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. 🌴😎🥂

      Sophia Congrats - this lesson is really fun. Is it? 😃

        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 🤣

        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!

        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.

            WieWaldi thanks a lot! That is interesting. I will try playing closer to the edge with the third finger. I was also keeping my thumb deeper, comfortably on white part. So that can also move to the edge to keep other fingers mostly on the whites.

              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)

                • Sophia

                • Post #608

                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!

                  • Sophia

                  • Post #609
                  • Edited

                  WieWaldi I have over seen the B-flat-symbol in the sheet music...

                  Oh I missed that too. That looks plenty difficult, I don't even remember it........... but I tried to play it best I could (no beforehand practice to make it more realistic):

                  Is that what you are trying to accomplish @hebele ?

                      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)

                        • Sophia

                        • Post #611

                        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...

                          Sophia yes, that is what I am trying to accomplish. I see you also have a curling 3rd finger like @WieWaldi. It is really useful. Thanks a lot. You actually went to all the trouble of recording it!

                            • Sophia

                            • Post #613

                            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 😃

                            Nightowl in his tutorial video, Christian says "Don't tell your classical teacher about this. They don't like it." 😆

                                • Sophia

                                • Post #615

                                There ya go! We're all rebelling together then

                                hebele in his tutorial video, Christian says "Don't tell your classical teacher about this. They don't like it." 😆

                                I don't remember this, but indeed it sounds like Christian.😂

                                Sophia In your second video, I see you are trying to slide diagonal into the big white space; sliding over the end of the key. If I try to do this, it feels very uncomfortable to me. Making the curl even stronger as it is with my way. But it seems it works for you.

                                @hebele , In the first video of Sophia, she is doing the comfy slide. Leaving the black key where it is the easiest: at the end, diagonal. Same as my first post, before I have seen the B is flattened. This flat B forces your hand to rotate a big, so the middle finger needs either to be curled to the extreme. Or you curl it normally and slide off to the side. It is up to you. Whatever feels better.

                                Sophia It sounds great. You got the chorus darn good already. A few more licks plus the refrain and you are done. LH absolutely fluid! What should I say, your Ferrari isn't just big in the mirrors, you added honking as well.

                                        • Sophia

                                        • Post #617
                                        • Edited

                                        WieWaldi A few more licks plus the refrain

                                        I figured with today's session for hebele, I finished my current lick. Then I added the next one (the drone lick), played it a lot of times. Then went back to the beginning of all the licks... and promptly forgot completely how to do it! I think that is why the LH is getting so fluid... I'm getting all my practice in just trying to memorize things 😂

                                        Oops...

                                          Following along here I’m curious: is the F# supposed to be played at the same time as the C and the Bb with the G coming shortly after? Or is the F# supposed to come first with the G playing shortly after at the same time as the C and the Bb?

                                          I tried this and the first thing my fingers did was play the F# with finger 2 as a grace note followed by C-G-Bb with fingers 1-3-5. But that’s not a slide! I was able to do the slide after a couple of tries but found myself wondering about timing. It’s awkward either way!

                                          I love this thread. You blues players are so much fun!