Beginners blues/boogie/rock discussion

Sophia · 2024-05-29T17:17:55+00:00

I have always been fascinated by boogie woogie, but of course I am limited by my very limited piano skills 😃 However now that I'm in the second Alfred book,...

Sophia

Thank you!!!! I really appreciate the help and suggestions ^_^ I grew up in a mostly classical household, so I'm not all that familiar with blues - though obviously I love it whereas I positively hate modern rock(us). I think I know what you're saying about pushing or pulling the beat... I'm too close to being a metronome myself, which is probably good if you're a speaking clock, but more than likely less useful in music 😅

I must listen to more of your submissions and that of others who contributed blues/jazz here, to see what I can learn. Please keep offering your ideas/suggestions for improvements/kicks in the butt because I need all the help I can get 😃 When I get a little better, perhaps I should try to play along with the old Masters and see if I can get that laid back/momentum stuff in my fingers (brain) too 🙂

PianoMonk

Sophia You're welcome. It's much better to be able to play with a metronome, like you, and be able to work around it a bit, rather than not able to keep good time. So, you're off to a good start.
My blues playing days are about 30-40 years behind me. And most of that was guitar. These days, I can't play as fast, and I get bored with the three chord form. Although, it's fun to revisit.

PianoMonk

Sophia Here's what Jamey Aebersold has to say about the metronome:

And he knows a lot more about blues and jazz than I do.
If you aren't familiar with Jamey, his site: https://www.jazzbooks.com/ has Play-a-Long book/audio sets, as well as many jazz and blues theory books.

WieWaldi

PianoMonk All of the players I've ever played blues with liked to hit just before (push), or just after (pull) the beat. Push gives a sense of momentum; pull can have a laid back effect.

Stu Harrison mentioned this pushing of notes, demoed it, and I instantly knew what he was talking about. Sometimes I happen to push a note and I think it sounds really cool. Unfortunately I can't reproduce it consistently. Never tried to pull a note, but good to know there is something and what for it is. Thank you.

@Sophia, I am back at my parents place until Sunday... This Casio - it isn't a piano. Feels like a toy. Good enough to learn a melody, learn new notes, but not to really practise something to make it sound lush. The pedal is a toy, but still I think the spring loaded action is the greater problem of both. Don't expect me to make progress the next days, but maybe I can try to play through the entire lesson without playing wrong notes here and there. This is what the Casio is good for: pressing the right keys, but not pressing them right.

PianoMonk

WieWaldi Stu is a great player, and does some fine demos. Playing ahead of, or behind, the beat is definitely a "feel thing", something to be used tastefully. In my very humble opinion.

Killomiter

WieWaldi I have mentioned this in another thread Wie, with examples to highlight the differency between this push and pull as apposed to rubato. Isaying 🙂

Sophia

Right, it's nice to get these things pointed out, otherwise we sound like a precision clock... ok... not a FAST clock, but still, not exactly the effect that we want in blues. Deep down inside I knew it, but it's nice to hear it all the same 😃

Have a good time WieWaldi! Enjoy your time with your parents! No rush to get the lesson done, it gets done when it gets done 😃 I haven't started mine yet... I have a flea up my bum to finalize the Chopin piece first. Plus my brain needs some time to recover from lesson 13 and make room for new memories... 💾

PianoMonk

Sophia Here's another tidbit....
With blues, and some jazz, written eighth notes together are often played as if they were a dotted eighth and a dotted sixteenth. Instead of da-da-da-da, all even, more like dee-da dee-da, long short but takes up the same amount of space in the bar. This is how you swing! Now add the push, pull, and you can really mess with the meter. But don't do this with Chopin. At least, not where someone might hear you doing it.

Sophia

Thank you PianoMonk! ❤️ Such great advice all around.

PianoMonk If you aren't familiar with (...)

