WieWaldi Ha, ha, you know me so well WieWie! 😁 I watched this film on TV last night and when this scene came on it made me laugh so much that I thought I'd share it with others who would appreciate it. The "Play It Sam" reference has been used many times over the years, as a nod to that iconic movie scene. I love the part where the usherette appears with a selection of drugs - genius! 🙃 Talking of which, @Sophia that muppet clip involves some seriously clever playing! The creators of that show were very innovative.

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

    Nightowl, I found a lovely arrangement of this piece, free for the grab. There is a video too of how it should sound. It's way too much of a stretch for me to even try it yet, but it's absolutely a version that I'd love to be able to play someday!

    Well, that is indeed lovely, but if it's too much of a stretch for you there's no way I could play it! I sigh heavily when I see yet another nice piece that's currently out of reach for me, but I have to be realistic. My piano playing is grade 1-2, but I sigh at grade 8. I also have a Masters in Wishful Thinking.

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

    Haha yeah, I hear you! I have a whole cupboard full of books that are on the "someday" pile. But with every piece I learn that someday is getting closer... so I should be able to play at least a few before I'm 100 😊

    Hello hello, beginners blues people.

    I am considering to start Christian's "Blues Piano for Beginners" course. I've already went through lesson one. Initially I didn't believe him when he said beginners usually struggle with basic hands together rhythm. But it looked so easy. And of course, it was not easy. But after some practice, it is coming together.

    I don't really listen blues. My goal is to start practicing improvisation and realised that classical resources are not going to cover it much. Do you think this course will help towards that?

    Christian also have some improvisation videos but I didn't see anything structured as the beginners blues course.

      • Sophia

      • Post #532

      Whooo hoooo, another bloody blues beginner 😃 Welcome, welcome!

      I am currently learning lesson 16 and I have to say that so far, Christian hasn't really covered improvisation as such. He does mention a few times though that his lessons are paving the way towards that goal, and usually he is really focussed on "what sounds bluesy" (which I guess is very helpful in getting the hang of improvisation some day) and, as you said, hand independence. So I think the course will be useful, we gotta start somewhere, right?

      Of course my big improvisation hero is @rogerch so I'm sure he can explain it a lot better than I ever could 🙂

        Sophia Thanks Sophia!

        My improvising isn't blues or jazz style. I'm not sure what it is! It's probably a combination of classical, ragtime, and New Age because that's mostly what I played before I started improvising.

        I started improvising about 4.5 years ago after a lifetime of playing from sheet music. My approach was to start with scales and chords. I played all the major and harmonic scales and went through all the chords in each one. Every day after playing that day's scale and chords I would improvise in that scale. I did that every day for about the first three years.

        At this point I can somewhat comfortably improvise in any of the major scales using all the chords for that scale. I mess around with chromatic playing and with non-diatonic notes from time to time but most of the time I stick with scale tones. Even though I worked on all the harmonic minor scales I don't seem to want to use them as much so I'm not as good at the minors.

        I use various left hand patterns, and also work quite a bit on improvising in both hands at the same time with no set pattern for either hand. It's tricky but slowly gets easier over time. Work in progress!

        When I practice I usually sit down, play the first note, and let things develop from there. Playing one thing makes me think of something else so the playing evolves within a session. It's super fun!

        I've started cycling through the scales again, not playing the scales themselves but making sure I'm covering all the major scales. I'm trying to avoid getting better in some scales than others. I have tons of areas for improvement: minor keys, modes, modulation, non-diatonic, variety of articulations, tempos, styles, etc. It's never-ending and immensely satisfying!

        If I decide to tackle blues or jazz I think I will use a similar approach to enable playing those styles in all the scales. I think blues and jazz improvisation is awesome and I'm looking forward to hearing all of you blues students try it out. I think you will like it!

            Sophia thanks a lot! Yes, that was my understanding as well. I need to get comfortable with rhythm and hand independence first. I think I will follow the course and then try to introduce more improvisation on top of it. Blues seems nicely structured for this.

            I've also looked jazz improv courses but they have some scarry looking chords 🙂 . So I'm not touching those for now.

                rogerch

                Following up on my own post: improvising has been fun and rewarding from the first day. I started with the book Improvisation at the Piano. I've only made it through about a third of it but it did help me get going.

                The key to learning to improvise is to sit down and do it. The first time you try, play a note, then play another note. What do think? Play another one. It took me a while to develop little patterns and sequences I like, but even in the beginning I was able to play music that was fun for me to play that I liked the sound of it. My early improvisations tended to be very slow, and frequently based partially on patterns from music I knew. I still have fun with simple, slow improvisations!

                I think the blues lessons you all are working through lay an excellent foundation for improvising! You've got left hand patterns and you've got various licks. I suggest playing one of the left hand patterns you can play on auto pilot and playing some random notes in the right hand. If you like what you hear, riff on it! If you don't like what you hear, play something else! Don't worry about it sounding good, just experiment and have fun!

                My point is that I loved improvising even when I first started so please don't be intimidated by what I wrote about playing all of those scales! I encourage anyone at any level to start improvising. I'm glad I did!

                    rogerch thanks for sharing your approach. I've read similar advice for chord based improvisation. But I feel I don't have enough tools just yet. I try to doodle with the few scales and common chords (I, IV, V7) I saw so far. It sounds objectively horrible but still fun 🙂

                        hebele It’s great that you’ve started! I look forward to hearing you improvise some day!

