Interesting... what book is that? I have the two beginner's books (Blues Piano For Beginners 1-7 and 8-11) and Easy Licks in C. Yours is not the Bloody Beginners course, but the Easy Beginners (as we all know, Easy is way more advanced than Bloody anything...)
Edit; oh wait, I was looking at the wrong lesson. That's lesson 6 (duh) no wonder it has such different patterns 
I'm so glad to finally get away from the left hand tumptee-dumptee, tumptee-dumptee....
Sophia For the very first lessons, I didn't need sheet music at all. The patterns were too easy to remember. I just needed some (ok, alotta) time to get my fingers sorted.
At lesson 4 I started to note everything down with musescore. At lesson 6 or 7 I realized, I don't have to write my own sheet music out of his hands while slo-mo and pause/play. But buy sheet-music if I have already 80% of the 1-7 section? Nah!
Furthermore, in musescore I can play back what I noted down, and it sounded darn good. And the playback did also help me to learn, because I could set the speed and crosscheck if my sound is the same as the notes. So I continued with making my own version up to video 7.
Ok, starting with video 8, I was thinking the time is better spent with practicing. And he should also earn some money for this adorable course. (A complete free piano course
, motivating
, with humor
, in best English with Berlin accent
, and not just teasers for a paid subscription
).
WieWaldi Yeah I didn't need his sheet music either at first. But then he added more and more licks... now it's nice to look back "how did the blues scale in lesson 1 go again?" plus as you said, it feels good to support so much effort.
It will be so nice when we can think up a complex pattern and just let it roll from our fingers... how long will that take? Sometime between Bloody beginner and Advanced beginner?
I started the left hand pattern of lesson 6 - very cozy and smooth. And easy! Then I added the right hand and the whole thing fell to pieces 
Sophia It will be so nice when we can think up a complex pattern and just let it roll from our fingers... how long will that take? Sometime between Bloody beginner and Advanced beginner?
Ah - this is easy. I am able to do this in my sleep. Ok, the problem is, I can only do this, while I am sleeping.
Sophia I started the left hand pattern of lesson 6 - very cozy and smooth. And easy! Then I added the right hand and the whole thing fell to pieces
Yep. Same here. Even if I tried well know old RH stuff from previous lesson (or even the 1st lesson), I was feeling like a toddler. Now I check for every lesson if there is a new LH. If yes, I know this costs me up to 4 weeks* extra time, because I want to be able to play all old stuff with new LH. After this, LH runs on autopilot, and it gets very easy to learn new RH licks.
Edit:
*) Maybe it would be faster as a PACTicer... Nah - that's not me. I prefer to spend more time in the forum. 
Hehe, yup, though we all have to PACTice - no getting away from that! I'm really glad you experience the same difficulties with a new left hand lick (this will be my first new one). It does reduce you to toddler level and wishing you had stayed at bloody beginner level instead!
Sorry Sophia, I can't stay a bloody beginner for the rest of my life.
Royal blood streams through my veins, this requires to be a total beginner at least.
I've been doing something similar with the books I use. I have a handful of LH patterns I want to be able to improvise over, and a bunch of RH licks to sprinkle in my improvisations, so I've spent tons of time practicing the various LH and the various RH. It took a lot of time, and I still have to do some maintenance practicing if I haven't used a LH in a while, but it's paying off. It's slow, front-loaded work, but now things are coming together that much faster.
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
TC3 I know what you mean. I looked up a few YouTube videos, call them fast-guide or quick-tips. Someone is introducing a nice LH pattern within a few seconds and shows one or two RH licks.
The videos are short and compact, and it is easy to reproduce if I only concentrate on one hand alone. But both hands together is always a struggle. Bottom line: 1 minute video instruction = 1 month hard practice. It does not feel right to spend that much time just for a random picked up 1 minute video clip.
This is the main reason why I love Christians Blues-course playlist so much. He knows where to start from scratch and in which order different LH patterns make sense. And if the LH isn't fancy, it is the right thing to learn at my level.
I have another question... or more advice on which version I should play 
I started practising the lesson, and Christian plays the left hand C-A-G sequence with the A a little more staccato (my first version). But I really like to play the A more smoothly (second version) as well... which would you veterans say I should end up playing? Left hand staccato? Or smooth?
Sophia Both. Sorry, that's the worst answer!
Seriously, there's no right or wrong there, just two different ways to do it. I've noticed the same thing with a bunch of different LH patterns. Some teachers / authors suggest legato, other staccato. More importantly, when I listen to classic blues pianists, I'll hear it all sorts of different ways.
I'd suggest just sticking to whichever one you prefer right now so as not to slow down your progress, and then revisiting it at some point to try it in different ways.
