity. So you have to have the emotional awareness to read people and support them where they need it. Music is one of the last links in the production of a film, and sometimes a director is completely thrilled with the film they’ve made, but a lot of the time you’re there to solve problems or add a dimension to it that the director feels they didn’t quite capture on screen. Whatever the case, you have to have sharp people-skills to read situations and understand what each project requires. It’s a balance of bringing your skills and a fresh perspective to the project, while being extremely sensitive to the fact that you’re stepping into something the director may have been developing for years. 

What's your response to parents who say that music should be a hobby, not a vocation? What's one small thing they can do to support them?

I come from a family overflowing with people who’ve chosen to pursue creative careers, so truthfully that’s not a perspective that was ever inflicted on me. Which is something I’m extremely grateful for. The attitude that art can’t or shouldn’t be a career seems silly when you have parents and grandparents who’ve devoted their lives to the arts and have built successful, fulfilling, culturally-rich lives for it.  

That isn’t to say that a career in the arts is for everyone.  And it’s not my place to speak on how anyone should raise their children. But for creative-minded young people who lack that type of support, my advice would be to seek out professionals who have the types of careers you aspire to, find out how they got there, and get to work.

Grammy Mesa Redonda - Surpresas E As Lutas Entre Os Artistas

Grammy Roundtable: Insiders on Adele Vs. Beyonce, Sturgill Simpson's Surprise Nomination & James Corden as Host

There are three types of Grammy viewers, according to Ken Ehrlich, the telecast's producer since 1980. "There are people for whom this is the only music show they watch all year," he says on Dec. 8, two days after The Recording Academy announced its 59th annual ­nominations. "There are hardcore music fans, and then there's this third element who think they're going to see something they don't see on other [awards] shows -- and that's what we try and give them."

For the ceremony's Feb. 12 telecast on CBS, that likely means the ­combined spectacles of pop supernovas Beyoncé, who leads the year's nominations with nine, and Adele, who faces off against Bey in three of her five ­nominated ­categories, including album of the year -- vying against Justin Bieber, Drake and alt-country upstart Sturgill Simpson. With all that star-power ­potential on one show, Ehrlich admits, "I have to be very optimistic."

That race and other storylines provided fodder for Billboard's second Grammy Roundtable, held at the Recording Academy headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif. Joining Ehrlich, 74, and president/CEO Neil Portnow, 68, were Universal Music Publishing Group chairman/CEO Jody Gerson, 55, and Grammy-winning ­producer Om'Mas Keith, 40 -- who won the best urban ­contemporary prize in 2013 for Frank Ocean's Channel Orange -- along with two just-announced ­nominees: songwriter Greg Kurstin, 47, who's ­nominated in four categories, ­including song of the year (Adele's "Hello") and producer of the year; and singer/songwriter Elle King, 27, who's honoured in the best country duo/group ­performance category for her featured role on Dierks Bentley's "Different for Girls."

Austin Hargrave

Neil Portnow photographed Dec. 8 at The Recording Academy in Santa Monica.

During an hour-plus conversation, the six touched on everything from the music industry under a Trump administration (and the possible "positive") to the installment of 2017 host James Corden.

What was your first reaction to the slate of nominations?

GERSON: I applauded the diversity. ­[Voting members] did a great job. Yes, there will always be ­somebody who's missed, but I'm impressed.

KEITH: I was very pleasantly surprised. R&B and urban music was fully represented by artists you wouldn't normally think would be nominated -- people you may have ­forgotten about and people who are at the top of the game.

KURSTIN: I totally agree with Jody and Om'Mas. But I was happy when I saw my name. (Laughter, cheers.)

EHRLICH: Frankly, I was scared out of my skin until we saw what was in the envelope. That's the way it always is: We're dealt a hand and we have to play that hand. Some years are better than others. But I was ­really pleased because the palette we have to paint a three-and-a-half-hour TV show with is broad -- as Jody said, musically rich with a lot of choices.

KING: I woke up to getting the greatest ­surprise ever. Then I read about everyone else who was nominated. A lot of my friends are on there. It's fun to cheer everybody on and get to be a part of it.

Austin Hargrave

Ken Ehrlich photographed Dec. 8 at The Recording Academy in Santa Monica.

Greg, did you talk to Adele on the day of the nominations?

KURSTIN: I did. We actually saw each other and had a little champagne. You just never know how anything is going to go. I was so nervous the night before. But then I woke up to the good news.

PORTNOW: (To Kurstin.) It's good that you were nervous. It means that it matters.

KURSTIN: It definitely does. You can tell ­yourself it doesn't, but it does.

KING: (To Kurstin.) Yeah, but come on. How did you not know? You had to know.

KURSTIN: You just never know. Crazy things happen in elections. (Laughter.)

What common elements do you see in Grammy-nominated songs -- ­stylistically, emotionally or structurally?

