Beginners blues/boogie/rock discussion
Hehe... well... gotta keep you on your toes...
No worries - I am doing as fast as I can
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Well........ I learned another lick in the blues course. And then Christian finally went to teach us an actual part of Hit the Road Jack Chris... ok, only two bars, but still, kinda fun to play. Addictive in fact! So that means I'm about 1/3 into the lesson. The Ferrari is warming up again...
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Nightowl I know, It can be frustrating from time to time. It really feels like you are driving a beige family estate wagon, listening to Bob Marley and enjoying the landscape slowly passing by. And then you hear a load rooooooaaaaarrrr. A red dot appears in the mirrors and under usage of the headlamp flashlights, this point gets bigger and bigger until it becomes the shape of a fire-red Ferrari and then you can read the numbers plate: "Move away - Sophia is coming!"...!!! 
Maybe you can be a bit more relaxed. From your perspective, you see a red dot in front of you. This dot is already near the horizon. And it gets smaller and smaller, the roar gets more and more subtle. And after a while you forget about that tiny red dot that starts to fade away. Out of your vision, out of your mind. 
Lol!!!!!!! I make sure never to be out of Nightowl's mind, I am her private daymare 
But yes, that lesson is real fun! I'm still trying to learn it by heart, not read the sheet... so I can only add one lick every few days otherwise I overload my brain 
OK. I think you guys have privilege of having dainty fingers 
. That slide thing is the hardest part of the lesson by far. I am getting better it. But it requires precision that this poor beginner does not have in abundance.
We have a sausage finger problem over here. I mean look at this: 
If I'm not really really careful then the middle finger keeps both F# and G down. It would press F#, G and G# if let to its own devices
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My fingers are similar sized. In the gap between Db and D# I have no problem whatsoever. But the gaps between the 3 black keys are a bit narrower. Here I always touch the side walls of the black keys. (Sausage fingers, too)
About sliding, I don't do it between the black keys.
Playing the sheet music of the sequence, you posted, I use fingers 1 3 5. (3 is the sliding one).
This is my hand position after the slide. And my 3-finger came from end of the black key, touching only the last centimeter of it. And I was sliding down diagonal just a little bit. Only down that hump.
Edit: wrong notes played, see next post!
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Opoos - I have over seen the B-flat-symbol in the sheet music... (And didn't turn on my piano, with sound it is weird anyway)...
If my pinky is forced to go up to the Bb, there is no easy slide down is in my previous post.
In this case, the sliding middle finger has a very steep angle and even the fingernail is touching the G. Here, I don't play the black key at the very end, I am just playing it near the end and slide from F# sideways to the G.
I recalled this sequence several times, and my muscle memory always used the steep middle finger angle. No matter if I slide or not. My middle finger is always that steep. I don't know why I am doing it this way, but probably I figured out it works better with my sausage fingers.
I think it is good habit in general to play the keys at the front end of the keysticks. The closer you get towards the fallboard, the less control you have - unless you are playing an expensive grand piano with really long keysticks.
Also note the thumb on my last picture. I got used to this way. When the thumb plays a white key with other fingers are spread away, it allows to get a bigger reach. If I play a 10th, I must use the thumb in this way.
WieWaldi That's good advice WieWie, but as @Sophia has admitted, she has a habit of making sure to be my regular "daymare"! Not that I'd have it any other way, because along with being annoyingly talented she is also incredibly entertaining. 
I share your feeling about having "sausage" fingers - sometimes I wish mine were more slender, but on the plus side I have a large hand span so it's not all bad.
When I see you playing your fingers seem to move very nimbly around the keyboard, so whatever you're doing, it's working.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
Anything I say you need to take with a grain of salt, because I have no teacher to correct me if I'm doing it wrong. That said, I thought I'd demonstrate for you how I do the slide - it just so happens my current lick has two of them, so it was good practice 
Simba decided to be my assistant today!
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Oh, I didn't realise the slide was an actual technique, I've done something similar many times but in my case it was just a mistake! 
Nice close up of Simba - even his paws are beautiful and at one point he poised on the edge of the piano, rather than clambering on the keys - he is so elegant!
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
Nightowl Oh, I didn't realise the slide was an actual technique, I've done something similar many times but in my case it was just a mistake!
That the beauty with jazz/boogie/blues.... you can pretend your mistakes were totally planned that way 
If you don't believe it...
Yes, WieWaldi and TC3 have recorded things for me too and it was ever so helpful... so it was the least I could do for you too. Again no idea if I'm doing it right, but at least some sounds came out of the piano
