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Oohh that's fantastic! WieWaldi, the famous composer. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Edit: wow, beaten by Nightowl by mere seconds 😂

    WieWaldi that's amazing 👏. Thanks for sharing. You may not realise but you guys are a big motivation source to me.

    On the blues course, I think I will count my lesson two done. I am giving up the strange slide thing for now:

    Because swing and the syncopation is hard enough. And my fat fingers end up pressing extra keys when I attempt to slide.

      hebele Sliding is fun. And it makes the sound so living.
      The down-slides are easy - don't skip it. Get used to it.
      But the power slides (up-slides, or side-slides from white to white key) are a skill that needs a lot of practice.

      Btw - we use this thread as motivational source, too. And for entertainment of course. 😀
      If you record your lessons and share them here, it is even more motivating. Go back to original post and you find all lessons of Sophia as YouTube! So nice being able to see, where she was half a year ago.

      Awwww - back then everything was so relaxed, but now she's on my heels like a fire-red Ferrari in the mirrors.


      Nightowl So have you begun improvising now WieWie?!? Impressive! That means that you're now a composer! 😃

      Sophia Oohh that's fantastic! WieWaldi, the famous composer. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

      Oh - you are so darn right, my lovely friends!

        That is absolutely brilliant WieWie! 😁 You and Sophia are both so clever with all the tech stuff. Mind you, I have recently overcome a tech challenge myself - I have managed to connect my laptop to my dumb TV, using a cable, so I can now watch all sorts of stuff on my TV - including this message board and any videos you upload! I feel very proud of myself for this achievement!

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

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        WieWaldi Awwww - back then everything was so relaxed, but now she's on my heels like a fire-red Ferrari in the mirrors.

        Haha, not so much now. I am still only 2 licks into lesson 1. The Ferrari is a little more relaxed at the moment!

        hebele On the blues course, I think I will count my lesson two done.

        Congrats @hebele - can't wait to hear the result someday 😃

        Edit: I struggled with the sliding too. At first it feels weird, it even hurt a little. But then suddenly you will "get it", so I agree with WieWaldi: just stick with it and soon it'll feel very natural!

          Sophia Hahaha, you can't fool me. I know it is just a pitstop.

            Hehe... well... gotta keep you on your toes...

            No worries - I am doing as fast as I can

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            Well........ I learned another lick in the blues course. And then Christian finally went to teach us an actual part of Hit the Road Jack Chris... ok, only two bars, but still, kinda fun to play. Addictive in fact! So that means I'm about 1/3 into the lesson. The Ferrari is warming up again...

              WieWaldi Yep, you were right about that WieWie. Sophia is moving back towards her usual supersonic speed again! It's clearly something in her rocket fuel blood.

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

                Nightowl I know, It can be frustrating from time to time. It really feels like you are driving a beige family estate wagon, listening to Bob Marley and enjoying the landscape slowly passing by. And then you hear a load rooooooaaaaarrrr. A red dot appears in the mirrors and under usage of the headlamp flashlights, this point gets bigger and bigger until it becomes the shape of a fire-red Ferrari and then you can read the numbers plate: "Move away - Sophia is coming!"...!!! 😱

                Maybe you can be a bit more relaxed. From your perspective, you see a red dot in front of you. This dot is already near the horizon. And it gets smaller and smaller, the roar gets more and more subtle. And after a while you forget about that tiny red dot that starts to fade away. Out of your vision, out of your mind. 🌴😎🥂

                  Sophia Congrats - this lesson is really fun. Is it? 😃

                  Lol!!!!!!! I make sure never to be out of Nightowl's mind, I am her private daymare 😅🤣

                  But yes, that lesson is real fun! I'm still trying to learn it by heart, not read the sheet... so I can only add one lick every few days otherwise I overload my brain 😄

                  OK. I think you guys have privilege of having dainty fingers 😀. That slide thing is the hardest part of the lesson by far. I am getting better it. But it requires precision that this poor beginner does not have in abundance.

                  We have a sausage finger problem over here. I mean look at this:

                  If I'm not really really careful then the middle finger keeps both F# and G down. It would press F#, G and G# if let to its own devices 🤣

                  My fingers are similar sized. In the gap between Db and D# I have no problem whatsoever. But the gaps between the 3 black keys are a bit narrower. Here I always touch the side walls of the black keys. (Sausage fingers, too)

                  About sliding, I don't do it between the black keys.

                  Playing the sheet music of the sequence, you posted, I use fingers 1 3 5. (3 is the sliding one).
                  This is my hand position after the slide. And my 3-finger came from end of the black key, touching only the last centimeter of it. And I was sliding down diagonal just a little bit. Only down that hump.

                  Edit: wrong notes played, see next post!

                  Opoos - I have over seen the B-flat-symbol in the sheet music... (And didn't turn on my piano, with sound it is weird anyway)...

                  If my pinky is forced to go up to the Bb, there is no easy slide down is in my previous post.

                  In this case, the sliding middle finger has a very steep angle and even the fingernail is touching the G. Here, I don't play the black key at the very end, I am just playing it near the end and slide from F# sideways to the G.

                  I recalled this sequence several times, and my muscle memory always used the steep middle finger angle. No matter if I slide or not. My middle finger is always that steep. I don't know why I am doing it this way, but probably I figured out it works better with my sausage fingers.

                    WieWaldi thanks a lot! That is interesting. I will try playing closer to the edge with the third finger. I was also keeping my thumb deeper, comfortably on white part. So that can also move to the edge to keep other fingers mostly on the whites.

                    I think it is good habit in general to play the keys at the front end of the keysticks. The closer you get towards the fallboard, the less control you have - unless you are playing an expensive grand piano with really long keysticks.

                    Also note the thumb on my last picture. I got used to this way. When the thumb plays a white key with other fingers are spread away, it allows to get a bigger reach. If I play a 10th, I must use the thumb in this way.

                    WieWaldi That's good advice WieWie, but as @Sophia has admitted, she has a habit of making sure to be my regular "daymare"! Not that I'd have it any other way, because along with being annoyingly talented she is also incredibly entertaining. 🙂

                    I share your feeling about having "sausage" fingers - sometimes I wish mine were more slender, but on the plus side I have a large hand span so it's not all bad.

                    When I see you playing your fingers seem to move very nimbly around the keyboard, so whatever you're doing, it's working.🙂

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

                    Anything I say you need to take with a grain of salt, because I have no teacher to correct me if I'm doing it wrong. That said, I thought I'd demonstrate for you how I do the slide - it just so happens my current lick has two of them, so it was good practice 😃 Simba decided to be my assistant today!