Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum The New and Improved IBP Thread

Cheers Bluekeys! Improvs are a way off yet, everytime I try and play something different my left hand stops working lol! I think it needs to be near automatic before you can really concentrate on the melody and I'm nowhere near that yet. It's getting easier though, I can now play through it without too many mistakes most of the time!

Thanks for the tip on Mixolydian 3rds! Sounds great and is easy to play I haven't got Mark Harrisons book yet but I think I may have to.

I just had a look at your Blog, I love your recital piece! I see you're using Pianoteq, I'm trying the demo at the moment and I love it. Pity it's so expensive, I'm going to try Truepianos when the Pianoteq demo runs out but I have a feeling I'll be buying Pianoteq, it's just so versatile and responsive!

Looking forward to your Beginner Boogie!

Hi all,

Just stumbled across the forum when googling for "famous lick" ! I got IBP about a month ago and it's one of the best 'teach yourself' I've come across.

I've played for quite a time but mostly just read off the page - never really tried improvising properly. This book teaches it pretty well IMHO. I've progressed no end just in four short weeks.

Hopefully I'll learn some tips and tricks from this forum and will be posting any musings / findings on Improv. as it relates to this book.

That was divine!! Loved it! I really enjoyed it and I liked your web page, it is so cool! Maybe I should get a mac, huh?

I may send a recording one day , but I don't know if I could be as good as you guys. :p

But I am still enjoying the book, I need to keep practicing. I was working on the Blue Fifth Boogie the other day. I was trying to figure out how to do the improvisation. :rolleyes:

Thanks Babs! You're too kind
Looking forward to hearing you play, how did you get on converting your recordings to MP3? Sounds like you're getting through the book nicely, love to hear some of the later pieces!

Bazc

I used the "Smart Audio Converter". It is really easy to use. Now I just have to figure out how to to do the editing to take out the clickings sounds from the tape. I have Audacity, but I have yet to figure out how to use it.

Best of luck with that, I've just downloaded Audacity myself and have no idea how to use it so I'm afraid I can't be much help!

Babs1, BazC and anyone else who's struggling with Improv. I've found the following helps me to get started:

Get the bass line nice and solid - 'hang' the tune off of the bass. Doesn't matter if you fluff a notes in the tune. Keep that bass going !

Ideally you should be able to play the tune with no mistakes - but it's not compulsory

Pick a few notes close together that you're going to Improv on. Eg for a blues in C...

C chord - play G,A,C
F chord - play Ab,A,C
G chord - play G,Bb,B

Because the notes are close together you're less likely to hit a wrong one !

Make up dead simple riffs on those notes so you can play without looking at your right hand.

Now get the bass line going and look at your left hand ( I know you're not meant to but I find it helps ). If you're looking hard at your L/H fingers you can almost "will" them to play what you want.

(Edit) If your left hand is strong but you're having trouble with the right maybe look at the R/H. I look at my left as it's my 'weaker' hand.

Now start adding the little riffs in ( don't look at the R/H ). If you mess up stop the R/H riff - keep that bass going ! - and try a riff again.

The first couple of lines (simplified - ie keep the rhythm and play it on those close together notes) from Boogy Woogy Bugle Boy of Company B are a good riff to start with.

Gradually make the riffs more difficult ( off the beat etc ) but keep those notes close together so you're MUCH less likely to fluff it.

Once you're riffing confidently with notes close together you can start adding others in that are further apart.

Hope this helps - it did for me, your mileage may vary !

Great tips Lizards, thanks a lot!

Knock, Knock. "Joe (actually BazC) sent me."

Is that the right password?

I posted another thread asking about blues players and hadn't seen this thread. Well, maybe I did but the title didn't sink thru the skull.

I read through this whole thing and it seemed apparent that the IBP book is pretty well-regarded. So Amazon got a little more of my money plus a some for a few CDs that had been on my wish list.

I'm a relative noob here...but I made my living with computers until I retired. I think I can find my way around a computer keyboard. Now that other one with the black and white keys...well, I'm just starting. I've been playing electric bass by ear and tabs and I've resisted learning sight-reading music. I know a couple of guys (my sons) who are great at sight reading but can't play a lick without music in front of 'em. But I'm grudgingly accepting the fact that I have to learn a bit of notation.

I've downloaded the files that people have posted in this thread and I'm very, very impressed. I only hope to come close to that someday. And reading about performing in public knots my guts up tighter'n a...well...real tight. I've only played my bass for a couple of people. I'm really self-conscious about it, although I love playing it and I think I can find the "groove" in most of the stuff I play along with.

I've learned a lot from this thread already...I hope to continue it.

Hey, nice to see some activity on this topic again. I've been sidetracked doing the Autumn Leaves jazz thing. Many of the other regulars here have also been off exploring other topics too. I'm still practicing regularly from IBP though. My current focus is "Bouncy Boogie" and "Slow Blues In G" from ch 3.

RatMan, BazC, Babs1, and lizards_online, welcome. Keep us up to date with your progress. Let's work through this together. I wholeheartedly agree with Pasta when he says that IBP shouldn't be approached as an Alfred's Piano course. We need to be learning the hand independence, the rhythms and the theory that are behind playing the blues. It's a lot of fun working through these things together and hearing the progress that everyone is making.

Cheers Deeluk! Beginners Blues is getting smoother every day and I'm starting to try improvising over the bassline, everything falls apart after 3-4 bars though lol! Oh and I can now play the bass without looking at my hands Most of the time anyway!

Hey Guys. I am still working on this book. Right now I am trying to pick out one song to totally focus on . In the past I have been jumping from one song to the next in this book. Right now I thinking of doing a slow blues song. I have been thinking about the Slow Blues in G on page 114 or maybe doing the Seventh Blues on page 84. I am not sure. Any ideas?

BTW, I have previously done some Classical and just recently New Age music, so this whole Blues scene is relatively new to me. I haven't had any exposure to it until I purchased this book. However, I have always enjoyed listening to Blues Music, it's got the feel good feeling to it.

I really like Slow Blues in G. I've been working on this one for quite some time now. The hardest part about it for me is the pseudo-stride style LH over the solo section. Keeping that LH going while trying to improvise is a real challenge.

I couldn't agree with you more! The right hand is fine for me. I keep thinking I am just not "getting it" in the left hand. More practice is needed.

Danger, Will Robinson! I got my copy of Improvising Blues Piano today. There could be some awful noises coming from the general direction of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

I've sorta been treading water with my practicing, but now it's time to get serious.

I've got it opened up and clamped to the music rest and I'm delaying a bit while ripping the CD tracks to mp3 (my preferred method of playing music...via WinAmp)

I've got the book open to Beginner's Blues and all I can say is, "Morituri te salutamus!"

Cool! Looking forward to your first recording!

Does the book "Improvised Blues Piano" always come with the CD or does the CD have to be ordered separately? Thanks.

The CD came with it, but I'm in the states, so I'm not exactly sure how it's packaged in the UK.

Yeah I think it always comes with a CD, mine did (UK)

Thanks for the info folks.