Flattering nothing. Just stating facts 😅😂🤣

Thanks for the kind words, Roger. But same conclusion here, no flattering. Improvisation with pre-constructed Blues-elements feels like playing with lego-duplo.

I hope you are not suffering under the Calfornia fires!

    WieWaldi At some level it's all legos. Different improvisers have different sizes and shapes of pieces!

    I live in the Sacramento area and currently we're not having fires, but it's always a concern. I am worried about friends and family in LA

      Ok, I moan a lot. A LOT. But I have to say: I really enjoy Christian's lessons sometimes 😃 Lick 8 and 9 were almost identical, and fairly easy, so I just started watching #10. And the way he explains it including the rhythm is just so pleasant (as well as full of humor). Sometimes I get bored with the lesson (not this one), but never with the teacher 😂 Taka and baka ka bap bap gah - yes, very relaxing feeling. But also, I learned the pattern in one listen - tomorrow I'll actually practise it😜

      More seriously now. Roger: sorry to hear about your friends and family in danger zones... we too have friends who are at risk (and they have friends who lost everything). It makes one feel so helpless and worried! Hope your relatives will be okay!

      Good for you... ❤️

      I stuck. 😩 (if you don't moan a lot, you are not a Blues pianist)
      The current lesson is very unstructured, and the next one is as well. But it is kinda easy, and it is fun to play. But I don't progress very well. I just repeat over and over the old stuff and recognize I am playing something "wrong". But I like the sound of the wrong examples. So I repeat them. And alternate them until they are even more wrong. haha

      Well - 2 more examples to learn and then inhale all the examples of next the lesson. Don't expect me to record something before February!

      Oohh that sounds mysteriously intriguing. Playing notes wrong and enjoying the sound might mean you are.... drum roll 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁... IMPROVISING!

      Well, as it sometimes happens... suddenly I had enough of this lesson. I spent almost a month on it (longest to date) and so I went downstairs this morning, still in pyjamas, and recorded the session "as is". First take, no prior warmup (except my daily scale). It started smooth (despite Lionel and Sandy wanting to join in). Then I lost my concentration and started forgetting what I was doing... so you can watch it go to pieces pretty quickly 😃

      But... you have to believe me when I say I can play all those individual licks pretty smoothly by themselves, it was my memory playing tricks more than anything. I just want to move on now and not spend half the day getting a better recording. So here it is, in original raw form, unedited and uncropped.

      And with that, I now promote myself to.............. taa daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! 🎺🎷🥈

      TOTAL BEGINNER!!!

      Albeit a flawed one, lol. No perfect score on this lesson!

        Sophia Thanks for sharing this imperfect but nonetheless entertaining video. 🙂 The timing of the cat jumping onto the bass keys and producing a flurry of notes was purrrfect - that cat sure has talent!

        I love it that you uploaded this vid which shows that despite being annoyingly talented you also suffer from brain freeze, like the rest of us bloody beginners! There were times during those hesitations when I felt your pain - we've all been there! You could probably return to this lesson in a few weeks and nail it, but I totally get why you might not want to bother. There are just so many lovely pieces you have the skills to play now that it's pointless to linger on something you've had enough of.

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

            Hehehe, I don't disagree with anything you said, except of course:

            Nightowl us bloody beginners

            You watch what you say now, young lady, I have joined the ranks of TOTAL beginner and expect the proper respect and deference according to my new lofty status from now on 😝


                Welcome to the Total BeginnerTM grade. Har Har Har!

                Don't worry if this wasn't as perfect as the other ones, but with those two cute kittens it is for sure hard to stay focused. Btw: is it just my impression, the kittens became cats now, they grew a lot and look way stronger and heavier than in your earlier videos.

                Back to the music - I always enjoy those lookback tuesdays. Not that long ago I played exactly the same lesson than you today, and mine wasn't that smooth, too. It is so nice to have a fellow total beginner on my side. 🥰In another thread I stated my wish for this year is to reach the early beginner grade. A bit unrealistic, I know. Then I added I would be happy to become an absolute beginner in 2025. Now my only wish is to reach the absolute beginner grade before you do.

                Anyway - have fun with the Easy Blues Piano course!!! And congrats to your new grade. It sounds so much more pro when you tell people, you are a total beginner instead of a bloody beginner. ^_^

                Haha I updated my avatar to show off my total beginner status. Simba in the circle, Lionel and Sandy in the profile background. You are right - I must refer to them as grown men now, or maybe teenagers. They are no longer kittens... still behave as such though!

                I decided to take a break from piano for today (this morning's recording still counts for PACT) and then start the Easy course with a fresh mind 😃

                U know. Lionel and Sandy are both men. Of course they behave like kids. Only the toys get bigger.

                • Sophia

                • Post #561
                • Edited

                I have made a playlist of all the lessons in the Bloody Beginners course, some acceptable and some not so great dreadful. I don't miss the plonke-plonke-plonke-plonke of those first lessons!

                Edit: I don't think that link worked. Here's hopefully a better link!

                P.S. lesson 3 will floor you (wink wink at those type of ads...)

                Nice playlist! You could do a one-video cut like iternabe did on his 1st year. Well - this isn't practice time, but you will learn a lot about DaVinci Resolve. You can add at the end all bloopers, kitten disturbings, and of coarse your $§%&/ comments.
                AAAAAnd - you will deep dive into every lesson you learned, remembering it better than just having a playlist 🙂

                ads?
                I never watch ads. Use good adblockers 🙂

                Nobody can match iternabe in creating such a video. I recognize my superior there 😃

                Wait, my $§%&/ comments? But but but but! I'm a lady, I never use those words 😇 Oh, wait. I did........ but it was a good thing I was recording from my keyboard with a direct line into the phone 😋

                You used them twice, maybe trice! Put them into the bloopers section!

                Lesson 3 got as many thumbs up as all the other clips together...
                I rewatched it three times and I have no idea, why? Your playing was much better in the later vids.

                I know, right? Quite humbling when your pets get more likes than your performance. I can absolutely recommend cats to keep both feet firmly on the ground. I may have large hands, but my feet still fit inside my boots very easily 😂😂😂

                Sophia Please accept my sincere apologies for the oversight. 🙃 I acknowledge that we are not in the same league (and never will be). <Bows head in deferential manner to Sophia>

                I love the updated avatar pic, although each time I look at it I have the urge to rotate it so that the eyes are horizontal (because I'm the type who notices crooked pictures when I enter a room and feel compelled to straighten them).

                I'm confused, when will my status change from bloody beginner to total beginner? Would finishing Alfred's book 2 satisfy the criteria? 🤔

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

                    Nightowl I love the updated avatar pic,

                    I 2nd this

                    Nightowl , although each time I look at it I have the urge to rotate it so that the eyes are horizontal

                    this not, I love the tilted look

                    Nightowl I'm confused, when will my status change from bloody beginner to total beginner? Would finishing Alfred's book 2 satisfy the criteria?

                    I may help out, here. You start as a Bloody BeginnerTM (Har har). Every time you finish a major achievement, a milestone, you graduate to the next level. Finishing a book like Alfred 1 is such an achievment. This means, you are officially a:
                    Bloody
                    Total BeginnerTM
                    (Absolute Beginner is next, after you finished Alfred 2)
                    tl;dr: you are at same level as Sophie!!

                    Just kiddin, Sophie's current level is:

                    Bloody Beginner + Thompsons easiest piano course =
                    Total Beginner + Alfred 1 =
                    Absolute Beginner + Alfred 2 =
                    Early Beginner + Beginner Blues Piano course =
                    True BeginnerTM