PIYW #8: "Play 'How Long Blues' Your Way" Is Now Live!

rsl12

PIYW #8: Play "How Long Blues" Your Way (June 2026)

Performers:

Play It Your Way is a quasi-monthly event for beginners, professionals, classical, jazz, or pop pianists and everyone in between! Since April 2026, participants have been working on How Long Blues by Leroy Carr. Enjoy their performances below. More information about Play It Your Way and about how participants prepared this piece can be found in the Meta Feedback discussion. There is still plenty of time to participate in Play "Chopin's Wiosna" Your Way, which will go live on July 15.

ALL comments must be polite and supportive, even when the performer has stated that any comments are allowed. "How to Give Criticism in a Nice Way: A Comprehensive Guide". Thanks for helping us to keep things friendly!

Suggest pieces for future "Play It Your Way" events by using the suggestion box. We need suggestions for all genres of music, but particularly for the Post-Classical PIYW which will be announced on July. (Ideally, the Play It Your Way piece will be playable by many different skill levels, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.)

If you are still working on How Long Blues, you can submit your recording here at any time.

This is an archive of the recital announcement.

PIYW #8: Play "How Long Blues" Your Way (June 2026)

Use this thread to submit your performance for PIYW #7 (details here). No one will be able to see your performance until the recital is published on June 15. Note that there is no deadline for this event! You are welcome to submit your performance any time, including before and after that date.

Submission Template

**Performer:** Name or Alias + Location + Experience
**Feedback Type Desired:** (see below)

Put the link to your performance here (see below for details).

**Source of music:** ...
**Instrument:** ...
**Recording method:** ...
**Additional info:** Tell your story or share any interesting details related to your performance!

You may use the following to specify the Comment Policy:

No Comments Please!
Positive comments only (no criticism or suggestions for improvement please).
Positive comments and suggestions for improvement (no direct criticism please).
All comments; anything goes!

Link To Your Performance:

If you have a video, that's great! Otherwise, audio-only is fine.
Upload your performance to YouTube, Vimeo, Rumble, SoundCloud, or Google Drive.
Your media may be public or unlisted but private will not work.
The direct link needs to be posted so that the performance is embedded on PT.
Dropbox option: If hosting your performance using YouTube or other service is not possible, then we will provide an upload option.

Submitters are requested to keep their performances up for at least a period of 30 days and as long as possible after that.

TC3

Performer: TC3
Feedback Type Desired: whatevs

Source of music: An arrangement / semi-improv of my own
Instrument: Roland GP609
Recording method: Webcam + field recorder
Additional info: One of a few tunes played for guests at a party we had a little over a year ago. That's my wife on drums and a pal on guitar -- he's very new to guitar, had barely been playing over a year at that point, still has stuff to work on but doing very well overall.

WieWaldi

TC3 What an incredible opening to this tiny recital, couldn't wish for a more compelling performance. Your blues band made my foot tap and my head bop, you guys had obviously a lot of fun playing that. I remember your last HLB submission very well, same voice, same text, same melody. This time, it seemed you had more verve.
Unfortunately, your wife's drums were a bit too loud in the mix, pushing your piano a bit far into the background. Talking about background, kudos to your Les Paul player, he seemed to want to vanish through the curtain every moment. Anyway, for only one year of playing, performing live in front of an audience with such a cool tune is remarkable. Give your band a high five!

Sophia

TC3 Wow, that was awesome TC!! I thoroughly enjoyed that from start to finish. I am super impressed with a few things in particular: your guitarist. For someone with so little experience, he managed to keep up with everything and even crank out a mean solo. Give him my compliments!

Second, your voice has improved tremendously since I last heard you sing. And since you recorded this over a year ago, that means it will have improved further still by now. Keep 'm coming, we have several recitals a year <hint hint> 😃

And lastly, the drummer, your lovely lady. I always had a passion for drumming and love how she keeps a steady beat throughout. She is quite the musician!

rsl12

TC3 Good job getting your guitarist a role he can handle. You sound relaxed, confident, and musical. Not a surprise given that it's a piece you love and you have clearly worked on it. As always, I'm jealous your wife will play music with you. This is the most entertaining video on the site because of the face you make at the end of the video. "Are you only doing blues songs tonight?" 😱

Nightowl

TC3 I enjoyed that group performance - very entertaining. The three of you play well together, it seemed more like a professional gig than a trio of hobbyists.🙂

@Sophia That was a nice version, played in your usual relaxed manner. It's a shame that Simba didn't appear this time, but at times his style of improv can be overpowering as he is so keen to steal the show - sometimes boundaries are needed! 😁

rsl12 That was a very confident performance and the second half was quite funky, which added a new dimension to this piece. Your years of playing classical music gave you skills that transfer nicely to other genres.

