Rachel Flowers ... (a lot of us have got it easy)

cosmicmechanic
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Thu Apr 19, 2012 1:48 am

Rachel Flowers was born 3 1/2 months premature, and soon after lost her sight. At age 2 she discovered the paino.
Before she was three she was playing pieces by Beethoven and Bach.

... So maybe we can manage to learn a little guitar ?

The local San Diego, California, news discovered her at age 4 and ran this piece on her in 2008.
Along with that is a short bit of Rachel playing some piano and flute when she turned eleven.


If you YouTube "Rachel Flowers", you will notice her fascination with the music of "Emerson Lake and Palmer", among others.

Rachel Flowers on the Modular Moog - intro by Keith Emerson


Rachel Flowers - Tarkus (complete) - solo piano


Chasplaya
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Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:00 am

Fark me.... Absolutely brilliant where can you start, I love the fact that Keith Emerson intros er , Hey she is better than him IMHO


Chasplaya
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Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:04 am

Isn't it marvelous but sad at the same time...


Chasplaya
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Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:08 am

As you can guess I'm struck with this thread... She is awesome! and maybe not sad as I intimated earlier but an accomplishment and also a great dollar contribution from someone. Hey whoever you are cough up and score her a record deal she has earned it!!


oops I gotten carried away here lol


Chasplaya
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Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:17 am

Again I am not a pianist, and I doubt
I will never be able to replicate what she does in my life time but IO have subscribed to the channel; and will keep you updated


cosmicmechanic
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Fri Apr 20, 2012 9:10 am

I'm glad this inspired you, Chas (I think I woke up an ELP fan :silly: ).

And there's a lot to explore in what Rachel does in other musical styles.
I've only scratched the surface, it's well worth looking into.

Pierre


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skaladar
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Fri Apr 20, 2012 10:59 am

Pierre, you’ve woken up more than one ELP fan. I’ve done nothing but listen to Rachael playing since I first read this post. Chas, it’s easy to see why you are so moved by Ms. Flowers. She is simply amazing. She even sings well. Check her YT channel for “Pictures at an Exhibition” for a sample. Her interpretations, arrangements and phrasing of so many pieces has me in awe. It’s no wonder Keith Emerson allowed her to play his new build Mood before he even had a chance to. She's that good!

She IS truly inspiring, not only as a musician, but as a human being.

Thanks for sharing this Pierre.

♫ Ken ♫


dennisg
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Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:43 am

It's stunning. I cried like a baby.


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skaladar
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Sat Jul 04, 2020 12:55 pm

I had to bump this thread because I just finished watching the documentary “Hearing is Believing”, a very interesting and truly inspirational film about the phenomenal talent of the multi-instrumentalist and now composer Rachel Flowers. It’s available free on Amazon Prime and I am sure it can be seen on other platforms.

Hearing is Believing

I was a little reluctant when I originally posted this back in 2012 at the time because this is primarily a guitar venue but I was so overwhelmingly impressed with her keyboard skills and her love of ELP and Keith Emerson, which is what brought me here to begin with, (looking for sheet music for “From the Beginning”) that I thought it was worth sharing.

The documentary made it clear she was pretty much capable of playing any instrument and towards the end there was a section of her performing live on stage with Dweezil Zappa and the Zappa Plays Zappa Band in 2015. She naturally played a wonderful keyboard solo to start but then went on to blow the band, the audience and myself away with a guitar solo that I think ranks among the top shredding performances I’ve ever seen.

So, to relieve my 8 years of concerns of posting about a keyboard artist in a guitar forum *j/k* I’d like to share this YouTube clip of her performance.



R.I.P. Maestro Keith Noel Emerson - 3/11/2016
R.I.P. Gregory Stuart Lake - 9/7/2016

♫ Ken ♫


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skaladar
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Sat Jul 04, 2020 1:11 pm

Oops, I stand corrected. I wanted to post a topic about Rachel back in 2012 and had written one but before doing so searched the forums and found Pierre aka cosmicmechanic had already done so. My bad. Since I don’t see a way to edit your own post (wasn’t that possible on the old site?) I’ll make this correction.

Isn’t your memory supposed to improve with age or do I have that wrong as well? :blush:


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