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.

      I have the same conclusion as you two. I "learned" piano (in my tadpole years) without ever touching the pedal. Of course I don't know how I sounded back then, probably horrible, but still, my fingers did all the note sounding. During my first six months as a re-beginner I started from scratch, no pedal, and again my fingers had to do all the work in tying all the notes together.

      Then when I started to learn about the pedal, there was a price to pay: as soon as I stopped using it, I found that I had become lazy - move the fingers to the next position without hardly even touching the previous note. As a result the pedal suddenly made my playing choppy and sloppy. In fact this happened with my current blues lesson even.

      Now I try to alternate - play a passage a few times with the pedal, and then without to see if I am not clipping the notes too much. Sometimes it is unavoidable with a big jump, but mostly it is just a matter of discipline.

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

      This is true! Or, as Bart would say, at some point we lose the need to constantly look at the pedal markings and the ears take over. When I practice a bar with pedal, I now hear how bare it is, or too echo-y, and I can fine-tune my foot now to make it sound better. It even works with the grace notes, surprisingly. When it happens automatically, it's such a great feeling 😃

        5 days later

        I'm still moving along at a 🐌 pace, but steady does it... I'm now adding the grand finale at last. Well, only the first part so far. Probably one more week for the longest lesson in history... for me 😅

          Sophia I'm still moving along at a 🐌 pace ... Probably one more week for the longest lesson in history... for me 😅

          Do you see? Huh? Do you see it now? How this feels for us normalos? Always being at 🐌-speed? Now u know!
          Har har har 😺

            It took a while, but it was worth the extra time (to me) 😃 As usual it's not flawless, but this was my second take and after that it only went worse and worse. At first I figured I'll try again tomorrow... but this is only a lesson, not a performance. There is one small "improvisation": the ending. I tried to capture "WHAT YOU SAY?" at least once even though Christian didn't teach it 😂

            Time to move on with... hmm. Let me think. Lesson 2 - or one of those eight lovely pieces WieWaldi has been showcasing? Decisions, decisions!

              Sophia That was great, Sophia. I'm a bit confused though... you seem to be on your second blues course... but it is still called Easy Blues? This does not seem like bloody beginner stuff to me, so was the first course VERY Easy Blues?

              I like the fact that often with blues music the LH often just plays a regular rhythm and almost runs on auto pilot while RH does the cool stuff. This makes it manageable for someone like me who struggles doing tricky stuff with LH - my brain can't handle it!

              This genre has grown on me, but I would not cope well with downloaded music/courses, I don't have the right size tablet to fit on my music stand and anyway I prefer paper so I can add notes/highlight tricky things. Maybe I will buy a blues music book at some point - if anyone browsing this thread has any suggestions for a book at my level (grade 2ish) I would welcome them.

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

                  • Sophia

                  • Post #650
                  • Edited

                  Yeah that is a little confusing, but the first course is called Blues for Beginners and this is called the Easy Blues Course (supposed to be the follow up to the beginner's course). Highly insulting of course, I would have much preferred for it to be called Blues For Highly Advanced Super Annoying Talents, but alas.... it is what it is. I will file my complaints to Christian!

                  I'm so glad the genre is growing on you! I think his style is very pleasant and laid back, not the 100-notes-a-minute that some seem to prefer. He does sell the sheet music, but of course you'd have to print that if you don't want to use a tablet/laptop (I don't either). And his sheet music, I'm sorry to say, isn't quite the easiest to use because of the many spatial gaps and unnecessary repeats.

                  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. It almost seems like a completely new pattern with each change of the right hand! It takes me quite a while to have it run semi automatically so that I can concentrate on the right hand more. But that might just be my perception. And as you said, once you practise it long enough, it does become more automatic.

                  Nightowl if anyone browsing this thread has any suggestions for a book at my level (grade 2ish) I would welcome them.

                  I second that! I'd be very interested as well.

                      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 gradesTM. 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 beginnerTM. 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

                                  • Post #656
                                  • Edited

                                  WieWaldi 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.

                                  I'm really sorry to hear this. Even though this is a piano thread/forum, we're also human - and we love our families. We don't want to see them suffer! And when they do, it takes up a lot of our time. That's the last I will say about it 🙂 So, back to piano discussion:

                                  hebele Yes, hands separate is easy but when playing hands together, my left hand likes to rush or drag and messes up the rhythm.

                                  Yes! This is exactly what I noticed too. The left hand seems so easy... until you add the right hand. POOF, the left hand goes out of whack - and I haven't noticed that with my regular (Alfred) lessons. It just seems to happen with the blues lessons... I don't know why. Sorry @Nightowl if I accidentally drowned your beautiful dream of an easy way to learn it 😃

                                  WieWaldi I was (and still am) busy and I pledge to submit before you!

                                  Hehe good. Don't worry... my life is in a little turmoil too right now and I think my next lesson (whether lesson 2 or an actual piece from the 8 blues book) will probably not go much faster than this lesson one 🤗

                                        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.

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

                                          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.

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

                                              Nightowl Thank you very much, Nightowl. ❤️

                                                Sophia just had a chance to listen. That is great, sounds lovely. It is like peeking through a window to the future. I can get there (in a year or two) if I keep up!

                                                  • Sophia

                                                  • Post #661

                                                  I know this feeling 😃 When I started the Blues course, I listened to WieWaldi and I thought I'd never manage that level... it is so advanced! And then when I reached that lesson (I think that was 7) myself, it felt soooo good to conquerit. Just keep going and we'll all get there! 🥰

                                                    Sophia (I think that was 7)

                                                    I think it was lesson 14, the St. Louis Blues from the quartety recital in May, PianoWorld.
                                                    Wow, this was only 9 month ago and you did more than just catching up. You are far more advanced now, than I was back then.

                                                      Ah yes! You are right, it was the St. Louis Blues. I think one of the big changes we both made, which makes us sound so much more "advanced" all of a sudden, is the use of the pedal. I forgot which lesson I started using it, but since then it made everything sound so much richer. It's a great way to mask poor playing and I found this convenient shortcut before you did