Beginners blues/boogie/rock discussion
Sophia almost everything in music can be taught, except good timing. Either you have it or you don't...
Hey @Sophia, I disagree! Just like other aspects of playing I think we have varying degrees of talent for timing, and if our natural sense of timing isn't solid we can learn to do better. I speak from experience including lots of metronome time! Also, I would never claim that any aspect of music or anything else can't be taught. I have managed to at least somewhat overcome my lack of innate talent with hard work and discipline and for me it's all the more rewarding because I had to work so hard to get where I am! 
Sophia Well, I started lesson 12 for real now... it's so smooth, I like it! I also just now found out that he sent me the wrong book... I thought I purchased the bundle of his entire course... and I did. But instead of book 3, he sent me book 1, 2 and Easy Licks in C. I don't mind, I'll just buy volume 3 separately. WieWaldi, is this the course you are following?
The link to his playlist doesn't work so I just want to make sure. Then I'll get that as well
What exactly did you get? I am currently puzzled. I have Easy Blues Piano Vol I + II, covering lesson 1-4 and 5-8.
Lesson 10 is sold seperately.
Volume 3 contains lesson 11-13
But I am missing lesson 9 - it links to Vol II (covering 5-8)
Sophia I sent Christian a message about the mistake, it's obvious what happened
How did you contact him? I haven't seen a comment from you in the YouTube comments.
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rogerch Just like other aspects of playing I think we have varying degrees of talent for timing, and if our natural sense of timing isn't solid we can learn to do better.
Hehe, Roger, I actually agree 100% (or more) with everything you said. So if you disagreed with my post, that means I probably worded it too clumsily or too cryptic... happens a lot to me 
You are absolutely correct - anyone can learn to do BETTER, no matter our natural abilities. But if those natural abilities are strong to start with, it's just that much easier to get it right. I was referring to people such as Nightowl and WieWaldi (and others!) who are self teaching and have shown to possess solid internal timing - they are fortunate with that, because not everyone is that lucky. Others can also learn to get better at it (unless they are one of those very unfortunate few who have no sense of timing at all, which is rare), but it would take a little more effort on their part, and probably quite a bit guiding and correcting by a teacher to "get it right".
It's like that in all aspects of life - sports, writing, programming, running, you name it. Everyone can and will get a better at any of those with practice, but for some it takes less practice than for others to reach the same level. Did I word it better this time?
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WieWaldi What exactly did you get? I am currently puzzled. I have Easy Blues Piano Vol I + II, covering lesson 1-4 and 5-8.
I just checked... I have
- Blues Piano For Beginners 1-7
- Blues Piano For Beginners 8-11
- Blues Piano For Beginners 12-16
- Easy licks for Blues piano in C updated
- Easy Blues Piano Bundle Series Vol 1+2+3
I think the last is a combined version of the course you're following - it starts with part 1-4, then 5-8, then 11-13 all in one bundle. So I guess 10 is missing in mine too... strange!
WieWaldi How did you contact him? I haven't seen a comment from you in the YouTube comments.
I sent an email - to the one that said to use to contact him. I haven't heard back though, so perhaps it's unmonitored after all!
Lesson 10 is sold seperately, means lesson 9 is missing. Looks like I have to note it down by myself. Another 3 to 5 hours... yawn. But then I get proper sheet music, Christian's notation software is crap.
It drives me nuts when grace notes are overlapping with b symbols.
Sophia It's like that in all aspects of life - sports, writing, programming, running, you name it. Everyone can and will get a better at any of those with practice, but for some it takes less practice than for others to reach the same level. Did I word it better this time?
Thanks Sophia! Yes, exactly.
Well, I learned the lesson... now it's a matter of playing it more smoothly and record it - done
I also heard back from Christian, so now he knows about the little error in the sheet music, but also about this forum. He seemed very amused that we are discussing his method like this, on the web 
I hope he signs up! It would be cool to have him chiming in here!
Haha for sure! He'd be the thread celebrity
Sophia Well, I learned the lesson... now it's a matter of playing it more smoothly and record it - done
I still have lot of stuff to learn...