                          hebele I don't really listen blues. My goal is to start practicing improvisation and realised that classical resources are not going to cover it much. Do you think this course will help towards that?

                          Yes.

                          Before I started this course, I was in the exact same boat as you. Accidentally, I watched these two videos
                          🎹 12 Bar Blues Piano Tutorial - Basic Blues Progression, Left Hand & Blues Scale 🎹
                          🎹 12 Bar Blues Piano Tutorial Part 2 - Chord Progressions, Left Hand & Blues Scale 🎹
                          and thought this might be the best place for a bloody beginner to get into improvisation.

                          Basically, my takeaway of those videos was the "If you want to speak a language, start with the vocabulary", meaning learn patterns, licks, riffs, scales for a certain genre. Then you can combine those stuff by splitting up licks and re-connect them. Unfortunately, these videos won't go too deep into blues piano and I really struggled with playing LH pattern + RH scale. 😲
                          To make it short, the videos above gave me an idea how to improvise, but didn't provide enough food to learn from.

                          A few weeks later, I found Christian's tutorial and started to learn with it. Was a good decision, though. I would not say, I can improvise yet, and I am not anywhere close to rogerch, but don't forget he was actually playing a lifetime from sheet music before he started improvising. Meaning, his improvising journey started after he had eaten a lifetime of sheet-music food.

                          At my current stage, all I can do is play LH pattern and try out stuff with RH. Mixing scales, doing some licks I have learned in the past, mix in some licks I came up by my own. Basically I can do a little bit of that receipe:

                          rogerch The first time you try, play a note, then play another note. What do think? Play another one. It took me a while to develop little patterns and sequences I like, but even in the beginning I was able to play music that was fun for me to play that I liked the sound of it.

                          And do it with some beginners Blues-vocabulary... It works.

                          hebele I think I will follow the course and then try to introduce more improvisation on top of it. Blues seems nicely structured for this.

                          Welcome! Can't wait to follow your journey. It has fun parts, some boring parts, but the fun parts are more!

                                  • Sophia

                                  • Post #539

                                  WieWaldi the fun parts are more!

                                  Plus we all have each other to push each other through the not-so-fun parts

                                  I'm still only one third (three licks now) into lesson 16. It took me longer than I thought to get the left hand performing the four chords, and of course every time the right hand needs to add a small variation, the left hand suddenly jumps all over the place again uncontrolled. But I like how smooth the lesson itself is so I don't mind taking my time with it - it can take as long as it needs to take! 😃

                                    WieWaldi thanks a lot. I've just watched Stu's videos. I get his point about "learning the language". So that's really helpful. But I also find the tutorial parts a bit dense for me. I would need to practice them bit by bit for weeks 🙂 I will stick with Christian's because of easier progress and more structure.

                                    My plan for 2025 officially has the blues course now.

                                      • WieWaldi

                                      • Post #541
                                      • Edited

                                      Ok - just resumed my regular Blues lessons again. Turned out this is a funny one. At Christmas time I fell into a deep hole, lost all fun of piano playing. Good to have a forum with very nice fellows to gain motivation again! Thank you everyone for being here! And good I didn't claim to PACT'25, because I would have failed right away in the beginning. hehe

                                      Seems like Christian is really driving his total beginner students into bloody improvisers. Honestly, the sheet music he uses in the video looks like this 👆
                                      And each symbol is a part of a lick, or at least an idea of a part of a lick. It is intriguing at add own icons for own stuff. Or old stuff from the early lessons. Some of them to be prepped up with new tricks. 😎

                                      • Sophia

                                      • Post #542

                                      Awww I know that feeling. I lost motivation for the blues lessons for a little while too, when it was all those boring repetitive patterns. The lesson I'm learning now is nice, but it's also hard to keep motivation because I still try to play only from memory... and it takes me a while to remember all the licks in the correct order which adds time of course. I think this may be the last lesson I will learn that way. When I graduate to "total beginner" like you, I may need to rethink that and start using sheet music 📖📖📖

                                      For now, I am still learning lesson 16. I think I'm 5 licks in now, just added the "two finger salute" today and trying to tie it in smoothly with the patterns before. So, probably, halfway through this lesson.... nowhere near ready yet. But it's nice that I'm now at bloody/lovely beginner level together with hebele. We are not so alone now

                                      I too need to keep my motivation high, that is why I won't play anything outside my Alfred book or blues lessons yet. It's hard enough to learn pieces at my own level, it's no use trying to add complicated stuff yet

                                      If our teacher is not ashamed to make mistakes, then neither should we 😃 Yes, still only halfway through the lesson, it seems so easy when you hear him play, but it's actually a tough one to learn!

                                      Ooh! I think Simba is ready to learn!


                                      I think I will mix lesson 8+9. Both contain only short chunks and no longer lines. I will split them, glue them, extend them, forget them, relearn the half of it and then try to bring them into a nice order.
                                      I call this my 1st improvisation attempt.

                                      Not like Roger is doing, getting this:

                                      and building that:

                                      No - mine will look more like:

                                      Oh - I forgot to mention - good thing you named this thread the Blues/Boogie&Rock-Beginner thread. This means I have a home the next ten years!