Thanks WieWie! Yes, true, Christian just shifted from straight to swing, so I tried to use the MOAT as an in between. It didn't go too smoothly... but better than nothing.

I decided to take a break from the Easy Blues course to learn "Before You Accuse Me". I think that's around the level where I am now... it's such a nice and gentle piece.

WieWaldi ... someone can easily also learn some classical music from the classical era, despite spending a lot of time in blues lessons.

Yes! I honestly think it's good to get a solid basis and this includes a bit of classical music for sure. Hebele did this with the lovely Minuet in G and I cheated with something I already learned in the past 🙂 But seriously though, once I wrap up Alfred 3, I will definitely continue on a classical path as well, ok, I don't want to become a concert pianist, but my end goal is to become an intermediate* player and stay there forever. There, I finally said it out loud 😃

)* Intermediate on a "classical" scale, not our bloody to eternal beginner blues/boogie levels 🤠

      WieWaldi My other takeaway - my frustrating takeaway is that I am only 7 months ahead of you. I mean 7 WieWaldi-months, this translates into about 2 Sophia-months, two short Sophia months while Sophia is still learning Beethoven and Chopin along the way.

      It's true! Sophia lives in a different time dimension to the rest of us bloody beginners! She began Alfred's book 1 a couple of months after me, then zoomed through book 2 and has nearly finished book 3! All this while tackling the blues course! It's enough to give normal folk an inferiority complex! Don't worry WieWie, I share your pain and will not let Sophia forget that her MUSICAL GENES (which I rarely mention) are doing the heavy lifting for her!

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

          Sophia You made my day 😂😂😂😂😂

            Nightowl Sophia lives in a different time dimension to the rest of us bloody beginners!

            Us bloody beginners? Us? Hey!!! How do you dare and promote me down. I am a total beginnerTM. And I am moving forward, not backward. This means, I will go on and become a mediocre beginner one day. And I won't stop there. No, I have set my goals very high. I want to become something better, like an exceptional mediocre beginner.

                Sophia I will definitely continue on a classical path as well, ok, I don't want to become a concert pianist, but my end goal is to become an intermediate* player and stay there forever. There, I finally said it out loud 😃

                I am on that boat too. After beginner stuff, I'd like to think there is much more to keep it exciting. I am not very interested on advanced pieces and I will never get there anyway. But I do want to gather enough skills so I can noodle on the keys, play fun stuff in classical/blues/jazz/pop etc. I wouldn't mind if they have to be "intermediate" arrangements.

                    Right! Being an exceptional mediocre beginner in blues means intermediate in classical terms. I read somewhere that this is a level that's attainable for 100% of mankind... assuming we are all human, that means we can totally do it!

                      Sophia That's brilliant, but also quite disturbing! 😱

                      WieWaldi My sincere apologies WieWie, it was never my intention to demote you. You are the BBK (Bavarian Blues King) and there is nothing mediocre in the way you play. 🙂

                      hebele Same here, I think intermediate level is a nice place for hobbyists to be. I don't want to spoil my hobby by trying to attain skills that are probably out of reach anyway.

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

                              Sophia The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion, I'll never ever become an intermediate pianist. Face it: I still stuck at total beginnerTM, and I invent more and more beginner levels. I invent them faster than I progress. Meaning I will be stuck in beginner levels for the entire eternity. Even the eternal beginner level is unattainable for me. 😭

                              Nightowl there is nothing mediocre in the way you play. 🙂

                              This! 👆You are darn right. I am not just mediocre... pah! I am exceptional mediocre! *proud*

                                  Nightowl You are the BBK (Bavarian Blues King)

                                  Hmmm....
                                  BB King?
                                  WieWaldi likes this.

                                      WieWaldi Yes, WieWie, this title was already conferred on you previously (see my post 12 days ago). I gave you a crown already. 🙂

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

                                        10 days later

                                        Sophia I decided to take a break from the Easy Blues course to learn "Before You Accuse Me". I think that's around the level where I am now... it's such a nice and gentle piece.

                                        Oh yes, I remember this song very good. Actually, I thought this might be one out of 8 boring pieces in sheet music form, and they don't sound that good than the not so easy ones. But learning it was really fun, it was spot on my current level, no stretch, just perfect. Bar 5 and especially bar 9 had been a hassle, but with stupid repetitions and a metronome (I played the bars in an endless loop) I got it.
                                        And I didn't know this was covered by Eric Clapton before. I wasn't even aware, Clapton is a blues artist. Ok - rock and blues guitarist. This is a really nice side effect to our hobby - diggin' the internet about the stuff we play, about the artists that made the songs great. And I always thought, his monicker "Slowhand" comes from his soothing and calm playing. Hahaha - no. It was because he used very thin strings on the guitar to be able to bend the tones more. And then they were more likely to break. And they broke. In a life concert. And while replacing it, the crowd was waiting and started slow hand clapping. And then somebody of the band said: "Look, here comes slowhand again 🙂"