Yes - I know! It looks uuuuultra advanced! 
Only total beginners are able to read it! If intermediate or advanced classical pianists see it, they get green in the face. 
I know... with that attitude, something tells me: we should be learning guitar, not piano...
Or this:
Well, the lesson is still not going smoothly. I can play the first part without any effort now, and fairly fast at that. The second part is okay, it's a little more of a struggle but still good enough for just a lesson. But the last part is hard, very very hard. I can play it, but error free only at a single digit bpm 
One option is to play everything at a slower speed and pretend it's a ballad. I tried that, but somehow my internal clock doesn't agree with it and speeds it up gradually anyway (we talked about this phenomenon in other threads too). It just wants to be played at a certain speed and that's that.
Another option is cheating and recording in sections, pretending I'm practising my camera angle skills. But I won't do that, I promise 
The best alternative is to keep practising the last part until I can play that just as smoothly - this is my current plan.. Probably another week or so... one of the shortest lessons so far is taking me the longest to learn 
I don't remember that much of that lesson. I even didn't remember I cheated here and there, until you debunked it. 
Only thing I remember, the last part was the hardest one, but it was also the most fun to play - after learning it.
Oh - and applying the Blues shuffle LH from bloody beginner lesson 1 was harder than expected. At least this I wrote in the silent movie text boxes. And I remember this is the truth. If you listen to my recording, In the 1st repeat I could play with the rhythm - and adding a kind of a triplet to beef it up. In the 2nd repeat with the Blues shuffle, I couldn't do this anymore. Maybe, if I had spent another week of practicing or so, but the recital had a deadline date.
Btw - I stuck in my current lesson 8 as well... This is the lesson he tells the secret of improvisation.
It's magic
No - it is plain simple... Make a cheat sheet or write Postit-stickers somewhere with the elements you learned. And you can connect them to have options like going from here to A/B/or C because they connect well.
Same strategy I did as a Salsa dancer... With the difference, Salsa dancers don't have a sheet-music rest to look at.
Sigh - this brings me back to my own topic... today my PACT is missing... again.
Ehrm... PEDYS (Play every day, you scumbag!) 
Yes, if I wanted to submit this for a recital, it would need a few more weeks. But for a lesson, it's getting there... slowly. It's like when you tell your teacher "I could play it well at home!" but it isn't all that great when you play it in front of them. My camera is my teacher and it tells me it needs to be better even for a lesson 
Funny enough I have less trouble with the left hand. I find that it is playing without needing my full concentration when it's just going back and forth... almost as if it has a brain of its own sometimes. BUT... I find those right hand jumps where you suddenly need to move two octaves higher very hard, because you have to be there almost immediately after the previous note.
And then there is the ending... oh boy. I think that is the hardest part of all! But, I'm gradually getting there
What does the 1 in i1u2play?
Anyway - seems a good strategy. Don't play now, but intend to play later ^^ (Could do this all day long, haha)
Well... I recorded lesson 14. It's not very good, it doesn't hold a candle to your performance WieWaldi In my defense... you probably didn't have the weight of the world Sandy on your shoulders while playing, lol!
But as usual I had enough of the lesson (for now!) so this will have to do. I will continue to polish it I promise
Sophia Well, that was lesson 14, while WW's last video was lesson 7, so maybe your piece was perhaps twice as tricky? Add in the cat on your shoulders and it seems trebly tricky! There were some pauses but there was also some really nice playing. The first section sounded familiar - is it a variation on Summertime?
You've really galloped through this blues course - is it worth replaying some of the earlier lessons then returning to this piece later (as this kind of recap method seems to pay benefits with the method books)?
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
Nightowl Well, that was lesson 14, while WW's last video was lesson 7
Haha noo, WW is a whole course ahead of me... I am in the <bloody> beginner's course and he has already been promoted to the <easy> course (which isn't at all easy, from the looks of it!). I still have a number of lessons to go before I can even begin that one
But you are right, once I finish this course and before I go onwards with the one WW is following, I will probably do an "Alfred" and go through everything once more
The blues is called St Louis Blues. This is the version that WW performed during a previous recital and it has nice information about the piece and blues in general!
