There's a lot of skill involved in playing the blues well. I've been watching some of the vids posted here and the pieces seem quite challenging, especially where the LH is playing notes at the bottom pf the keyboard and the RH is on the far right - I haven't yet played anything which involves the hands being so far apart.
I can see the appeal - these pieces are a change from the usual method book selection.

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

Yes, these blues licks involve an entirely different part of the brain as following a method book (at least it feels that way). I enjoy learning both... but I confess that the blues lessons are a lot more fun! I really have to force myself to divide my practice sessions equally, otherwise Mr Alfred risks getting forgotten altogether and I don't think it would please him 😃

Unrelated side note:
When I was still in Alfred book 1 I was following the "Let's Play Piano" lessons. To this day, when I refer to Alfred, my husband thinks I'm talking about Gale 🤣

Ok, my take. After re-listening to my recording, it still sounds very tumbler-ish compared to the sound of Christian's during his lesson. And I screwed up the ending, wasn't sure if my muscle memory was right, and then just kicked out two notes that are supposed to be played way more smooth.

Anyway, it is very hot these days and my keyboard surface tends to get sticky. So the best time to record is before noon. Yesterday afternoon I tried to get a recording as well, but the slides just didn't work out.

Now it is time to go back to sight-reading as well. I paused that part of my learning path for too long, now.

    WieWaldi I've never been into blues music, but I really like that piece, it's very relaxing and I thought you played it really well. You look relaxed and you have lovely hands (said from someone whose hands look like knarled talons when playing - I have hand envy!). I didn't perceive any wrong notes so what was "wrong" towards the end seems to have been cleverly covered by your fluid playing.
    How long have you been playing piano?

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

        Nightowl Thanks, actually this isn't a piece. It was just some exercises put together. The "wrong" part wasn't a wrong note itself. There are not that many notes, that can go wrong in blues ^^. It is the ending I am unhappy. Normally I trust in muscle memory for this, but during the recording my brain switched on and asked: "Are you sure to press these notes? Wanna double check it?" Then I hesitated and decided to tell my brain to shut up and kicked out the notes where my fingers waited. Too harsh, not smooth enough. You know, for music like this, feeling and timing is king.

        Nightowl How long have you been playing piano?

        Started January 2021, but with a big gap. Now it is about 2 1/2 years active playing.

              WieWaldi, that was sooo smooth and delightful! I'm noticing great progress, wow, well done! And although I like your click ⏰ tock 🕰️ tock 🕰️ tock 🕰️ buddy , I confess that I enjoyed this even more without it I also didn't notice any missing notes - the ending was very smooth. You're imagining it 😁

              Next: me again... but not too soon. I'm still only 23 repeats into the 10,000 🙄
              And Alfred is calling loudly too. I am three pieces away from finishing the book and I want to graduate to book 3 before the summer is over! 😂

              Hi

              I did quickly record a video based on that drone riff today, but didn't realise it would need to be on YouTube (or at least somewhere you can post the link from) to show it here.

              I'll have to see if I can find a better way....

              Cheers

              Simon
              All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
              Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.

              WieWaldi Thanks for the clarification. I thought you had a few years' experience under your belt and now I can understand why you have pretty high standards about your own playing - I guess that as time goes on we all set the bar for our playing a little higher.
              On another note and without wanting to come across as weird, your avatar pic seems totally at odds with your ability to play - there is no way anyone would think that you play like a muppet! 😁 You could change your pic to show your lovely hands instead - they are symbolic of your deft touch. 🙂

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

                  Nightowl change your pic to show your lovely hands

                  If we take this video:

                  Then WieWaldi is lucky to have Muppet hands 😃 I remember the first time I talked to WieWaldi in PW was to tell him how much I like the avatar, loll It is actually playing piano there! 😃

                      Sophia Oh my gosh! Handpuppets from 1970 - just colored gloves. Today's socks have at least some buttons as eyes.... I must have missed this clip in my life. It is even older than I am. This time was innocent back then. While watching, I was always expecting some nasty gestures to happen, like a middle finger, but this is way too innocent.

