Edit, and now for some more "serious" (yeah right) fun, this popped up in my YT feed... I love it!

4 days later

I still haven't started my new blues lesson - though I did try to learn my next Alfred piece. I'll get going soon, I promise! I still need to buy Christian's blues pieces book - and I will.

Meanwhile, I purchased the score of Sax and Violence... maybe in a hundred years I can play it like this:

THIS!
This is how you can stack your Yamaha on your Yamaha. And use the Sax-sound of your Yamaha, while you play piano on your Yamaha. And with a keyboard split on your Yamaha, you can do the triangle sound on your Yamaha, too. Hurry up, and put your Yamaha on your Yamaha.

1-2-3-...7-8..... Yamaha! Yamaha! (Yamaha grants me a discount, if I write Yamaha 10 times, 12 times ðŸĪŠ)

Right???? That's how I envisioned my need for dual pianos 😎 Or I could try to train our music loving Simba to do all that... I'm sure he would be happy to use one of the kitten heads for the "cloink" sound...

But yeah I really enjoyed that video. Even though it was a little off topic 😋 I always liked the Muppet Show and even more since I got married... I shall share why that is. If you really insist on reading it, sit down, grab a cup of for a long, boring and completely off topic story... don't say you weren't warned ðŸĪŠ

My husband was a professional child actor (both stage and film). Of course he had to spend a lot of time on the set and became friends with a teenager who was always drawing situation sketches. For example at some point my husband started to grow a little too fast, and the other actors had to stand on boxes to maintain the height difference. Then his friend would create a cartoon around that...

Well, this talented young man became one of the creators of the Muppet Show and later Fraggle Rock, coming up with many of the creative ideas. So I guess that may explain at least partially why we're so fond of the zany creativity of that brilliant show 😄


    Okay - this explains something. No wonder why you know everything about the Muppets. And also background stories...

    Who is your husbands friend? (Jim Henson himself? No? Is he? Maybe Frank Oz?!?)

    Would be happy to hear your first "Muppet-song", with two Yamahas stacked on top. But from hearing alone, I reckon this song is very difficult. For sure, it is beyond bloody beginner - maybe extended beginner, late beginner or (shock) eternal beginner - if not an amateur level.

    Btw - I am currently pausing my blues journey. Got sheet music for a my fav Christmas song. Turned out, it is far beyond my level... After a week, I can play only a third of it with the third of the required speed, but three time more mistakes as acceptable.

    Heh, oh yeah, my Muppet song is many many many many moons away still... if ever! But it's nice to dream 😃

    So, back to reality for me too... I started the next blues lesson! It is the slow blues lesson with the punches. So far it's not very interesting, not like the Muppet punches between Mahna Mahna (I had to look up his name) and Zoot. Ok, speaking of Mahna Mahna, that's another song on my wish list! Oh yes, we said back to reality ðŸĪĢ

    So I do have a question for you. The lesson starts like this:

    It requires sliding the middle finger from F# to G, little finger stays on Bb. How did you manage to do that without pain? If I slide in between the keys, it hurts a little, even though I don't have fat fingers. But if I slide down towards the broad part of the white key, my little finger slides with it, sometimes even off the black key. So how did you manage it?

    Also, are you going to give up on the Christmas song for this year and try again next year? It sounds like this is something you will be able to master, it just takes a little more time, right?

    It feels kind of natural for me, now. In the beginning, it was weird to have the pinky up on a black key, but after 50 bottles of beer it became 2nd nature.
    And there isn't any pain. I could play it all day long - the only risk is to get drunk again.

    Thank you! I guess bottles of beer is the only thing I haven't tried yet! Good tip(sy)

    It's good to ask, then you find an approach from all angles 😂

    Sophia OMG I did wonder from a previous comment what your connection to the entertainment industry was. How very amazing!!

      Well, I guess one good thing it did was enable me a little better to see behind the curtain of your Major-General performance, so to speak... and appreciate the extent of its greatness 😃

      6 days later

      I learned all four variations of the blues lesson, but it's not smooth yet. That'll be a few more days I'm guessing. Christian didn't offer any ending; this might be a good time to finally try to include one of TC's endings (I'm reposting that link here, because it took me 10 minutes of scrolling to find it back 😝).

      Oh, I forgot to mention: I also purchased the 8 easy blues pieces 🙌 But I'm not printing it yet, because I don't want to be tempted before I finish this course!

      I am still struggling with my Christmas song... I would be happy to get a recording of the first part only within this week. Don't have much time left, Christmas is coming and I am not at home then.

      It sounds so lush and bluesy when Christian plays it, but he should put a warning on it:

      DON'T TOUCH THIS AS A TOTAL BEGINNER... or similar... maybe it is even for an absolute beginner too challenging...

      Oh I know.. when he plays those tunes, it sounds so great... and easy. Then you try it and you realize how hard it really is!

      That's why I'm not touching anything outside of my method book and blues course just yet. When people tell me I should play this or that or such, I usually stick my fingers in my ears and Lala lalala! Because it's always a lot harder than it seems!

      Edit: unless it's a fellow beginner who knows how hard or easy it really is 😄

      Actually, nobody told me to pick this piece. I just liked how it sounds...

      Heh yeah sometimes that person whispering in my ear is me. I purchased a few "easy" classics books thinking they would be, well, easy. Big mistake 😂

      Yep, we've all been there, Sophia! Some of those publishers should be sued under the Trades Descriptions Act! ðŸĪĻ Talk about misleading!

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

        Oooooooohhhh but that is "prolonged beginner", perhaps even "eternal beginner" level... May I remind you...

        Nightowl Some of those publishers should be sued under the Trades Descriptions Act! ðŸĪĻ Talk about misleading!

        No, not saying sue Christian 😃 Because he didn't make that claim. In fact I don't think he said the word "beginner" at all in that lesson 😁

          Yes - he didn't say the word beginner... you are right.
          It is just... Ehrm.. It is just - he said, one can learn such a song in one week
          I am now done with the 1st 1/3 of the tune, still a lot of errors, timing very unsteady and slow, metronome goes horribly wrong after 10 bars. I am happy if I get this week a recording of the first third, and call it a day piece.

          Believe me, this isn't for total beginners. This is real beginners stuff!