Ah, so he's ahead of you then, no wonder I got confused - I'm not used to any "bloody" beginners being ahead of you. 
Yes, go and do an "Alfred" - you know you want to! If you spend long enough reworking the blues maybe I'll have a chance to get to the end of book 2 before you finish book 3 and disappear from the Alfred's thread completely. Then I'll be talking to myself over there... which gets dull.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
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Did you add some more notes here and there to make it sound more vivid? I could sense a feel of swing in the Tango intro. Not sure about your trill invention. Sounded too classical for a low down blues. Still, this is only my opinion and I want to encourage you to keep inventing!
For the rest of the piece, you played it at an amazing tempo, made my head nod. And my foot tap. Also loved your left hand playing a perfect staccato. I could literally hear, you had a lot of fun playing the Blues part with Boogie tempo. You have a very good feel for the music. I must admit, your version has a lot more verve than mine. (Verve, pfafffzzzz, whatever this is called - you know what I mean). Compared to yours, mine sounded like a funeral march.
And it is good you did your video for color-tv, made Sandy shine more 
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Nightowl Ah, so he's ahead of you then, no wonder I got confused - I'm not used to any "bloody" beginners being ahead of you.
Nah, the rulz are easy... You start as a bloody beginnerTM (har har har 
). After each main achievement, you progress to the next level. In my case, the main achievement was finishing the "Beginners Blues course", and now I am a total beginnerTM (*proud*). Next will be absolute beginnerTM.
Sophia already finished the Thomson method, Alfred 1, and Alfred 2. This are three main achievements, making her a bloody, no a total, no an absolute, no an early beginnerTM. Two more lessons and she has finished the Beginners Blues Course, too. Then she advances to the true beginnerTM level. (This is quite advanced, if you ask me)
WieWaldi Did you add some more notes here and there to make it sound more vivid?
Not intentionally... it was probably more a case of "make a mistake and just continue, pretend it was always intended" like in that guitar vs piano video posted above 
Of course I'm playing the piece very obviously above my current abilities, and you can see that especially towards the end, I'm losing control. But it was just so much fun to play it faster, and I also didn't want to end up spending too much time with it because I tend to start disliking pieces after too long... so this is the flawed version I ended up with Nightowl said I am galloping through the blues course, but it was more like I was galloping through the piece and the horse got away in the end... but I think I finally managed to reign it in just before the last "pling!" sound so I kept the recording after all.
The trill... yeah... that was just invented on the spot - because after all the talk of Christian about the need to fill up anything except the Grand Canyon, I felt the gap between the parts was too long and boring. Once I reach the eternal beginner stage, I'm sure there will be a beautiful progression there somewhere like in TC's demo video about endings
The next one is called "slow blues" so I guess I can calm down now and start the lesson with a serene mood... and go sloooooooooooooooowwwww....
Sophia That was very good. Love your cats; wish our cats joined me when I play.
In spite of a few minor moments, I would say, overall, your "feel" has gotten better. And that's what's really important when playing blues. Remember, you can hit any note that fits with the chord/scale. Left hand holds the form, right hand can go where ever you want.
Sophia The next one is called "slow blues" so I guess I can calm down now and start the lesson with a serene mood... and go sloooooooooooooooowwwww....
I already told about lightening up the Easy Blues Piano Course with actual pieces. You know, playing only exercises can get a bit frustrating over time. In the Beginners Course, there was the Saint Louis Blues, in the follow-up course, the Quick Five Blues, and that's it.
This one is my second one out the 
collection.
It was a tremendous easy piece, way, way easier than the Saint Louis Blues. It uses the brass style LH from the Beginners Course 8 over the good old trusty 12-bar form in the key of plain simple C. The melody is very repetitive and uses three times a turnaround based on our beloved MOAT. (Mother of all Turnarounds) No jumps, nothing. It is so easy, it can be played on a keyboard with only 49-keys. On top of it, the sheet music says "slowly", making an easy piece even easier. It was so easy, even I could learn this in about one week. Okay - I must admit a few days more practicing would have been nice - the recording isn't... nah... not that great. It sounds very clumsy afterwards. Needed probably more polishing.
