Sophia I might have to cave and use the sheet music, record it in stages, or simplify the lesson.

This! This is why I started to make cheat sheets for some lessons. Come on, LH is the same inside each lesson, no need to print it everywhere. In most cases it is baked into muscle memory, anyway.
And for recording, I often don't do the first and maybe the second lick, because they are only warmup licks (like a scale). Or a stripdown version of the next lick.

I would not call it simplifing the lesson, if I leave away the easy (warmup) parts. Recording in stages? Possible, but that takes away the fun.

      Pallas I have the impression, you accidentally landed in the wrong thread. At least I don't get the context, here.

        Pallas No worries. happens. I was just thinking you wanted to post in a thread where people are talking about books for exams. (And they probably won't find your comment, here)

          Case closed 😊 so to go back to blues discussion:

          WieWaldi Come on, LH is the same inside each lesson, no need to print it everywhere.

          Exactly. He prints the entire 12 bars, or in the case of lesson 12, he even writes out a variation of one note difference - but that uses an entire two lines up.

          I still practise with the sheet for now, but I am already having to turn the page twice and I'm only one third into the lesson. I can't wait for your future cheat sheets - maybe I'll create one for this lesson.

          How did you do it? Screenshot one bar of each lick and place them all on a single canvas?

              Sophia How did you do it? Screenshot one bar of each lick and place them all on a single canvas?

              Musescore 4.0

                Omg, I suddenly feel like a complete

                Thank you!

                  With musescore it costs indeed a lot of time to put everything onto one single page...

                  But the original was 7 pages in total - quite impossible to play to the sheet-music without losing the rhythm because of turning pages.

                  Sophia I'm actually the resident dinosaur, but it's good to know you're not a wizard in all areas - that could give the rest of us mere mortals a complex! 😁

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

                    You anticipated my next question 😄 I haven't installed Musescore yet (I know! Pathetic for a budding musician 😂) so I was wondering if you copied it directly from the pdf or put in the hard work. Sounds like there is no quick shortcut!

                    I'm still hoping I can stamp the lesson into my memory instead. I guess that once we go into full improvisation, it doesn't matter either way, but for now I feel I should follow the lesson closely.

                    Skipping the easy warm-up drill is no option, because that's the one I have firmly wedged into my active memory by now 🤠

                    Whoops, cross posted with my fellow 🦕 I mean 😴🦉🤣

                      About warm-up licks: I would not skip it for learning the lesson. But often after you mastered the later licks, you often recognize, the warm-up is a subset in any way. Either it had a long pause and the follow-up lick filled this with notes. Or a follow-up lick adds a 2nd voice to the 1-finger melody. In this cases I assume it is safe to replace the warm-up lick by the next one.

                      Sophia I was wondering if you copied it directly from the pdf or put in the hard work.

                      This I do, too. Often I copy entire staffs from many pages to fewer pages and be careful about bad page breaks. Guess I can join the dinosaur club, haha

                        So what's the difference between a lick and a riff? Christian mentioned something about "some licks can repeat like riffs" but he didn't quite explain anything further. And of course the Big Question is: does it actually matter?

                          A riff is usually a repeated phrase. It's often used as an important theme in a song, possibly the main melody theme or some other signature melody phrase that identifies the song.

                          Licks are shorter phrases, mainly used in the context of solos.

                          Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.

                          Aaah thank you! Short but to the point! Makes sense... this lesson is entirely different with, as you said, a phrase that repeats every two bars and a lick that changes each time. It's strangely satisfying to play too, considering that and the left hand are so repetitive. 😄

                          • TC3 likes this.

                          Sophia It is a very good question, because they seem similar.
                          AFAIK, a riff is a repeating section inside a song, so repeating that it basically can define the song. A lick happens to be in a song occasionally.

                          E.g. "Smoke on the water" has this very famous riff, repeating all over the song. Actually, this is the essence of the song itself.

                          "What'd I Say" from Ray Charles has a lick at 0:26 sec, (Youtube). It belongs to the song but does not define the song in a way like the famous "Smoke on the water" riff does.

                            Oops - cross post with TC3.

                            • TC3 likes this.

                            Thanks WieWaldi. Yours was longer but just as much to the point. All clear now 😃

                            Pfew, lesson 12 is super long! I finally managed to get the licks and riffs of the first part into my active memory. Including the two-octave blues scale with the new riff. Now I'm halfway the lesson, and he is continuing to introduce new patterns and variations! TC I am not sure if I will include one of your lovely endings in this lesson just yet because it's sooo long, but I fully plan on going back to it during a less daunting lesson 😄

                            At least I'm enjoying this lesson, so it's not a huge strain to play the Dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum for 5 solid minutes just to get through the first part. And still as much to add! 😬

                              Sophia At least I'm enjoying this lesson, so it's not a huge strain to play the Dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum for 5 solid minutes

                              😃 That's the part I like -- it's way easier for me!

                              Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.

                                Sophia your current lesson is the last bloody beginner one. After that, your LH is going for chord progressions. It is then more of a slow blues, easy because it is slow. Not easy, because you probably cannot play LH blind in autopilot that easy.

                                Anyway, I found your current jamming lesson ultra enjoying. It was the first one, I created my own licks because LH is so soothing and repetitive, that my brain got free capacity to invent something by my own.

                                  Haha true! It's so easy to go into full improvisation mode with such a basic left hand. In fact that's what I do sometimes with my keyboard: set some rhythm with auto left hand patterns. Then all I need to do is one finger on CCCCFFCCGFCC and my right hand is free to explore whatever my ears enjoy!

                                  However for this particular lesson I need full brain capacity (all 3 cells) just to remember the licks and riffs and variations... so I'm not deviating from the lesson right now 😅