Sophia

Performer: Sophia
Feedback Type Desired: Anything at all!

Source of music: Some of this, some of that
Instrument: Yamaha Clavinova
Recording method: iPhone
Additional info: I had so much fun with this piece! I'm really proud because I took two scores, combined them and then came up with some changes of my own. I can't quite call this my own arrangement, but it's a start.

WieWaldi

Sophia Out of all submission, this one is for sure the one I am the most familiar with. Even I know a lot of your licks, there are a lot some new phrases I never heard. Indeed, you can be very proud of yourself. It IS your arrangement, because nobody else in the world played it that way. You have a nice and vivid speed, your playing is full of confidence. It has the right mood to be performed for a live audience, because it seems so effortless. Great intro and I like how you made use of a recurring element to get a good ending into the F chord.

Edit: never saw the gnome icon in your display. Funny, what Yamaha did 30 years ago.

rsl12

Sophia Whatever you did to combine versions, it's seamless. I can't distinguish Arrangement A, Arrangement B, or Arrangement Sophia. Lots of good vocabulary in this that's worth memorizing. Great job keep a steady left hand. It's nice to see the original beginner blues thread founders (you and @WieWaldi) play blues again. It's been quite a long time!

ShiroKuro

TC3 what fun!! I love it with the three of you, and your vocals and piano playing are great! Is that your piano (I.e.m this was a party at your house right?) It looks cool. What kind is it? Is it a hybrid or straight up digital?

Sophia I can't quite call this my own arrangement, but it's a start.

Oh yes you can!! And you should 🙂 anyway, both your arrangement and your playing were awesome!

rsl12 great work! I could hear your piano talking and telling the story throughout. Fantastic!

WieWaldi That was really great, especially since you describe yourself as not excited about this piece. I feel like your pianistic toolkit continues to expand really nicely.

Simonb smoking! I loved all the flashy parts and the underlying piano foundation holding them up!

And that’s a wrap!

Congratulations everyone! Really well done all around!

rsl12

Performer: rsl12. First 39.5% of my piano life was classical, next 49.6% was jazz, but now I'm working on anything interesting (plus singing)
Feedback Type Desired: All comments; anything goes!

Source of music: Improvised
Additional info: My original plan was to transcribe/analyze more of Dr. John's CC Rider, and then apply knowledge I gained to How Long Blues. But my progress was slow, so instead I abandoned all planning for this recording and just let it flow. Listening back, my solo sure isn't bluesy! Oh well, maybe it was just my mood that day--I've been practicing blues vocabulary, honest!

Sophia

rsl12 Very, very pleasant to listen to rsl! You almost sounded ashamed of just letting it flow the way you felt. I think it was indeed a little more boogie than bluesy, but I think that was actually what made it great 😃

How wonderful it must be to just sit down, and express your current mood by playing what you feel. It has a very spontaneous feel to it, like those "random" airport public piano performances posted on Youtube (and most of those are probably very carefully scripted).

Side note: it was a bit disappointing that you calculated the percentage of your life spent on classical and jazz to only one digit after the decimal point. I would have expected that to be a little more exact, like 39.5193% on classical, 49.5939% on jazz, roughly speaking 🤣

WieWaldi

rsl12 This was very personal interpretation of HLB. You played it with a lot of expression, you worked a lot with the dynamic differences between solo and refrain, amazing how much control you have everywhere. It was a pure joy to listen to.

I don't know how many percent (at least 3 digits after the point) of this wasn't blues. I guess this number is very small (therefore 3 digits after the point), because I didn't hear anything else than blues. Call it blues evolving into jazz, but still kinda bluesy.

WieWaldi

Performer: WieWaldi from Bavaria (near Germany), 4¼ years of self learning
Feedback Type Desired: All comments; anything goes!

Source of music: Youtube Tutorial
Instrument: Kawai CN-29
Recording method: Headphone jack to PC
Additional info: This piece took me longer to learn than expected. I wasn't too excited about it, so I didn't practice too much, which was another reason for the long learning time. On top of it, this blues is long, it is not just named something ...long...blues – no, it is long.
Because the deadline was basically today, I just sat down and started recording. Probably I practiced during the recording session more than on any other day. It cost me a lot of takes to get a half decent one. Here and there a flub, but for a beginner and a 4 minute video, this is something I can live with.