                        Nightowl You could change your pic to show your lovely hands instead

                        No way! I stick to Rowlf. There aren't that many iconic puppets or cartoons known for playing piano. Schröder from the peanuts might be the most famous one. And Rowlf is next. It is hard to find a 3rd one, maybe Tom. But I know him playing the piano only very occasional. Tom was very intriguing to be used as avatar, as my real name is Thomas, too. But Tom is a much faster learner than me. Even faster than Sophia. (sorry)

                        Btw: does anybody know where I can get his method book?

                          Haha yes it's older than me too (only a little). Innocent days... and such adorable music. Timeless really!

                          Edit: oops, cross posted! Tom is not only faster, but he has much more flexible fingers too!

                          WieWaldi OMG Both those T&J videos are pure genius! 😁 If only it was that easy to learn piano!

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

                            Heh, I had a nice experience today. Visited a friend and of course we talked about her piano... she said she stopped playing years ago but she asked me to play something. Long story short, I didn't have any sheet music and I don't know anything from memory out of my Alfred book. I was about to tell her sorry, no go... and then I remembered I'm learning blues "improvisations", I can do that!

                            Sat down and played some licks from my recent Lesson 8 - she was bobbing her head and really enjoying it... and next we knew, she felt inspired to play again and we were rummaging through her old duet books. We picked out an easy one that each of us will practice for next time 😃

                            Oh, to stay on topic slightly - WieWaldi, you can lean back in some comfort, because I have decided to take a little break (VERY little, so don't get too comfortable!) from the blues lessons to concentrate on duets - and also going through the entire Alfred book 1 and 2 because I just don't feel ready to move on to book 3 until I KNOW I master all the lessons 🤔.

                              Sophia That's fantastic! There's nothing quite like sharing music.

                              Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.

                                Yes, so true! I was smiling the entire time. We picked a super easy Mozart duet which she copied for me so I can learn the part. I'm really excited to visit again. Also, it gave me a chance to play a real piano again after many decades... which was an absolutely fantastic experience in itself. I love our Clavinova, but nothing beats the real thing 😃

                                • TC3 likes this.
                                14 days later

                                Well............. watch out.... I ended my little blues break and started lesson 9 today... the ☠️😛 (drone lick). I'm looking forward to it!!!

                                No pressure.... right?

                                7 days later

                                Wait, what??? That is not fair! I finally learned the four variations. I was happy, now I can polish it a little more and put together a nice recording... Then I find out there are more variations in this lesson! And hard ones too - though he keeps saying that EVEN you beginners can do this 👺

                                The video is only half through at this point, and there are still 2728367 pages of sheet music in front of you... What do you expect? 😄

                                Don't be overwhelmed by the amount of sheet music. There is a lot of copy&paste going on. The drone lick itself isn't hard, or hard to learn at all. Actually the licks itself are easier than what you have learned so far. The only complication is to use a more hand-stretched fingering, with the pinky always on C or Bb, meaning you have only 3 fingers left for the lick itself. And if you consider, the actual lick can be played with three fingers, in very limited range of your keyboard, it must be easy. So everybody can play this, even you lovely beginner, right? 😘

                                True! So after I finish lesson 9, does that mean I have graduated to lovely beginner? Which is somewhere in between bloody beginner and total beginner? 🥳

                                  Okay, if you are moaning about soooooo much more variations to learn, it is a sign you will upload your video in a few hours...

                                  In this case let me post first:
                                  Eight lines and a chorus was a lot of stuff to learn. I bumped it up to 123 bpm (this is the speed of Rita Moreno in the Muppet Show) and voilà: Under 4 minutes - not enough time to mess it up.
                                  The lesson itself was quite easy to learn. Left hand just is doing here and there a chord. Mostly the same chord. Every 2nd bar or so. Right hand plays a simple melody, most of the time only a one-finger-melody. And in backing track, my trusty drummer and the bass player make it sound well. 😎

                                  Basically it more cheating than playing piano, but this lesson is what it is. 😀

                                  This time I tried another audio recording, because my recital had a lot of hiss noise. I used headphone-output to the PC and recorded with audacity in overdubbing mode. The 1st version was a recording test and for the 2nd one I did't delete the first version, so I was distracted by my last playing. You can hear that I messed up the 2nd trill around 2:03, looking to my computer with three question marks in my face. 😵

