Your version is great. Love the transitions and the chords in the bridge are so creative, especially when modulating back to C. Hope Huey Lewis hears it! 🙂
@Jemma - I was 13 when Back to the Future came out … and we essentially had this song as the summer song of the year. When I realized what you were about to do, I was so excited, and so scared at you “touching” such a sacred piece of history. Frankly, you did REALLY well! I also hope that Huey hears it - he seems to be the kind of artist that would appreciate your take on this song. It brought a completely different feel - and like the producer said, I was a little doubtful that you’d never heard it. Overall, you rocked it!
The craziest party is that she tapped into Huey Lewis, but a different song on another album. She somehow managed to combine "Power of Love" with "Do You Believe In Love"
I'm hearing more of a "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips" vibe. Also, anyone reading this: this song is a great example of parallel major & minor, where root note stays the same but the third of the chord moves up or down to make it major/minor. Always cool to hear.
"Do you like Huey Lewis and The News? Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically." 🤣
Most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.
@@mantelmann13 It's obvious you are not a musician - given only drums and vocals, she was all over this tune. Huey may come back to re-record it. This girl is an awesome talent !
@@mantelmann13 - She made it something else, which is what's interesting about this. It's not interesting just getting it right, but interesting to see what a person who doesn't know the song at all, will come up with.
every time i watch one of these and the musician reacts to the original like this, i just want to tell them "you WERE RIGHT the WHOLE time.... you just played it differently than the original" this is art.
You are totally right, but totally missing the side of an artist loving art. When you swear something should go one way and it goes another, it is AMAZING, and I bet if HLATN heard her version they would see the same. It is to me the truest beaty of art, the constant creation and the constant appreciation of others creation, even if it is at your own expense.
It came out like a Jazzy-blues version ... kept the spirit of the song and she was flying in the dark with very little to go on after all ... very impressive!
Jemma rocked this out. This was not an easy song to go in blind like she did, but she really showed her musical abilities to come as close as she did! Thanks for these videos...they're awesome!
The degree of difficulty she was confronted with is SO much greater than the drums and bass versions of this challenge I’ve seen, where they just mute the particular instrument the musician plays, but still have all the basic harmonic information. Added to this how relatively static the melody is (songs with more melodic movement would give you much more harmonic information in the melody alone), and she really was marooned at sea with no map and asked to find her way home.
@@JohnSmith-oe5kx Yes, they do: they’re making entertaining content. It’s not a game, fairness doesn’t matter. It’s supposed to be a way to sort of showcase an artist’s ability to write music. I doubt that they would’ve just let her keep going for hours if she wasn’t going anywhere.
@@Tensen01 I disagree, because she proved she didn’t need them. It’s actually a much more interesting experiment this way, and you’re going to end up with something more different from the original. It IS way more difficult, though.
I grew up in the 60's and the 70's so I'm well familiar with Huey Lewis. Very emotional for me to watch you pick this song up from scratch. Beautiful job! True art!
I'm a drummer who's watched a LOT of Drumeo videos like this one. Those are fun. This is the 2nd Pianote video I've seen (Jordan Rudess playing Alicia Keys was the first) and it was awesome. I have nothing but massive respect for musicians like Jemma who can figure out a song like this and make it look effortless! And the solo she played...are you kidding me??? I literally had chills...don't even know why. I guess that's the power of music. I've honestly never heard of Jemma Heigis before, but I'm a huge fan now.
Seeing master musicians transcribe songs on the spot is fascinating enough, but transcribing the song with nothing to go on but the singing? She's beyond amazing.
What she did was not transcribing which means to listen to and replay all the notes of a piece of music that are important. It was (re)harmonizing an unknown melody more or less on the spot instead. A case for knowledge of harmony and musical styles. That requires quite a lot, but it's nothing extraterrestrial. Something like this taught at music colleges, among other things.
I realized how old I'm getting because of this. I'm not sure how old this musician is, but I'm going to guess 20-something. I can understand somebody her age having not seen 'Back To The Future', or haven't heard of "Huey Lewis and The News', but there was a time which is a lot longer ago than I thought where both of those things could be true, but you would for sure 100% have at least heard this song before since it was at the top of the charts forever and played on every radio station and inside of every store for years. She's not even old enough for that experience. Anyway, I really hope she dug this song and seeks out more of Huey Lewis and The News. They really are/were one of the best rock bands of all time.
This is a BRILLIANT conceptual take on "reaction" videos. It's a great way to illustrate not only the listening and playing skills of true pros but a great illustration of how melodies can meld into different keys and chord progressions.