Sophia

WieWaldi WieWie, that was fantastic! You made the most of the How Long Blues - definitely put the LONG in it! Very well played, leisurely and a pleasure to listen to. And those keys lit up in blue... that was super cute and reminded me of another piano virtuoso who used that same technique: link.

Ok, now a little more seriously, seeing your hands top down for the first time, I noticed something I never saw before: your wrist movements. Or more specifically, lack thereof. I'm not sure but probably others can confirm: your left wrist seems rather rigidly locked in place, which means your fingers are forced to do all the heavy lifting. I have a feeling that your playing might become more musically if you rotate your wrist a little more, towards the finger you are using to play. Does that makes sense at all? And perhaps I'm completely wrong about it 🙂 But it was just an observation and I thought I'd share in case it helps.

Nightowl

WieWaldi Indeed, this piece probably seemed endless at times, but you stuck with it and produced a rendition with plenty of entertaining features. I particularly liked some of the licks in the final minute - well done BBK! 😀

Simonb So, this is the level that can be reached after "55 years"... very impressive playing! It's always a pleasure to see you play and this was another great performance from you.

rsl12

WieWaldi It would have been so easy for you to cut a few verses from your arrangement! What drove you to put yourself through such suffering? There are some tricky moments near the end of the recording. Did you have any takes that were almost perfect, but you messed up 20 seconds from the finish?

Still, you managed to get through it without any obvious mistakes, and your playing has a bittersweetness appropriate to the lyrics.

Next time this happens, I would personally cut the arrangement, like you did to Autumn Half-a-Leaf. Half-Long Blues. I think you would improve more by learning less.

Simonb

Performer: Simon - Playing about 55 years now.
Comment Policy: Say anything, but be polite

Source of music: An 8 bar blues in C!
Instrument: 1999 Kawai RX1
Recording method: AM7 microphone/recorder via USB3 attachment to my Samsung phone.
Additional info:
Time has been very tight recently, but I couldn't not contribute to a blues recital! You'll hear a Prof Longhair influence, done with my favourite LH pattern. Yes, it's a bit slapdash!

Sophia

Simonb That was super! You had me tapping my foot and bobbing my head all throughout! I agree: that is a super LH pattern. I love the many variations - the one at 1:20 made me think you were secretly using a second brain to perform that RH rhythm while your LH stoically kept going 😃

WieWaldi

Simonb Last but not least, another head bopper and foot tapper. Yours is truly close to a boogie version. Yours got the right verve, made me smile through the entire tune. It sounds so effortless how you play it, it is pure joy to listen to. Nice to see, people are stepping inte the foot steps of the big legends like Professor Longhair and Dr John, and even nicer to hear they are very successful in doing so. Well done - keep going.

rsl12

Simonb I know how hard it is to improvise over that kind of left-hand rhythm, so kudos to you. It must have been the result of lots of practice. As you probably know, the style you're playing is on my list of "things to learn". But my list is long. Hopefully I'll get there someday!

rsl12

Feel free to add comments and late submissions below. Enjoy!

For meta feedback on the recitals, please use this thread instead.

Simonb

@TC3
I'd love to have played drums with you, but your wife is probably better than me! It's always good to perform in front of an audience, even if it's just a few friends. Nicely done.

@Sophia
You continue to make progress! Your playing has definitely moved on since I last listened to anything of yours. With your LH one option you can easily (easy to say of course) add in is playing the octave note. So in F you'd play one bar of LH as:
F F(octv higher) A C A C. Enjoyed it very much.

@rsl12
I kept expecting you to sing! Regardless some lovely touches, some as you hinted at, not really blues, but that doesn't matter a jot. The material isn't sacred. I enjoyed your performance - as I always do.

@WieWaldi
The arrangement you picked may have been long, but How Long Blues is an 8 bar blues, and as such is about as short a form of music as you can get. I didn't notice the flubs and thought you played it well. And yours was the longest submission so far. You can hold your head up high with that performance.

Cheers

Sophia

Simonb F F(octv higher) A C A C.

Thank you Simon! That sounds like a great groove - I will try that 🙂 I know what you're saying though - these things always sound so easy, especially when you see others do it with such ease. And then you try it yourself... YIKES that is HARD! But so rewarding in the end 🙂

WieWaldi there are a lot some new phrases I never heard.

