Well, lesson 5 is done. It took a little longer because it's HOT out here (as in: Canada hot, not Death Valley hot, but STILL). So, without further ado, short but sweet and with a non-spectacular "custom" ending (just the same lick in another setting and a final chord that I made up really):
Onwards to lesson 6!
Wait, WHAT? After all my lessons and still only a BLOODY beginner???? That's not fair...
Sophia 
Well done! And it is interesting - you played both the high chords of G7/F7 with two keys. I did them with three (B F A and C Eb G). You got the notes from his sheet-music, right? I did figure the notes out by his video only, and here he played an extended version (at least once - and I am sure I wanted to stick to the example with the most keys, haha).
Still - I am missing the mother of all turnarounds (video at 12:22)...
Wait - where are the kittens? 
Oh, yes I played the sheet music version:
One of the kittens is hidden in the video - see if you can spot him 
But you are right, I didn't play the mother of all turnarounds because I wanted to come up with my own version (much worse, but entirely my own, therefore much worse)
Yes - differences. The biggest thing don't like about his sheet music is the layout. Line breaks and page breaks when it really hurts. I always opted to have exactly two bars on one single line to see repeating patterns easier:
C7 - C7
C7- C7
F7 - F7
C7 - C7
G7 - F7
C7 - C7
I don't like the auto-alignment with 3 bars on a line while 2 or 4 make more sense in terms of musical structure.
Oh - and for the black keys you have always two possibilities, how to notate them. Either with a # or a b symbol. I tried to always use the version that does not require a natural sign later on.
I tried to figure out a rule for music notation in the other forum, but all the answers did not make any sense to me. It was something with harmonic or tonic, and I didn't understand it. And also today, I don't get it yet. Ask me in two years again. Maybe my music theory will be better than - haha.
Oh - yes. A kitten (Lionel/Sandy?) hiding on the left leg. Let me tell you what happened: You played really great! Your little tiger has no complaints about it, and didn't see the need to correct you on the fly.
Yeah I don't like his sheet music either. And I think reading a blues would raise a lot of eyebrows, so I prefer to learn it by heart and pretend I was improvising 
btw, my version for the bloody beginners:
Interesting... what book is that? I have the two beginner's books (Blues Piano For Beginners 1-7 and 8-11) and Easy Licks in C. Yours is not the Bloody Beginners course, but the Easy Beginners (as we all know, Easy is way more advanced than Bloody anything...)
Edit; oh wait, I was looking at the wrong lesson. That's lesson 6 (duh) no wonder it has such different patterns I'm so glad to finally get away from the left hand tumptee-dumptee, tumptee-dumptee....
Sophia For the very first lessons, I didn't need sheet music at all. The patterns were too easy to remember. I just needed some (ok, alotta) time to get my fingers sorted.
At lesson 4 I started to note everything down with musescore. At lesson 6 or 7 I realized, I don't have to write my own sheet music out of his hands while slo-mo and pause/play. But buy sheet-music if I have already 80% of the 1-7 section? Nah!
Furthermore, in musescore I can play back what I noted down, and it sounded darn good. And the playback did also help me to learn, because I could set the speed and crosscheck if my sound is the same as the notes. So I continued with making my own version up to video 7.
Ok, starting with video 8, I was thinking the time is better spent with practicing. And he should also earn some money for this adorable course. (A complete free piano course
, motivating
, with humor
, in best English with Berlin accent
, and not just teasers for a paid subscription
).
WieWaldi Yeah I didn't need his sheet music either at first. But then he added more and more licks... now it's nice to look back "how did the blues scale in lesson 1 go again?" plus as you said, it feels good to support so much effort.
It will be so nice when we can think up a complex pattern and just let it roll from our fingers... how long will that take? Sometime between Bloody beginner and Advanced beginner?
I started the left hand pattern of lesson 6 - very cozy and smooth. And easy! Then I added the right hand and the whole thing fell to pieces 
Sophia It will be so nice when we can think up a complex pattern and just let it roll from our fingers... how long will that take? Sometime between Bloody beginner and Advanced beginner?
Ah - this is easy. I am able to do this in my sleep. Ok, the problem is, I can only do this, while I am sleeping.
Sophia I started the left hand pattern of lesson 6 - very cozy and smooth. And easy! Then I added the right hand and the whole thing fell to pieces
Yep. Same here. Even if I tried well know old RH stuff from previous lesson (or even the 1st lesson), I was feeling like a toddler. Now I check for every lesson if there is a new LH. If yes, I know this costs me up to 4 weeks* extra time, because I want to be able to play all old stuff with new LH. After this, LH runs on autopilot, and it gets very easy to learn new RH licks.
Edit:
*) Maybe it would be faster as a PACTicer... Nah - that's not me. I prefer to spend more time in the forum. 
Hehe, yup, though we all have to PACTice - no getting away from that! I'm really glad you experience the same difficulties with a new left hand lick (this will be my first new one). It does reduce you to toddler level and wishing you had stayed at bloody beginner level instead!
Sorry Sophia, I can't stay a bloody beginner for the rest of my life.
Royal blood streams through my veins, this requires to be a total beginner at least.
I've been doing something similar with the books I use. I have a handful of LH patterns I want to be able to improvise over, and a bunch of RH licks to sprinkle in my improvisations, so I've spent tons of time practicing the various LH and the various RH. It took a lot of time, and I still have to do some maintenance practicing if I haven't used a LH in a while, but it's paying off. It's slow, front-loaded work, but now things are coming together that much faster.
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
TC3 I know what you mean. I looked up a few YouTube videos, call them fast-guide or quick-tips. Someone is introducing a nice LH pattern within a few seconds and shows one or two RH licks.
The videos are short and compact, and it is easy to reproduce if I only concentrate on one hand alone. But both hands together is always a struggle. Bottom line: 1 minute video instruction = 1 month hard practice. It does not feel right to spend that much time just for a random picked up 1 minute video clip.
This is the main reason why I love Christians Blues-course playlist so much. He knows where to start from scratch and in which order different LH patterns make sense. And if the LH isn't fancy, it is the right thing to learn at my level.
I have another question... or more advice on which version I should play 
I started practising the lesson, and Christian plays the left hand C-A-G sequence with the A a little more staccato (my first version). But I really like to play the A more smoothly (second version) as well... which would you veterans say I should end up playing? Left hand staccato? Or smooth?
Sophia Both. Sorry, that's the worst answer!
Seriously, there's no right or wrong there, just two different ways to do it. I've noticed the same thing with a bunch of different LH patterns. Some teachers / authors suggest legato, other staccato. More importantly, when I listen to classic blues pianists, I'll hear it all sorts of different ways.
I'd suggest just sticking to whichever one you prefer right now so as not to slow down your progress, and then revisiting it at some point to try it in different ways.
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
Hahaha I was afraid of that And I'm equally happy to hear it. When I started this lesson the day before yesterday, I played it smoothly. Then I listened to the tutorial video again and realized he plays it more staccato. I asked my husband and although he is not into blues (mostly classical guy, that), he immediately picked the smooth version. And of course I like BOTH as well. I'll probably surprise myself most of all which version I end up playing as my "graduation" video
Thanks for chiming in!