GERSON: There are certain things as a music publisher that I think about, and for me it's about emotional resonance: that a song moves me and was produced in a way that takes me somewhere. A lot of the songs that have been nominated this year do that.

KEITH: There's definitely a shift toward a more insightful kind of songwriting. People are approaching songwriting now with an understanding that there's a lane to really express themselves. You have artists like Chance the Rapper writing very endearing songs that are very positive.

KURSTIN: There are a lot of changes I'm ­seeing in the way songs are written. Like Jody said, there's this emotional connection with those songs that get picked. There's always something about them that breaks through to a lot of people -- songs that say something, are about something.

Austin Hargrave

Jody Gerson photographed Dec. 8 at The Recording Academy in Santa Monica.

One big surprise is Sturgill Simpson's nod for album of the year. How did his album come to the attention of so many voters?

PORTNOW: People have to remember who our voters are. To be a voting member, you have to be part of the industry ­community. You have to have credentials. So that levels the playing field in terms of it not being just about sales, marketing, market share, ­number of streams or chart position. There are no other layers to get in the way of the greatest music that you've heard over the course of the year. That's how we get that kind of a nomination.

Another major nomination storyline is Adele versus Beyoncé. Are both artists booked to perform on the show?

EHRLICH: Very few people say no to the ­Grammys. Over all of the years I've been ­doing the show, there have been [only] three or four acts who've actually said no.

Do you want to share who those are?

EHRLICH: Absolutely not. (Laughter.) But I can tell you that Adele and Beyoncé are not two of them. We have every anticipation that both of them will be with us in February. We love a good horse race. It's a fine line: We love the competition aspect of it, but it's really more -- here's the cliché -- the family of music. I don't know how many of those three categories they're in together that we'll announce during the telecast, but we'll probably come pretty close. When you can start with that as a foundation for a show, you're in pretty good shape.

What does the dominance of Adele and Beyoncé say about the industry?

KING: I'm extremely happy about it. I thought for a long time that [the industry] was all equal and fun, then I realized it's actually not: Some people don't take me seriously, so I had to work harder. So to see a lot of amazing women -- and a lot of young women -- nominated this year is very empowering. And it's about time.

EHRLICH: I want to take issue with the ­question. I've been around long enough -- I helped kick-start that term "diva" in the early '90s, those VH1 shows. From that point on, we've had the Celines, Glorias, Faith Hills, Shanias, Mariahs, Whitneys. If we look back at our show year to year, there are probably a number of years where there were more female artists than males.

GERSON: I see it a little differently. The ­difference this year, compared to others, is that Beyoncé and Adele are both women controlling their careers. In years past, the women who have been nominated ­probably were A&R'd by men who told them what songs to sing, and men who wrote the songs for them and then asked them to go into the studio and kill it vocally. These two iconic superstars control their own destinies. They're not "divas." No offense; I think that was [the term] of the time. It's strange to me that VH1 still does it, because I don't know if that's how I would describe any woman. I wouldn't describe Beyoncé as a "diva." She is fierce, as is Adele.

KEITH: They're both bosses.

GERSON: Yes, bosses. That's how I see it.

KING: People want real. And there are a lot of women out there doing that.

Austin Hargrave

Om’Mas Keith photographed Dec. 8 at The Recording Academy in Santa Monica.

What prompted the change from LL Cool J to new host James Corden, and what can viewers expect from him?

PORTNOW: LL has been magnificent for five years. Before LL, we went for quite a run as the no-host Grammys. As simple as it seems, when you start to think about who can do this, who has the skills and ­background, it's a needle in a haystack. So we got very lucky when LL was ­available, because he's also a musician. James Corden, in his own way, represents something very similar. He's a musician; he's got a Broadway background and sings. It's not just finding a comedian or an actor. It's someone that relates to what we do.

This will be the first major awards show after Donald Trump's ­inauguration, and people have been very vocal about his election. Will any guidelines be given to artists, ­performers and presenters about ­going off script?

PORTNOW: We support artistic freedom and always have. Obviously, the network has to comply with the FCC's standards and practices. But beyond that, there will be no comments to artists in terms of what they can or can't say. They have to follow their muse and heart.

Neil, do you and Ken recall ever ­doing the show during such politically charged times?

EHRLICH: Well, remember, when I started, Franklin Roosevelt was president.

PORTNOW: (To Ehrlich.) You mean Teddy Roosevelt.

EHRLICH: We went through a period when artists were reticent to go public either ­politically or socially -- a time when artists have said, "No, our marketing says I can't do this or I can't do that." I'm a child of the '60s, so I love the fact that we are returning to a time when artists are standing up. We saw it in this past political campaign: Everybody we needed to step up for Hillary Clinton stepped up. There's a real rebirth in the artistic community to stand up for what you believe in.