                                    Sophia So after I finish lesson 9, does that mean I have graduated to lovely beginner? Which is somewhere in between bloody beginner and total beginner? 🥳

                                    Hmmm.... I don't think so. But feel free, to set your beginner grades as you like. haha

                                      Wow!!!!!!!! First of all, I absolutely ADORE Fever. Before, my two most favourite versions were Rita Moreno in the Muppet Show, and Elvis smooth voice. But they may have to make place for WieWaldi now 😋 (proof: I cranked up the volume and I'm playing it AGAIN as I'm typing this)

                                      You are really make great progress WieWaldi. Your timing is becoming bang on and very confident, relaxed playing now. Also I noticed lots of little emphasized notes that show you truly feel the piece now. Plus you look like you are having fun with it... number one most important feature of our piano hobby that we should never forget 🙂

                                      Well done! I'm so proud of you!

                                        Sophia My favorite is Peggy Lee's version. Followed by Rita Moreno, because of the Muppet coolness factor. She even won an Emmy for her role in The Muppet Show. And Elvis! Ahh - if moves his hips and the ladies gets loud. 😆😆😆 I am so in envy of his talent. ^^

                                            WieWaldi Hahaha, well, I'm too old to be fainting at Elvis now, and too young to faint when he was still alive (and by then he wasn't all that faintable anymore).

                                            I'm not familiar with the Peggy Lee version, I must listen to that soon. But yes, Rita and Animal had great chemistry together. I think that, together with Mah Nah Mah Nah are my favourite Muppet scenes 😃

                                              Easy lesson 5 is weird... It has two parts: one is very lush and has some beautiful chords, the other one feels like Hanon exercises in Blues from.

                                              Ooh Hanon! Blegh! Actually I'm struggling with my lovely lesson 9 too. I can play all the variations now (somewhat, my left hand still messes it up sometimes). But I can't seem to decide on how to put it together now. I could play each variation each over the full twelve bars, but that would mean EIGHT boring repeats. Why eight? Because there is the initial drone lick. Then six variations. That is seven. But Christian cheated a little and he sneakily snuck in two different flavours of variation 4!

                                              So my alternative idea is to record all the variations over two twelve bar progressions... but my poor brain refuses to remember when to switch and to what.

                                              I could cheat all the way and just record four bars of each variation over the C chord, but I don't want to do that. So with my break and with the start of Alfred 3, I feel a little stuck with lesson 9. Right now I feel like Rowlf.... just replace "onion" with "blues lesson" lol!

                                                Sophia but my poor brain refuses to remember when to switch and to what.

                                                I know exactly what you mean. Each lesson is spread out over several sheets with a lot of empty space and unlucky line and page breaks. The drone lick lesson alone has 10 (ten) pages. That is a lot to remember and I struggeled with that, too.
                                                But good news: In lesson 4 (fever) of the easy-blues&boogie course I came up with the idea to add a lead sheet, to have everything on 2 pages. Bass line repeats anyway and is a waste of paper. I did it for lesson 5 as well and I will probably continue as long I am a total beginner. It costs a few hours per lesson to do it properly, but I think it is worth the effort.

                                                You have only ten more lousy lessons to go, before you can benefit from that. Keep going! Each lesson will be more fun than the last one. (Execept the Blues-Hanon, yawn... Still struggling with line 1 of 7 - and it is the easiest one)

                                                Until then, you should lay out the sheet music like this:

                                                  Lol! Good idea 😁 I don't really like to use sheet music for my blues lessons. It is one of those styles where you would like people to believe you come up with those ideas on the spot 😆

                                                  But I may need it for this lesson. You gave me an idea to take just one bar of each variation and print those, that should fit on the piano stand. Or I could spend a little longer to remember them all... there is no rush 😊

                                                  Last time I tried to come up with my own ideas, I was lost in the Blues Scale... 🙄

                                                  4 days later

                                                  Ok, here is my lesson 9. Truth be told, I wasn't enjoying this lesson very much. There were too many variations, and the drone lick was straining my hand - I know that once I go into full improvisation mode, I will not use it much 🙄 About halfway I started making mistakes, but it was my third attempt and my hand was getting really tired. Not to mention my grumpy mood, so this will have to do 😋

