Music

When P. John Livingston turns on one of his many keyboards, you can expect a virtuosic display of sensitivity, touch and feel to encapsulate your senses as he takes flight on his leads. Pure love of music and dedication to communicating a joyous flow fill P. John Livingston’s many keyboard-based tracks on his YouTube channel. Here are a few to go over:

1) CLASSICAL LEADS FIRST OF IT’S KIND IN THE WORLD – THANTHAANAI THUTHIPPOAMAE SONG

Depending on the keyboard it could be either a MIDI distorted guitar sound or a brass sound (I’d bet on distorted guitar), but within a couple of bars, it becomes clear that no matter what the sound he’s using, P. John Livingston has got that special knack that separates the great musicians from the ordinary ones: that his technical mastery of the instrument becomes his toolbox to simply enter into a zone of joyous energy that he wishes to communicate through his beyond flawless keyboard lead extravaganza. This song is sung by his wife, who also shares that flow with him, and after just a few seconds, P. John Livingston and his wife sweep you into a flight of harmonious intensities and interplays.

2) KEYBOARD LEADS & PITCH BENDER – FIRST OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD – AADHIYIL VAARTHAYAHA IRUNTHA SONG

Taking off where the first song finished, P. John Livingston adds an impressive display of control of the pitch bender wheel in his leads on “Aadhiyil Vaarthayaha Iruntha Song.” If the keyboard sound only mirrored a real distorted guitar, then you could close your eyes and think that you were listening to a great lead guitarist bending those strings. As a demonstration of this technique, this video holds much interest, however unfortunately the song gets cut off in the middle of its playing.

3) KEYBOARD LEADS -FIRST OF IT’S KIND – FIERY GUITAR LEADS – DEVA KIRUBAI ENDRUM ULLATHU

Oh, the joy of music! Wonderful connection between husband and wife on one hand, outstanding technical display of keyboard lead mastery on the other. In “Deva Kirubai Endrum Ullathu,” P. John Livingston switches from brass to distorted guitar, as if he picked up a guitar a few bars into the song, and continued to hover around the vocal intervals in such an amazing complementary way. The beautiful aspect of this song is in how, although such a legendary keyboard lead player playing so many notes and rhythms, that P. John Livingston also knows how to complement a singer, giving the singer the role they need to have, while filling in the keyboard role with such impressive fills.

4) FIERY KEYBOARD GUITAR LEADS – ANANTHA THUTHI OLI KETKUM SONG – FIRST OF IT’S KIND IN THE WORLD

The harmony of the spheres sings and plays with such joy, optimism and enthusiasm in the song, “Anantha Thuthu Oli Ketkum Song” by P. John Livingston and his wife. The seamless, effortless-looking demonstration of keyboard lead wizardry through distorted guitar and brass effects together with the beautiful singing of P. John Livingston’s wife makes me simply want to get out of my chair smiling, dancing and clapping hands. Despite the undeniable expertise on the keyboard that’s brought to the front in the titling, the sheer happy and pleasurable energy of the whole music is really what excites me more, with the lead playing being a major part of that. There is some encouragement by commenters requesting better production quality. Indeed, it would be good. But the rawness of the display of simply plugging in and letting go has a raw joy central to music’s main function in the world, like an Internet version of walking past people playing music and lighting up the atmosphere with joy. It should be an inspiration to everyone who is an upcoming musician and artist to not be afraid to simply plug in and record, that often the over-produced sound can actually miss out on what is captured in the raw moment.

Listening to more of P. John Livingston’s music, I don’t really have much more to say. In summary, the technical and musical virtuosity is all there, and he knows how to make it serve the more important factor of the energy that the music enlivens. It’s simply a joy to listen to and watch these videos P. John Livingston uploads on his channel. I will place a few more tracks here for your enjoyment, but go and subscribe to his channel to get all his updates:

Subscribe to P. John Livingston Piano Classics » https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9jW05hEle2fQUokdjmcokg

And here are the other tracks!…

5) KEYBOARD GUITAR LEADS WITH VARIABLE TIMING – BEING THE FIRST TIME – KIRUBAYETHAE SONG

6) FIERY PIANO COVER – LONG TIME AGO IN BETHLEHEM – HYMN – KURZWEIL ARTIS SE KEYBOARD

7) FIERY PIANO COVER – NEERARUM KADALUDUTHTHA – STATE ANTHEM OF TAMILNADU – MY OWN VERSION