PORTNOW: My point of view about the new administration, taking away all the other social issues, is that we as a music ­community have our own issues about advocacy, copyright, intellectual ­property, being paid fairly for the work that we do. I have optimism that there may be ­opportunities with this administration, who are business people and who may understand we are workers entitled to be compensated fairly. Some of the laws and legislation in place don't allow that. The fact that there isn't a performance right [for the use of sound recordings on ­terrestrial radio] means there's hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign income that doesn't come to the artists in this country. For example, because U.K. artists aren't compensated when their music is played on U.S. radio ­stations, U.S. artists aren't ­compensated when their records are played on U.K. stations based on the fact that there's no reciprocity. If that income came in, our ­artists would be paying income taxes on it. So if we can get a lot of policy on the radar, that may have some positive influence.

Austin Hargrave

Elle King photographed Dec. 8 at The Recording Academy in Santa Monica.

GERSON: (To Portnow.) I agree with you.

PORTNOW: We already have sent a letter to the president-elect. It has been received and we'll be pursuing meetings. He's ­seemingly not so enamored by the tech ­sector that he's co-opted by it. Obviously, it's an important part of our economy and our future.

KEITH: I'm excited to see which artists will be performing at the White House in the ­coming years. James Brown was at the White House throughout his whole career with every president.

GERSON: (To Keith.) You won't hold it against them?

KEITH: I won't hold it against them. (Laughs.) The demonstration of art is what's ­paramount here.

EHRLICH: We were very fortunate the last eight years, producing a PBS show a year at the White House. I don't want to make a comment about president-elect Trump, but there was no better audience in the front row of the East Room than President Obama and the first lady. They knew the lyrics to every song we did. They loved it whether it was Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Justin Timberlake or Jill Scott. They love music, the arts in the broadest sense. Can we expect that we'll get that kind of response now, because the plan is to do more of these performance shows from the White House? It's a question mark as to one, who will do it, and two, who they will want.

Austin Hargrave

Greg Kurstin photographed Dec. 8 at The Recording Academy in Santa Monica.

Back to the nominations. Om'Mas, what's your take on Frank Ocean ­refusing to submit Blonde?

KEITH: Frank is demonstrating his truth, and denying people the ability to vote on his product is part of his art form. What's most important is he contributed something to the overall scope of music. There will be more from him, I'm sure. And maybe his opinion of the Grammys will change. At first I was a little confused as to why he would not include his product. He didn't tell me why, just only said, "This is what I'm doing."

Neil, how rare is it that artists refuse to submit their work?

PORTNOW: It's pretty rare. The ­Recording Academy has the utmost respect for Frank's artistry and his work. He not only was nominated early in his career, but we felt he was influential enough to have him perform on the show. He had a very specific view of what he wanted to do. And we gave him the flexibility, freedom and platform that ­undoubtedly were useful to building his career. We'd love for him to be closer to us.

What is your response to ­criticism of the Grammys' lack of ­transparency for its nomination ­process?

PORTNOW: It's interesting because we live in a time of fake news -- things that are made up and manufactured. So sometimes you don't want to believe everything you hear. The committee structure that's in place -- the nominations review process -- is hundreds of people. It's musicians, producers, engineers, ­artists, songwriters, industry people, ­musicologists, ­journalists. We certainly ask everybody to keep the ­confidentiality. The reason for that is not that there's anything secretive about it. It's a process by which if you have a ­roomful of people having to essentially create ­objectivity around ­something that's ­inherently ­subjective -- art and music -- you want people to be able to say what they're thinking without ­feeling that there's going to be some sort of ­retribution. We also don't want to ­create a situation for someone volunteering their time to be subjected to lobbying and ­influence peddling.

Beyond the Grammys, what are you looking forward to musically in 2017?

KEITH: The Internet has opened a vast lane for new artists to make music in different ways than what we've done in the past.

KURSTIN People are being more ­experimental. I hear chords being played that really haven't been on the radio. I love that. I go to my kids' school and see kids playing in bands. It is a sign of what's to come.

GERSON More authentic music. My hope is that it's genre-less. I don't think that's how kids listen to music: They're not thinking, "What is it? What color is the person who's singing it?" And with the political climate, I'm hoping for important songs that will last the test of time.

Varies Sarabande Lançará a Trilha De ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’

Varies Sarabande to Release ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ Soundtrack

Varese Sarabande will release a soundtrack album for the action thriller sequel John Wick: Chapter 2. Tyler Bates (Guardians of the Galaxy, 300, Dawn of the Dead, Watchman) and Joel J. Richard (Quantico) who previously scored the 2014 original film have composed the film’s original music. 

The soundtrack will be released in February and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The label has also releasedthe soundtrack album for the first installment in the series. Check back on this page for the full album details. John Wick: Chapter 2 directed by Chad Stahelski and starring Keanu Reeves, Common, Riccardo Scamarcio, Laurence Fishburne, Ruby Rose, Bridget Moynahan, Lance Roddick, Franco Nero, John Leguizamo and Ian McShane follows the legendary hitman as he is forced back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. The thriller will be released nationwide on February 10 by Lionsgate. Visit the official movie website for updates.