Wow, I love the sound of that! You said it was easy??? It is so wonderful that we can learn EASY pieces that sound AWESOME. It's good you got to practice the MOAT again... three times
I said it to PianoMonk in his thread: this type of smooth music is quickly becoming my favourite. Your piece would actually sound a lot more polished if you had this band in a box behind you too But as it is, it still sounded great! I think I found my next book to purchase
Sophia I would encourage you to do. At least when you start the Easy Course. I would rate the difficulty level way below the St. Louis Blues and also way easier than all the lessons of the Beginners Course. Basically, you could start right now. But the Easy Course has 13 Blues lessons, so you must somehow get along with only 8 easy pieces, so it is maybe clever to wait until Easy lesson 3 or 4.
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You all seem to be having so much fun on this thread, so I decided maybe it's time to embrace the blues.
Here is a link to Why Am I Blue, from Alfred's book 1:
This is a piece I didn't spend much time on the first time around, but over the last few days I have been replaying my way through book 1 and decided to work on this piece as a change. I tried to play it with some swing and used the pedal a bit (in fact I think I overused it at one point). My bench is a bit creaky and my playing is a bit tense due to the usual red button syndrome but I think it's OK for a bloody beginner.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
Welcome to Candyland, @Nightowl 
Oh yes - this sounds blue, all the blue chords, and the blue notes (Eb is the "blue note", but don't ask me, why. Maybe because Eb to E bending on saxophones is used so often - we pianists slide) - this makes the soul and the spirit of a Blues. It is strange, Blues sounds so different to everything classical or contemporary - even if we press the same 12 black and white keys over and over again. Yours sounded like such a Blues.
I would say, this is a successful premiere for you in this hatred genre. Well played! Even with quite much of confidence - despite the red-button syndrome. (My last recording took me an entire day, probably I did most of my practicing work during my recording attempts.... But officially, I blame the red button syndrome.)
You said, you didn't spend too much time at this Blues, which is even more impressive. Told you, Blues is the easiest genre - except of Nursery songs, maybe.
This piece doesn't sound very difficult to my ears, especially the LH has little chord changes, freeing your attention to be focused on RH melody. If you want, you can try out Christians very first lesson of his Blues Piano for Beginners playlist. (No sheet music required for the first lessons) Compared to your piece, his RH is stupid easy, but his LH is beefed up because you have to change the chord every 2nd note. Sophia called the LH pattern as Humptee-dumptee, and I kinda agree because this is repeated so often until you dream of it. But it is a very good exercise for hand independence. I remember when I did the lesson - I was so proud after I mastered it. I felt like being John Lee Hooker.
WOW Nightowl!!!!!!! That is ADORABLE... yes you are a bloody beginner at blues, but in no time you will be promoted to lovely beginner, which is where I am right now. Christian himself promoted me in one of his videos. Which makes the course worth it just for that moment, haha!! 
That is such a fun piece and you played it with confidence and happiness, well done! <now I must sneak off and whisper into WieWaldi's ear on how we can entice you even more into the wonderful colourful world of blues>
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Correct It happened in lesson 9. I know he said it casually... but I took that as a definite promotion anyway.
I have been a lovely beginner ever since and even updated my avatar 
WieWaldi Thanks WieWie! I'm pleased that you can hear the blues in my playing - maybe I picked up a thing or two watching the videos on this thread. By the way, I never said I hated this genre (although I might have said something similar about certain dire pieces from Alfred's books).
Sophia Thanks, high praise indeed, but I am a long way from being a "lovely beginner"! I remain a bloody beginner - I know my place!
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
Nightowl I remain a bloody beginner
For now, and only when it comes to blues It is unavoidable, we all start there. Of course WW has reached "total beginner" (he missed out on being a lovely beginner because he didn't pay attention) 
We all agree that we will remain "beginner" for eternity, but at least he put together a whole list of all the beginner stages we can look forward to.
That should keep us busy for quite a while... 
