• 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!

I know... compared to him I feel like I'm at this level too

Today my lesson went smoothly, so tomorrow I'll be adding lick 8 (out of 12). I didn't expect to stay a lovely beginner THIS long, but of course you can't rush perfection. It takes as long as it needs to take 🤣

@Sophia and @WieWaldi thanks for flattering me. 🙂

You both are doing great and making huge progress. I love hearing your playing!

Flattering nothing. Just stating facts 😅😂🤣

Thanks for the kind words, Roger. But same conclusion here, no flattering. Improvisation with pre-constructed Blues-elements feels like playing with lego-duplo.

I hope you are not suffering under the Calfornia fires!

    WieWaldi At some level it's all legos. Different improvisers have different sizes and shapes of pieces!

    I live in the Sacramento area and currently we're not having fires, but it's always a concern. I am worried about friends and family in LA

      Ok, I moan a lot. A LOT. But I have to say: I really enjoy Christian's lessons sometimes 😃 Lick 8 and 9 were almost identical, and fairly easy, so I just started watching #10. And the way he explains it including the rhythm is just so pleasant (as well as full of humor). Sometimes I get bored with the lesson (not this one), but never with the teacher 😂 Taka and baka ka bap bap gah - yes, very relaxing feeling. But also, I learned the pattern in one listen - tomorrow I'll actually practise it😜

      More seriously now. Roger: sorry to hear about your friends and family in danger zones... we too have friends who are at risk (and they have friends who lost everything). It makes one feel so helpless and worried! Hope your relatives will be okay!

      Good for you... ❤️

      I stuck. 😩 (if you don't moan a lot, you are not a Blues pianist)
      The current lesson is very unstructured, and the next one is as well. But it is kinda easy, and it is fun to play. But I don't progress very well. I just repeat over and over the old stuff and recognize I am playing something "wrong". But I like the sound of the wrong examples. So I repeat them. And alternate them until they are even more wrong. haha

      Well - 2 more examples to learn and then inhale all the examples of next the lesson. Don't expect me to record something before February!

      Oohh that sounds mysteriously intriguing. Playing notes wrong and enjoying the sound might mean you are.... drum roll 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁... IMPROVISING!

      Well, as it sometimes happens... suddenly I had enough of this lesson. I spent almost a month on it (longest to date) and so I went downstairs this morning, still in pyjamas, and recorded the session "as is". First take, no prior warmup (except my daily scale). It started smooth (despite Lionel and Sandy wanting to join in). Then I lost my concentration and started forgetting what I was doing... so you can watch it go to pieces pretty quickly 😃

      But... you have to believe me when I say I can play all those individual licks pretty smoothly by themselves, it was my memory playing tricks more than anything. I just want to move on now and not spend half the day getting a better recording. So here it is, in original raw form, unedited and uncropped.

      And with that, I now promote myself to.............. taa daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! 🎺🎷🥈

      TOTAL BEGINNER!!!

      Albeit a flawed one, lol. No perfect score on this lesson!

        Sophia Thanks for sharing this imperfect but nonetheless entertaining video. 🙂 The timing of the cat jumping onto the bass keys and producing a flurry of notes was purrrfect - that cat sure has talent!

        I love it that you uploaded this vid which shows that despite being annoyingly talented you also suffer from brain freeze, like the rest of us bloody beginners! There were times during those hesitations when I felt your pain - we've all been there! You could probably return to this lesson in a few weeks and nail it, but I totally get why you might not want to bother. There are just so many lovely pieces you have the skills to play now that it's pointless to linger on something you've had enough of.

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

            Hehehe, I don't disagree with anything you said, except of course:

            Nightowl us bloody beginners

            You watch what you say now, young lady, I have joined the ranks of TOTAL beginner and expect the proper respect and deference according to my new lofty status from now on 😝


                Welcome to the Total BeginnerTM grade. Har Har Har!

                Don't worry if this wasn't as perfect as the other ones, but with those two cute kittens it is for sure hard to stay focused. Btw: is it just my impression, the kittens became cats now, they grew a lot and look way stronger and heavier than in your earlier videos.

                Back to the music - I always enjoy those lookback tuesdays. Not that long ago I played exactly the same lesson than you today, and mine wasn't that smooth, too. It is so nice to have a fellow total beginner on my side. 🥰In another thread I stated my wish for this year is to reach the early beginner grade. A bit unrealistic, I know. Then I added I would be happy to become an absolute beginner in 2025. Now my only wish is to reach the absolute beginner grade before you do.

                Anyway - have fun with the Easy Blues Piano course!!! And congrats to your new grade. It sounds so much more pro when you tell people, you are a total beginner instead of a bloody beginner. ^_^

                Haha I updated my avatar to show off my total beginner status. Simba in the circle, Lionel and Sandy in the profile background. You are right - I must refer to them as grown men now, or maybe teenagers. They are no longer kittens... still behave as such though!

                I decided to take a break from piano for today (this morning's recording still counts for PACT) and then start the Easy course with a fresh mind 😃

                U know. Lionel and Sandy are both men. Of course they behave like kids. Only the toys get bigger.