                                                  I played each variation over 4 bars, namely

                                                  1st CCCC: the notes after a false start "these are the notes in the drone lick"
                                                  1st FFCC: the drone lick, "practise 100 times"
                                                  1st GFCC: variation 1 (forgot right hand smooth with left hand staccato)
                                                  2nd CCCC: variation 2 (noticed the same there, obvious a WIP)
                                                  2nd FFCC: variation 3 (oopsie there in the left hand)
                                                  2nd GFCC: variation 4a (I forgot to switch and corrected that)
                                                  3rd CCCC: variation 4b (I like that one!)
                                                  3rd FFCC: variation 5 (I was getting tired, lots of mistakes)
                                                  3rd GFCC: variation 6 (not good at all, but too grumpy by now! no way I'm doing this again!)

                                                  On to lesson 10, I hope I like that one better!

                                                    First of all - congrats you succeeded this dry lesson. (Yes - it was dry for me, too) Unfortunately, this wasn't that much of fun for you - it was impossible to overhear. Especially the last note said: "FINISHED! AND I NEVER TOUCH IT AGAIN! AHHHHHH!!! " Next lesson is more musical - promise. I am very confident you will finish it before I have mine half done.

                                                    Sophia and the drone lick was straining my hand

                                                    That's bad to read about. I got a nice hint from another youtube channel and this is helping me out to avoid hand strain: Play faint. This makes you also play slower in many occasions and really helps to reduce the strain.

                                                    Sophia I know that once I go into full improvisation mode, I will not use it much 🙄

                                                    sorry - Sophia. You won't get rid of it! And for improv this is a real powerful tool - play a one-finger-melody and bump it up with the drone. Works always.

                                                    Maybe the drone lick was the boring "Hanon" work of the beginner lesson, but it will be used a lot in the future lessons from now on. So it is good you masterd it.

                                                    Speaking about Hanon: I am at the 3rd of my 7 Blues-Hanons right now, and I bumped my metronome up to 70% of final speed. Okay, if I switch from C7 to F7 or G7 my RH starts to make nonsense. Anyway, I see a light at the end of the tunnel - but it could also be an incoming train

                                                          Haha yeah I was so happy for it to be finished. I guess I don't mind the drone lick in one or two bars. But 36 bars non stop woompa doompa is too much!

                                                          WieWaldi Play faint. This makes you also play slower in many occasions and really helps to reduce the strain.

                                                          Do you mean the same way Bart suggested - one hand soft and the other normal volume? Or both faint?

                                                          WieWaldi I see a light at the end of the tunnel

                                                          Hang in there 😃 Boring lessons are for our own good (or so they try to tell us) 😝

                                                                Sophia Hang in there 😃 Boring lessons are for our own good (or so they try to tell us) 😝

                                                                Reminds me of my mother: Food that doesn't taste delicious is healthy! Always!

                                                                Sophia Do you mean the same way Bart suggested - one hand soft and the other normal volume? Or both faint?

                                                                I don't know what Bart suggested (didn't read all forum). But it makes sense to play faint with the one hand you feel the strain. And then you should play more faint with the other hand, too. Otherwise, it starts to sound bad. Anyway, it is a good exercise - if you play chords with LH (3 or 4 notes at the same time) and a simple one finger melody with RH, you run into the problem that LH is droning the melody out.

                                                                    Yeah that's what he said too 🙂 Great minds... etc 😃

                                                                    I started to listen to lesson 10. He finally said the magic word.................... IMPROVISATION! Wheeeeeeee! Of course the first thing he recommends is the drone lick... you are right. There is no getting away from that anymore 🤢

                                                                    9 days later

                                                                    Well, this one is @PianoMonk's fault. He mentioned he wanted to see cats... so I decided to play a duet with my OTHER kitty. Yes, it's terrible. Yes, I'm sitting here my jammies. Yes, it's 75% Christian licks, 25% "improvisation" attempt. Yes, there are too many mistakes, but I had 100% fun doing this 😂 Behold... lesson 10! I needed that after the previous boring lesson!