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
Hahaha I was afraid of that And I'm equally happy to hear it. When I started this lesson the day before yesterday, I played it smoothly. Then I listened to the tutorial video again and realized he plays it more staccato. I asked my husband and although he is not into blues (mostly classical guy, that), he immediately picked the smooth version. And of course I like BOTH as well. I'll probably surprise myself most of all which version I end up playing as my "graduation" video
Thanks for chiming in!
Sophia I would play the staccato version, because I believe Christian has a reason to play it that way. Call it educational method. Or training of the skill: "one hand legato while other hand staccato".
Ok, in current exercise, the LH staccato part is solo, while the RH pauses that beat. This makes it probably easier. I found myself strugglig a lot to play LH-A staccato together with RH play a legato note of a lick. Or in other words, as long LH was solo on that note: easy. But if I played both hands together, both became staccato, or both became legato.
It cost me a lot of time to sort that out, and it is still not good by any means.
Maybe TCs tip is the best, not to waste too much time and do what you like best, if one version is problematic. On the other hand, you are as fast as a 
, while I am more like a 
... Maybe you should go staccato version, or at least try it for some time 
Haha yes you have a point there I wish Christian was active in this thread to tell us his reasoning 
But then maybe he should expect us to buy all his books, lol!
But yeah it's true, the lesson gets a lot harder after that easy lick so I wanted to ask before proceeding too much!
Hi Sophia
I haven't read the whole thread, so I don't know what else has been suggested already, and I'm not a beginner so feel free to ignore me! Nevertheless here's a few suggestions (which worked for me):
Listen to recordings of the blues. This will help you to know when to change from the C to the F chord etc. Once you've played the sequence for a while it will become completely instinctive anyway and you will change automatically.
Practise the ostinato left hand patterns on their own - a lot! The one in your first video is just about the easiest. Eventually you'll get to the point where your LH is on auto pilot and you don't have to think about it. This then frees up your RH to improvise or play variations on the licks and phrases you've learnt.
Learn the minor blues scale. In the key of C this is the following sequence of notes C Eb F F# G Bb C.
You can play this scale, variations of it, and virtually any combination of its notes over the entire 12 bar sequence. It will work over the F and G chords. Experiment with the notes in this scale and you'll be amazed how much you can do with it. Sliding from the Eb to the E whilst playing G and/or C above is one of the more common techniques in blues and boogie.
These next 2 are more advanced but something to aim for.
Most of have fun with it!
Cheers
Simon
All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.
Thanks so much for the pointers Simon! I really appreciate those!
Simonb I'm not a beginner so feel free to ignore me!
I think I can safely speak for all here that because you're not a beginner that's the one really sound reason NEVER to ignore you. I welcome all suggestions especially those from seasoned players! We all vary from "bloody beginner" (that's a bit of a in-joke by now) to "somewhat beginner" so it's really really great to read viewpoints from more advanced players such as yourself, PianoMonk, TC etc. Ok and WieWaldi who is still a huge beginner-leap ahead of me
Thanks again for chiming in!
Hi Sophia
[
This is an example of the Jimmy Yancey bass line, but in C minor rather than major, used in a composition I wrote a few years ago. You'll notice my LH hardly ever wavers from the repeated pattern. As I said earlier I practised these LH patterns for hours and hours so I'd have almost complete independence with my RH.
Aside from the simple melody (which is more of a repeated riff) there is heavy use of the C minor blues scale in the solo.
Cheers
Simon
All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.
Sophia Agreed. This is impressive.
But it is also in reach, it is nothing impossible for us, isn't it?
Just another LH, make it really, really autopilot. Make it so autopilot, it is not disturbed from right hand. And then we have just to learn how to improvise with RH, play somthing different than ordinary blues scale, something with speed and syncopations, fitting to the rythm of LH, and make it sound good.
I need just to chew through the remaining 25 lessons of easy (proud
) blues piano playlist, eat some improvising videos and then practice practice practice. Pff... So easy.
Wait! This PW recital on October is about improvising! @Sophia, do we have a goal? A pact?
WieWaldi do we have a goal? A pact?
Oooh October is soooo sooooon! I actually just came back from practising and trying to get that left hand lick in staccato and right hand lick (the longer one) legato... pfftt! Not easy! You are so evil to recommend it instead of the smooth one 
It'll be at least an additinal 3 minutes to get that perfect. Yeah I wish
Ok, the pact is: I will TRY to be good enough in October to play a blues "improvisation". For the next recital though (the one Navindra just announced) I am going to try to whip one of my Alfred pieces in ready state
Edit: I have an idea! You play one hand and I play the other