                                          Oh, I didn't know all that either, interesting! Yes, our hobby provides knowledge we'd otherwise never have had... such as the meaning of finger pedaling or interesting facts about musicians and composers 🙂

                                          I'm about halfway BYAM. In fact I didn't realize I spent two weeks on it already - it feels like I didn't even spend a week on it so far. Which is a compliment to the arrangement of course. Some parts are easy, but a few bars need a lot of attention! And also he does some tricky things with slight variations. One bar features two quarter notes, but the same two notes are connected in another bar, adding some sly syncopation. I am beginning to think Christian is evil 😃 Ok, maybe all good teachers are, they need to be 😋

                                          Yesterday I just started the second half where the LH changes its pattern. It's a fun part, it sounds so funky and at least that part is not overly hard. You said the piece was exactly your level, for me it is a bit of a stretch - not impossibly difficult, but definitely something I need to break out in a sweat for. Which is a good thing every now and then 😜

                                            Sophia u said the piece was exactly your level, for me it is a bit of a stretch

                                            Come on - a bit of a stretch is exactly your level. It is always a bit of a stretch, otherwise you wouldn't learn something new. For myself, I am quite through the lesson, but a few lines are still very cluncy. They need to be polished a bit more. And every time the LH changing throws me completely off - this needs even more practice. This and my attempt to modify the humptee dumptee pattern. But I'll stick to it, because it gives me a bit more of a stretch to learn something new, and I really like the low down groove. And because it is my own pattern, even there might be people playing this before me.

                                              Yes, the passages that are giving me the most trouble (apart from the two specific bars you already mentioned) is where the LH has to STOP the pattern - it doesn't like the change in momentum and wants to just keep going. Like yourself I had to practise those bars several times in a row... but unlike yourself I refused to use a metronome. I just listen to Christian every now and then, to check if I'm still on track 😁

                                                I guess, I made a mistake, today. I decided to change my LH fingering to gain more control. Instead of sliding with the middle finger down from black to white key, I decided to use fingers 4 and 3 instead. Unfortunately, LH finger 4 seems to be underdeveloped. I can play LH the new way, when I concentrate on it. But not on autopilot. Always falling back to the old fingering. Still, I think in the long run it should pay off because of more control.
                                                But now... Now I wish I would have stucked to the old fingering and never thought about changing it. 😢

                                                Ooh yeah, I always heard (and found out) that it takes much longer to unlearn a habit than learn one... you are experiencing this first hand now!
                                                My auto pilot isn't working yet for BYAM either, especially the most difficult passage so far (bar 8, this one) :

                                                But at first I practiced it incorrectly and it sounded dreadful. I am wondering if there is a mistake in the sheet music - RH has C - F - Eb - (F# G) - Bb - F - Eb. But He didn't use the natural symbol in front of that last F, so I played it as F# at first and it sounded HORRIBLE. But of course the first F# is only a grace note, so maybe that doesn't need a natural sign later?

                                                  Sophia unlike yourself I refused to use a metronome. I just listen to Christian every now and then, to check if I'm still on track

                                                  ah.. that is interesting. It turns out my internal rhythm is worse than I thought. Whenever I try to go over beginner blues lessons with a metronome, it goes out of sync very quickly. So I think that means I have to play with the metronome a lot.

                                                      Sophia that looks tricky. If it sounds OK to you then I would play it as F. At least you have an idea how it sounds. In beginners course lesson 4, Christian said something like "Pay attention to semitones. Don't play F and E at the same time. See, it sounds horrible.". I was thinking, nope I don't hear the horribleness there. Then he followed with "If you don't hear it, get your ears checked" 🤣

                                                          Sophia I am wondering if there is a mistake in the sheet music - RH has C - F - Eb - (F# G) - Bb - F - Eb. But He didn't use the natural symbol in front of that last F, so I played it as F# at first and it sounded HORRIBLE. But of course the first F# is only a grace note, so maybe that doesn't need a natural sign later?

                                                          I think you are right, according to sheet music, this should be a F#. AFAIK, accidentals remain for the rest of the bar, including the accidentals of grace notes. And musescore software has the same opinion. (This is the source I always ask, to figure out what is right and wrong - and musescore is always right, but sometimes it breaks good habits because it allows for too much freedom)

                                                          Anyway - it turns out my sight-reading is miserable, I played it as natural F from the beginning, and I was never thinking about sharpening it. 😵 (until your post). No - F is correct, it sounds good. His sheet music is faulty. No - his sheet music software is faulty. It looks like the grace notes are an add-on and always cause trouble like spacing. And now accidentals, too.