Beginners blues/boogie/rock discussion

Sophia Thank you for your kind words. But you know why we call ourselves beginners. The hurdles to become an intermediate player are just too big. You know, sightreading, repetoire of 500++ pieces and you know what else we have forgotten. So much more stuff that is a must have for an intermediate. I guess, I will get 20% of that in the next 10 years.

Unfortunately I am half through the Eight Easy Blues pieces. Only four more to go. I wish Christian had 40 pieces with that easy beginner level. So far, every piece was a joy learning and also a joy playing it.

Btw, Christian made this ad-video. Playing a small bit of every piece inside this collection. But this video was unlisted in YouTube. Only very few views, no comments, no upvotes.
I asked him why it is unlisted and he told me... nope - you can read everything in the comment section of the vid. Short story - I am his best promoter!

WieWaldi that sounds great, very enjoyable to listen.

I feel so betrayed when the notes at the very end goes wrong . I know it is irrational but the feeling doesn't care.

WieWaldi That was beautifully played WieWie, and the last note being slightly muted gave a nice fade out effect which fitted well with the character of this gentle piece. It's so relaxing watching you play the blues, your hands were made to play them.

WieWaldi I practiced this without the pedal, but today I decided to bring the pedal in. And suddenly my fingering was different. No longer the need for some awkward hand position just in order to hold down some keys for legato playing.
I've learned my lesson: start with the pedal right away, no matter if you think the piece is so easy that it doesn't need the pedal.

Great playing @WieWaldi! What a lovely piece and I really like your delicate expressive playing!

Regarding pedal: I was taught to hold notes for the full duration even with the pedal present and I think it has served me well.

When I learn a new piece I learn to play without pedal first, holding notes for their full durations, and add the pedal later. It sounds like this is exactly what you did, and then you switched fingering once you added the pedal. Makes perfect sense!

Having picked fingerings that allow me to hold notes for the full duration, I have flexibility in how I'm going to pedal without having to change fingerings. Last year I played Bach/Marcello Adagio BWV 974 in one of the recitals. After I learned to play without pedal I tried all kinds of different pedaling approaches to get a resonant sound without blurring the melody and I didn't have to change fingerings depending on my approach.

Of course if you learn with pedal first and decide later to use less you can always change the fingering.

Anyway, thought I'd mention it, take it for what it's worth. And thanks for sharing your great playing!

Thank you Roger, for you insight

rogerch Regarding pedal: I was taught to hold notes for the full duration even with the pedal present and I think it has served me well.

Well, this happened to be my play style by accident. I always thought, pedaling is for later. Pealing is an addon, after my fingers are good. But this needs to have a clumsy fingering from time to time. With the use of the pedal, I can release my fingers earlier and going for an entirely new hand position. A more relaxed hand position.

Funny thing is, the pedal timing starts to be kind of automatic:

• rule 1: release pedal when fingers go down
• rule 2: press pedal shortly before a chord change, or another harmonic change happens

The most tricky pedal situation is to have a grace note right before a harmonic change. The grace note must not be pedaled, making the pedal-down window very small.

Nightowl I agree with Sophia that printing Christian's scores is an option. So far, I am mostly using the scores after watching the lesson couple of times. To be honest first three lessons have repetitive bars, so the score is open just as a reminder.

I also agree that it is difficult in a different way than the method book. Even that simple LH is tricky because of swing pattern. Yes, hands separate is easy but when playing hands together, my left hand likes to rush or drag and messes up the rhythm. For example; lesson three introduces triplets that's supposed to fit together with one LH beat. There's nothing like that in my method book so far.

I saw this book review video yesterday. These are repertoire books and not just blues. But they were very tempting. I had to remind myself that I already have too many things going on. And don't have enough practice time.

I think musicians sell more stuff if they simply put "Easy" on the title. Because there are more beginners naturally. Technically it is not a lie. It will be easy for some people. But it is a trap for real beginners

hebele I think musicians sell more stuff if they simply put "Easy" on the title.

Nope. He started the easy course with something like "it is time to drop the word beginner, because we are now beyond that". I think the easy course fits quite well to the difficulty of the 8 easy blues pieces in terms of difficulty. Easy means easy. Since I tried to play a Christian's Christmas song arrangement, (a medium difficulty, I guess) I know the easy stuff is easy. This medium/intermediate level song was so hard to learn for me, I only managed to learn the first half of it. Took me 20 days. And my playing was as error prone as the water is wet. It took me an entire day to get a decent recording, and even then I had to cut two attempts into a single video to get a half of the song done.

One thing to mention - Christian is from Germany. He doesn't know about Bavarian beginner grades^TM. He constantly jumps over all the levels to amateur. I reckon it was something like this:

Bloody beginner - beginner - advanced beginner - amateur - make a YouTube channel with piano tutorials

Sophia Wow - so lovely! It sound great. The ending as well. You improved your slides tremendous. You are absolutely right, now you are a true total beginner^TM. You proved it. I know, it doesn't sound quite flattering, but it is. You don't become tired of telling I am always a step or two ahead of you. But after this recital, I know the opposite is true. I am a step behind you. With the flawless and quite difficult submission you proved it.
Maybe your blues lesson videos contain same flaws here and there, call 'em random errors. But as you said, you consider this as a lesson and nothing more. I spend sometimes an entire day to get a decent recording done.

Next one is on me. Actually I could record it already, but I am away from piano and recording equipment. My dad is in hospital and it isn't going well. But that's another story, this is a piano thread, so let's stick to it. Just wanted to say, I was (and still am) busy and I pledge to submit before you!
Otherwise you can call me a... well something that is so slow that a sloth seems to be steroids compared to me.

Sophia The left hand, though constantly repeating, is a little more tricky than it seems It's entirely different from the stuff we do in the Alfred books and in some ways I am finding the repeats rather hard to learn.

Oh, I didn't mean that particular piece you just uploaded - that's far more complex than the few very basic blues pieces I've played from the method books. I just meant that for some reason I do not struggle too much to play a swing rhythm with the LH, it feels quite natural and relaxing.

This thread has been a real education for me. In fact, playing piano has really broadened my knowledge of music, it's been good for keeping boredom at bay.

WieWaldi I'm sorry to hear about your father, I've been in that position and I remember how hard it was. When a parent is ill our roles suddenly reverse and we become the ones caring for them - it's hard to cope with and can be all consuming. Don't forget to take care of yourself too - you need to stay strong. The piano can wait, you have other priorities right now.