I don't live in the past living my teen years in the '80s was a gift. Every week you would hear a new song that would reshape your life. (in my mind I still think about the '80s as being 10 years ago)
Just a melodic vocal line and nothing else? Wow! On the spot-composing. 3:32 - The chord progression she came up with for the chorus is actually completely successful. Love it. This is fascinating. 5:05 - By this point she's feeling it. It's now in almost polished jazz-remix territory. I even got a little emotional.
One thing we musicians share is when we hear someone like Jemma whaling, we bust out laughing. It's NOT a humor thing, we laugh when a virtuoso is FLOWING, stream of consciousness artistry. I cracked up at a couple of her riffs--ending with a DAY-um! Good ups on all involved and mad props to this incredibly gifted young lady.
This might have been the most difficult of these sorts of challenges that I've seen. Having to come up with parts over nothing but vocal and drums is INSANE. Great job.
Actually she hit some familiar moments with key changes and changes from minor to major etc... for having no clue what the actual progression was in the song, she did a stellar job.
I can't believe she never heard the song before! 😆 I think the original arrangement is perfect, but her version turned out to be surprisingly great! She's an incredibly talented musician. 👏
This video makes me feel - not old, exactly, but more like high school was a looong time ago. Sending best wishes to Huey Lewis, a huge part of my mix tape.
Jemma never ceases to amaze me, this was so inventive and so refreshing to the original which is already one of my favorite songs of all time. If I had a flux capacitor I would send Jemma back in time so she could add her insane solo to the band. Such a cool video!!
I love what Jemma did…it took away some of the R&B feel, and made it more jazzy. Her interpretation and the original are both great !! I can’t believe that she had never heard this before….
You sure can tell a true talent this way. Jemma did a amazing job pretty much starting from scratch with only a few key cords. Jemma's sounded as good as Huey's did. Great job!!!
I love it so much more when they have no context!!! Having the pianist come up with something completely original on the spot is the best way to do this!
Wow. With just drums and vocals to go off. This was so good. And I always really liked the original too but man, this was a really good take on it. So talented.
It really is incredible how much harmony and groove influences the main melody! It almost sounds like a completely different song! This is more of a songwriting exercise, Gives you a bit of an insight into some of the creative choices that the songwriters would've encountered when writing this classic from he 80s!
As someone who met her in freshmen year in music school, I'm not at all surprised she's this great still. lol she has perfect pitch and could pretty much imitate anything she had heard 10 years ago and that was a long time ago. even anything her skill after all these years has only fermented and gotten better.
@@JemmaHeigis I'm doing fantastic Jemma, I've been silently enjoying everyone doing amazing things. So proud of you! You seriously have come such a long way and it's been amazing to see!
Most people dont realize how incredibly difficult this is to do. Much respect to Jemma for her interpretation without ever hearing thr orginal first. 👏👏👏
Jemma is pretty dang awesome, she does a lot of collab work but also has an awesome album entitled "Not Today" that is available on Spotify and pretty much everywhere. As per the norm she killed it!
I enjoyed this video the most so far, great harmonization, great feel for the song. The keyboard version of this "game" is infinitely harder than "just" playing drums over an otherwise complete arrangement. Great job!
With all my years as a musician. And hundreds of thousands of songs I've experienced, maybe even more, maybe Millions. I still discover new music all the time. Some newer stuff that just slipped by me. And sometimes tracks that pre-date me. With my broad taste in music, it would take several lifetimes to discover everything I would like. I'm just thrilled that she's discovering it now. And it sounded like she was pretty close to the original chord progression right from the jump. I would love to hear her play around with some of Stevie Winwood's or Stevie Wonder's stuff. The two greatest "Stevies" lol. I think she is great. It was impressive, and I even enjoyed listening to her for just the few moments that she was playing around with that synh witch I'm not positive, but I think was a "Moag"...
OMG I have been listening to this song since it was released in the 80's and Jemma your version has blown me away. What an incredible take on a classic especially from never hearing the original. Outstanding.
That was incredible, watching you figure all that out from just a lead vocal. You absolutely nailed the bridge and the solo. I think Huey and the boys would be delighted with your interpretation. New fan here.
In '87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip to be Square", a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.
Jemma knocked this one out of the park! I loved the solo on the moog. This is one of my favorite songs from the 80s and she elevated it to a whole new level!
All i saw was Huey Lewis and i immediately clicked. Thank you RU-vid and Pianote you have a new sub. Music was a craft in the 80's.. That's why bands existed as they all had their own unique take on pop music. I can appreciate the newer generation being introduced to what the generation back then had the pleasure of growing up with. Musicians like Jemma are humble enough to appreciate the song and play for the SONG.
