Play "Beale Street Blues" Your Way! (PIYW #1, June 2025)

rsl12 · 2025-05-27T08:36:39+00:00

PIYW #1: Play "Beale Street Blues" Your Way Play It Your Way is a monthly event for beginners, professionals, classical, jazz, or pop pianists and everyone...

diretonic

rsl12 Going through Frankie and Johnnie, what strikes me is how similar it is to learning Latin rhythms. It's basically the first half of the clave in the left hand, and very little swing, and trying to coordinate left and right hands seems to be the majority of the challenge. Also, Dr. John's improv is quite limited in terms of harmony and hand placement, and it's more like he chooses from a selection of licks. Which makes sense because trying to coordinate LH and RH is challenge enough!

I think it's mostly about licks, much less about improv in what I would call 'traditional' blues. 'Modern' jazz blues (post 50s maybe?) goes out of its way to break the mould hence the drive to produce something different and 'truly spontaneous'. For sure, Dr John has a vast library of licks and so many ways of playing any one of them, and in any order, so he always maintains an element of surprise.
Frankie and Johnny is an underlying 8's feel which I guess Beale street could adapt to very well. Hmm....

rsl12

diretonic there's a rather sweet recording by Fats Waller on organ with Alberta Hunter singing the last refrain.

Found it! This remastered version sounds gorgeous.

diretonic For sure, Dr John has a vast library of licks and so many ways of playing any one of them, and in any order, so he always maintains an element of surprise.

Yes, having a big library to choose from would give a freer feeling. I feel like stealing a couple of licks and using them has the danger of sounding very canned. But I've got to start somewhere!

diretonic Frankie and Johnny is an underlying 8's feel which I guess Beale street could adapt to very well. Hmm....

Yes, I think it will fit nicely! At least for the blues portion. I may do something simpler for the rest.

diretonic

WieWaldi Good to know I am not the only one, hearing some ragtime elements between the lines.

Great minds Wiewie.

rsl12

diretonic

WieWaldi Good to know I am not the only one, hearing some ragtime elements between the lines.

Great minds Wiewie.

Since @WieWaldi is German, he might not know the English proverb: "great minds think alike". It means that, since both of your minds had the same thought, they must both be great.

The same is true of WieWaldi's and Sophia's sheet music!

rsl12

Those of you using the original WC Handy sheet music (the free one linked at the top) might like to hear this recording. I don't know if the piano sheet music is a reduction of the band score or if it went the other way around:

Also, I saw this in the WC Handy wikipedia article, and I think it's relevant, because I hear tango in the blues section:

Writing about the first time "Saint Louis Blues" was played, in 1914, Handy said,

The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of Memphis Blues. ... When St Louis Blues was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.[24]

diretonic

rsl12 Also, I saw this in the WC Handy wikipedia article, and I think it's relevant, because I hear tango in the blues section:

In at least one of the scores the LH is written with a tango lilt. I'd forgotten that the minor section of St Louis Blues is also a tango (a missed opportunity when I did a version for one of the PW recitals). Clearly it's a W.C.Handy 'thing'.

WieWaldi

Ok, sheet music is transposed to G and C, printed and well bound into a nice booklet 🙃
^{(And tomorrow I will start learning it)}

Sophia

WieWaldi After all this neatness, I'm kinda ashamed to show what mine looks like... But oh well, no one will even see it 😃

Sophia

Oooh nice!!! Love the train...

WieWaldi

Sophia But yours is in color... Thanks for the idea, btw❤️💛💙💚💜

Sophia

I was going to pick your brain on how to enter it into Musescore. And then I figured what the h*ll, I'd much rather just spend my time actually learning it 😃 This version is almost exactly my level (total beginner ^tm) - not too easy (ok, NOTHING is too easy yet) and not too hard. It's such a fun piece - and I love the original too. I wish I could play that - I look forward to yours twocats 🙂

WieWaldi

Sophia Speaking about musescore, I found another version that might be about your level: ~~Link~~

Edit: deleted - might be illegal due to copyright issues

rsl12

Both of you, I'm so impressed by your publications! I laughed out loud seeing Sophia's version, but clearly it took some work putting it together! And WieWaldi took the time to make a book cover too??

WieWaldi

rsl12 And WieWaldi took the time to make a book cover too??

Well, over time I will put more and more stuff into the book. Something in the range of about 150 pages. Having an index at the end and all pages are consecutive numbered. The 3 and 4-page pieces have fold out pages, attached with sticky tape. You know, in the age of internet and printers, we get a lot of music sheets flying around.
The amount of time and work doing this is about nothing compared to learning the piece.

rsl12

Sophia * never make the mistake of accidentally calling Bavarians German, they simply won't have it

rsl12 Since @WieWaldi is German... .

🫣 Duad ma laiiiid

Sophia

Haha, definitely the lazy person’s approach… just screenshots from the YouTube play through of the bits the free sample left out 😂

rsl12

Sophia it's more than I've ever done to get sheet music. You drew the staff without a ruler! You drew the bass staff just to put two notes on it!

diretonic

Unparalleled diligence by the blues siblings - I haven't even managed to scrawl out the melody yet.

Sophia

diretonic I haven't even managed to scrawl out the melody yet.

The markings of a true musician - can't claim to be one without at least a little chaos and disorganization. Embrace it 😃

Sophia

Thanks! That's actually exactly the one I'm currently learning. But at least this one is ⅓ of the price of the one I found... I might splurge after all. Or... use the version I put together and learn to add that stuff to Musescore at last 😃

Edit: oh wait, I see who did that - well done! Are you getting a commission if I buy that? In that case it would be a no brainer

rsl12

It's been about 4 days since I started preparing, so here's a baseline recording. Note that, per my plan (rsl12) I haven't been working directly on Beale Street Blues. Instead I've been studying a recording of Frankie and Johnny by Dr John, in the hopes of applying what I learn. So this is my attempt at applying the little I've learned to a tune I haven't even started to learn. So it's really rough! But the recording hopefully shows the direction I'm trying to take it.

https://recorder.google.com/ac2a4256-4d09-4a81-b26b-fd2fdc3b0207

diretonic

rsl12 https://recorder.google.com/ac2a4256-4d09-4a81-b26b-fd2fdc3b0207

That's shaping up nicely - lot's of Dr John in there!

pianocat

rsl12 This sounds great! Lots of Dr. John / Longhair influence in that. The left hand sounds very New Orleans, good fills and tricks in the right hand too. The turnaround at 0:50 is very Longhair-esque. Ditto for the fill at 0:59-1:00. I can't wait to hear the whole thing!

I spent time yesterday working on the left-hand groove in the intermediate arrangement, trying to get that so it's in my fingers and I don't need to think about it. There are 3-4 spots in that arrangement where the syncopation is going to trip me up and I need to metronome it slowly.

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