Thank you so much 😃 The intro and melody itself came from the first score rsl linked to, and others I modified from Christian's licks. Or even combined them with part of the melody. It was really enjoyable to come up with those, and then agony to learn because I didn't realize how many jumps I had managed to edit in 😃

rsl12

Simonb I kept expecting you to sing!

I thought about it, but my original plan was apply lessons from CC Rider, and singing would have been out if I had taken that difficult approach. And then it just didn't happen period. Maybe next time! I definitely need the practice.

That reminds me--I need to post on the accountability thread about not singing for the last few months 😅

Sophia Very, very pleasant to listen to rsl! You almost sounded ashamed of just letting it flow the way you felt.

Not exactly ashamed, but it ran counter to my main goal, which was to learn more blues. I did learn, but the things I learned didn't show up very much in my recording. I think it sounds okay. Better than some of my other PIYW attempts, particularly since I'm not singing!

Sophia Side note: it was a bit disappointing that you calculated the percentage of your life spent on classical and jazz to only one digit after the decimal point. I would have expected that to be a little more exact, like 39.5193% on classical, 49.5939% on jazz, roughly speaking

I was curious, so I calculated the difference between 49.5939% and 49.5938%. (Actually I had google assistant do it.) The difference is 31 seconds. If I wrote that level of accuracy, I wouldn't be able to practice piano because I'd have to update the number all the time.

WieWaldi I don't know how many percent (at least 3 digits after the point) of this wasn't blues. I guess this number is very small (therefore 3 digits after the point), because I didn't hear anything else than blues. Call it blues evolving into jazz, but still kinda bluesy.

Thanks for not using too many decimal points! Yes, in retrospect, it's mostly bluesy, but I didn't include many of the licks I had been working on for the last month. Oh well, that's how improv goes!

TC3

Very excited to see this open! I'll take a good listen to all of them here and there today and be sure to post some comments this evening. Yay!

diretonic

Regret, an ailment flare in the last week, so nothing presentable but it'll be top of the list to play once I'm able... looking forward to listening to all yours!

Simonb

Hi Sophia

That part as 1:20 is the result of hundreds, if not thousands of hours of playing that LH pattern. I basically do it on auto pilot (as I'm sure I've mentioned before), and it allows my RH to improvise syncopations, and cross rhythms without affecting the flow of the whole thing. Practise practise!

Your analogy is a good one, but in fact it's actually less clever than that. I'm using my brain for my RH, and my LH doesn't really require any mental effort at all, except to move when the chords change.

There are quite a few rhythmic variations of that pattern. The notes you play are identical, but the rhythmic feel is different. Straight eights, swung eights, synocpated eights etc etc.

Cheers

TC3

Okay, let's see here ...

@TC3 Oh hey -- that's me! Thanks for the kind words, all. Glad you enjoyed it. Apologies for the mediocre sound quality. It sounded good in the room, and I didn't have the luxury of doing anything more complicated than using a field recorder. FYI, it does tend to sound better in decent headphones than tiny phone / tablet / laptop speakers.

@Sophia My main concern is the giant woman leaning out of the window on the right in the preview graphic ... 😃 Seriously, very well done. Super smooth and professional, a real treat to listen to. I liked the arrangement very much, and don't have any problem calling it yours, despite working from others. That's why they call it arrangement and not composition!

@rsl12 Very nice! I envy your improvisational abilities. And I think that's plenty bluesy. My feathers get rather ruffled by the overly simplistic boxes that some folks try to put the blues in, especially when there are so many varieties of it. You played what you felt, and I can't think of anything much bluesier than that!

@WieWaldi Good job! I smiled at your comment about how long How Long is. You might have noticed I did a little culling and editing of verses in my own version! I thought it sounded very confident, I wouldn't have used the word "flub" at all. Thanks for contributing!

@Simonb I love the dramatic entrance. "I've started the video but no one is there. Wait, here comes someone. Is it Professor Longhair? No, even better: it's SimonB!!!" 😃 Great New Orleans interpretation, I always enjoy straight-eighth blues, which I don't hear anywhere near enough. It's an example of my gripe above about how narrowly the blues gets interpreted sometimes. Anyway, one last tip: be careful of all that infectious toe-tapping, you might bruise your left knee on the underside of the piano! 😮

Great job everyone, and thanks again for the responses. I hope we'll have some more folks contribute when they feel reason to do so.