The things I am not familiar with when it comes to this type of music could fill up a quantum computer so trust me when I say that every little tidbit of information helps 😃

PianoMonk

Sophia You're welcome. I think artists, musicians, creative people in general should share ideas, or what works for them, or even some things that didn't.
Here's an historical reference of my "blues cred", circa 1987:
Link
Not piano, but 16 bar form, three chords.

Sophia

That's you? Wow, Marty McFly - move over, lol!

Agree, sharing is a huge part of music. You know how in small bands they always acknowledge each other, nod, smile, play a bit, and nod at each other again. Even the Muppets communicate through music!

Of course, sometimes they need the process explained a little first 😆

PianoMonk

Sophia Yes, that's me. Sometimes, hard for me to believe where my musical focus was back then. But I was still young at heart. There are more "historical" recordings on my YT channel.
I've had a few good bands, with good players and good vibe. And I've played in bands where the members were only there for the money, didn't really like each other. One of the reasons I like the piano is that you don't need a band.
I like the Muppets. Jim Henson and Frank Oz are/were geniuses.

Nightowl

WieWaldi Hi WW, I think you posted this in the wrong place - maybe you could copy and post it to the recitals thread? Anyway, it's not surprising that it happened - as you practically live in this Blues section! 🙂

PianoMonk

Sophia You can get an Audio to USB-C adapter that would allow you to record from the Clavinova's headphone out into your phone. I used an audio to plain old USB adapter to digitize my vinyl record collection. I think it was ten dollars.

Sophia

Oh nice! I must look into that, thank you PianoMonk! It would sure prevent a lot of bad language when a kitten shoves yet another heavy item onto the floor while I'm playing 😃

Sophia

I love love love lesson 14! Of course I remember every note because of WW's recital in the spring, with all the interesting information blurbs. I wanted to learn boogie and I think it was rsl who advised I'd look into that course too.

I was so impressed and also a little worried, I thought I could never become as good as that... that's way too complicated. And here we are six months on, and I'm going to learn it 😄

This course is just so much fun!

WieWaldi

rsl12

WieWaldi

I remember this! Sophie, for someone who claims not to be good at planning, you seem to be good at sticking to the blues lesson plan!

Sophia

Ah yes, if we're going into memory lane...

I remember thinking "'we BEGINNERS'? 'weaker playing'? He must be joking... that is not a beginner's piece! He sounds so advanced!" Of course now I realize it is just beyond bloody beginner into lovely beginner territory 😃

WieWaldi

Sophia Nononono... Back then I was a bloody beginner. I graduated to a total beginner with begin of the "Easy Blues Piano course", remember?

Speaking about graduating, I approach steady (but slowly) to the next one:

I am not really happy with this recording, cause today I simply don't feel in good shape. But still want to move on. Did screw up the pedal here and there, held a few notes not long enough. But the biggest gripe is the speed. I wanted to play without metronome and then I got too fast. With metronome, the duration would be 3min and a few seconds.

Sophia

WOW! I know you said you are not completely happy with your playing today (I know that feeling, some days are fantastic and you can't do wrong, other days are horrible and you can't play anything right), but a third party (me) cannot hear any of those imperfections!

That is GREAT progress WieWaldi! Just yesterday I listened to your version of St Louis Blues again because I'm lazy enough that if I can learn by listening, not reading notes I will take that ^_^ So the contrast between six months ago and now is striking!!! Especially now that you use the pedal, it's a whole world of difference. And very intricate harmonies, independent hands, lots of variations, steady left hand, right hand all over the place... I'm so proud of you!

I agree, I think you are ready to move on now. We just submit our lessons here, not create near-perfect recital performances 😊

WieWaldi

Sophia Just yesterday I listened to your version of St Louis Blues again because I'm lazy enough that if I can learn by listening, not reading notes I will take that ^_^

I think the best for us beginners is to look back 6 months, or even longer, and we can see the progress we are making. This should be the big motivator to continue.

Haha, the silent movie captions - making buzz for Christians channel. Well - at least one followed💖

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