Nightowl Thanks, actually this isn't a piece. It was just some exercises put together. The "wrong" part wasn't a wrong note itself. There are not that many notes, that can go wrong in blues ^^. It is the ending I am unhappy. Normally I trust in muscle memory for this, but during the recording my brain switched on and asked: "Are you sure to press these notes? Wanna double check it?" Then I hesitated and decided to tell my brain to shut up and kicked out the notes where my fingers waited. Too harsh, not smooth enough. You know, for music like this, feeling and timing is king.

Nightowl How long have you been playing piano?

Started January 2021, but with a big gap. Now it is about 2 1/2 years active playing.

        WieWaldi, that was sooo smooth and delightful! I'm noticing great progress, wow, well done! And although I like your click ⏰ tock 🕰️ tock 🕰️ tock 🕰️ buddy , I confess that I enjoyed this even more without it I also didn't notice any missing notes - the ending was very smooth. You're imagining it 😁

        Next: me again... but not too soon. I'm still only 23 repeats into the 10,000 🙄
        And Alfred is calling loudly too. I am three pieces away from finishing the book and I want to graduate to book 3 before the summer is over! 😂

        Hi

        I did quickly record a video based on that drone riff today, but didn't realise it would need to be on YouTube (or at least somewhere you can post the link from) to show it here.

        I'll have to see if I can find a better way....

        Cheers

        Simon
        All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
        Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.

        WieWaldi Thanks for the clarification. I thought you had a few years' experience under your belt and now I can understand why you have pretty high standards about your own playing - I guess that as time goes on we all set the bar for our playing a little higher.
        On another note and without wanting to come across as weird, your avatar pic seems totally at odds with your ability to play - there is no way anyone would think that you play like a muppet! 😁 You could change your pic to show your lovely hands instead - they are symbolic of your deft touch. 🙂

        "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

            Nightowl change your pic to show your lovely hands

            If we take this video:

            Then WieWaldi is lucky to have Muppet hands 😃 I remember the first time I talked to WieWaldi in PW was to tell him how much I like the avatar, loll It is actually playing piano there! 😃

                Sophia Oh my gosh! Handpuppets from 1970 - just colored gloves. Today's socks have at least some buttons as eyes.... I must have missed this clip in my life. It is even older than I am. This time was innocent back then. While watching, I was always expecting some nasty gestures to happen, like a middle finger, but this is way too innocent.

                  Nightowl You could change your pic to show your lovely hands instead

                  No way! I stick to Rowlf. There aren't that many iconic puppets or cartoons known for playing piano. Schröder from the peanuts might be the most famous one. And Rowlf is next. It is hard to find a 3rd one, maybe Tom. But I know him playing the piano only very occasional. Tom was very intriguing to be used as avatar, as my real name is Thomas, too. But Tom is a much faster learner than me. Even faster than Sophia. (sorry)

                  Btw: does anybody know where I can get his method book?

                    Haha yes it's older than me too (only a little). Innocent days... and such adorable music. Timeless really!

                    Edit: oops, cross posted! Tom is not only faster, but he has much more flexible fingers too!

                    WieWaldi OMG Both those T&J videos are pure genius! 😁 If only it was that easy to learn piano!

                    "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                      Heh, I had a nice experience today. Visited a friend and of course we talked about her piano... she said she stopped playing years ago but she asked me to play something. Long story short, I didn't have any sheet music and I don't know anything from memory out of my Alfred book. I was about to tell her sorry, no go... and then I remembered I'm learning blues "improvisations", I can do that!

                      Sat down and played some licks from my recent Lesson 8 - she was bobbing her head and really enjoying it... and next we knew, she felt inspired to play again and we were rummaging through her old duet books. We picked out an easy one that each of us will practice for next time 😃

                      Oh, to stay on topic slightly - WieWaldi, you can lean back in some comfort, because I have decided to take a little break (VERY little, so don't get too comfortable!) from the blues lessons to concentrate on duets - and also going through the entire Alfred book 1 and 2 because I just don't feel ready to move on to book 3 until I KNOW I master all the lessons 🤔.

                        Sophia That's fantastic! There's nothing quite like sharing music.

                        Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.

                          Yes, so true! I was smiling the entire time. We picked a super easy Mozart duet which she copied for me so I can learn the part. I'm really excited to visit again. Also, it gave me a chance to play a real piano again after many decades... which was an absolutely fantastic experience in itself. I love our Clavinova, but nothing beats the real thing 😃

                          • TC3 likes this.
                          14 days later

                          Well............. watch out.... I ended my little blues break and started lesson 9 today... the ☠️😛 (drone lick). I'm looking forward to it!!!

                          No pressure.... right?

                          7 days later

                          Wait, what??? That is not fair! I finally learned the four variations. I was happy, now I can polish it a little more and put together a nice recording... Then I find out there are more variations in this lesson! And hard ones too - though he keeps saying that EVEN you beginners can do this 👺

                          The video is only half through at this point, and there are still 2728367 pages of sheet music in front of you... What do you expect? 😄

                          Don't be overwhelmed by the amount of sheet music. There is a lot of copy&paste going on. The drone lick itself isn't hard, or hard to learn at all. Actually the licks itself are easier than what you have learned so far. The only complication is to use a more hand-stretched fingering, with the pinky always on C or Bb, meaning you have only 3 fingers left for the lick itself. And if you consider, the actual lick can be played with three fingers, in very limited range of your keyboard, it must be easy. So everybody can play this, even you lovely beginner, right? 😘

                          True! So after I finish lesson 9, does that mean I have graduated to lovely beginner? Which is somewhere in between bloody beginner and total beginner? 🥳

                            Okay, if you are moaning about soooooo much more variations to learn, it is a sign you will upload your video in a few hours...

                            In this case let me post first:
                            Eight lines and a chorus was a lot of stuff to learn. I bumped it up to 123 bpm (this is the speed of Rita Moreno in the Muppet Show) and voilà: Under 4 minutes - not enough time to mess it up.
                            The lesson itself was quite easy to learn. Left hand just is doing here and there a chord. Mostly the same chord. Every 2nd bar or so. Right hand plays a simple melody, most of the time only a one-finger-melody. And in backing track, my trusty drummer and the bass player make it sound well. 😎

                            Basically it more cheating than playing piano, but this lesson is what it is. 😀

                            This time I tried another audio recording, because my recital had a lot of hiss noise. I used headphone-output to the PC and recorded with audacity in overdubbing mode. The 1st version was a recording test and for the 2nd one I did't delete the first version, so I was distracted by my last playing. You can hear that I messed up the 2nd trill around 2:03, looking to my computer with three question marks in my face. 😵