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IBP arrived today! It looks like a great book.

What songs are y'all working on? Are any of you poor folks still waiting on your books? I am rotating back and forth between the Beginners Boogie and the Blue Third Blues. I am working on getting my left hand to coordinate correctly with right hand. But I discovered if I tap my foot to the beat in the left hand it actually helps me play the left hand better.
From time to time I like to play BLUEBERRY HILL(I skipped a little) to pag 28. I always liked that song by Fats Domino! It is one of the best!

real blues players wear hats

I'm still on "Blues for Booker" in IBP. It'll be a week or so before I've got my "trouble spots" to a reasonable tempo. I've started dipping into Mark Harrison's book as well. There are two "bits" I want to learn.

I got my book today - and am looking through it, playing some riffs...

Pastafarian - I think my "trouble spot" in Blues for Booker is my entire left hand....

Should I just start at the beginning and run through until the pieces start getting tough? How is everyone else approaching it?

IMHO, learning to play the pieces well is secondary to being able to understand what you've just played (theory wise) and being able to apply that theory to a myriad of other songs in any key. This is why I don't necessarily try and perfect every peice before moving on, but for me my goal is understanding how the blues works so I can play well in all keys in a Church setting accompanying singers... for others it might be different.

Also, and this may just be me, but I can hear a very audible difference between a person who has learned to play a blues song, and a person who knows how to play the blues.

:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by kokomo61:
Should I just start at the beginning and run through until the pieces start getting tough? How is everyone else approaching it?


KOKOMO: YES, THAT'S THE WAY I AM DOING IT, I'M NOW ON THE [/i] BLUE THIRD BLUES. STILL WORKING ON DOING A BETTER JOB WITH THE LEFT HAND

darn: I accidently hit the add reply button twice

Im smoothing out beginners blues-melodic and am looking at starting beginners boogie soon.

I'd say the answer depends on your playing level. I've listened to some of Geek in the Pink's ragtime. Unlike my fingers, his fingers can boogie pretty nicely on the keys without falling on their figurative butts, so he probably doesn't need the technique that beginners like myself pick up from the first few pieces.

With one exception, which I no longer talk about, I have learned every piece and done all the assignments in chapter 1.

Why? I play a pretty decent blues harmonica and have been jamming the blues for a long time. The tried and true method for me and most muscisians in that genre I've met is to learn as many licks in as many keys as possible and to memorize every sound your instrument is capable of producing (includes chords scales, effects) and how to make them at will as fast, slow, loud or soft as possible. Then you listen to the music you like until you know every sound made by every instrument in the versions you like and how to play along with them in the way that you think makes the song sound better than the guy who wrote it ever thought it could.

By this time, you should have music playing in your head for at least part of the day (as long as you don't try to charge people around you for it, they won't lock you up ). Start playing that until you can play it all as well as you hear it in your mind, then go back to any of the previous steps.

This part is a mite easier said than done. In fact, I don't think anyone has EVER done it with ANY instrument. This is what IBP is supposed to be doing for me and why I'm obsessive about playing all the pieces and trying to mix and match all the LH parts with the RH parts before moving on.

I mentioned earlier that I didn't think much of "Five-finger Blues". As a tune, I don't. As a teaching device, it's brilliant: those thirds are the building blocks of tons of cool blues licks, including the one I asked about in the "Non-classical" thread. Maybe if I could play piano, I'd skip ahead in IBP, or work on Mark Harrison's book or use one of Dr. John's courses, but I can't. Intellectually, I can plan quite a few blues licks with my RH now. My ear is getting much better.

It's taken me a week to co-ordinate a slow HT redition of an elementary blue thirds exercise in Harrison's book that I could play at the CD speed, HS separate on my second try. I need the hand-holding.

"Blues for Booker"? LH was about three days to bring to speed. I'm about 3 weeks into it and I have just managed to play from the RH triplet pick-ups to the end HT smoothly through at about 40 bpm.

Blues theory is easy, synchronising the hands on the fly is freaking hard!

I'd say, take it slow and give Richards' wisdom a chance to sink in: he's a helluva teacher and he's giving theory, technique, riffs and improvisational ideas ALL AT ONCE without demanding that we bring many existing piano skills to the table. Since it looks like I'm past The Wall in "Blues for Booker", my goal is to work up multi-chorus improvs for 3 Chap. 1 pieces before hitting chap 2. Hopefully, I'll have learned how mike my piano so I can post them
by Sept.

I am so with you!
If not for the support of threads like this, I would think I belong in the piano division of "Special Olympics".
Doodling in either hand aint no thang, but getting both hands in synch...well it makes me feel small.

LeadFingers

I'm making some progress - Beginner's Blues (both of them) and Boogie are fairly routine - I'm working on Blue Third Blues - the left hand is working well, and I'm FINALLY getting the triplet measures down - I'm just playing the LH slowly, and repeating the triplet pattern until it feels more 'natural.'

I'm fooling around with some (simple) blues licks on the improv part - mostly following the patterns in the first half, but adding some harmony notes. I'm not doing any triplet runs or anything like that....

At this point, I know it doesn't sound very impressive, but even playing two or three of the the "suggested" notes instead of the written part is a big deal.

I have found that what I'd like to play and what I can play part ways pretty fast. This is why I'm going to be hanging around in Chapter 1 for a bit.

Even if I come up with a RH part that I've worked into decent shape, I'll find that it falls apart as soon as the LH wants to be part of the action.

I can only assume that at some point in the future, we'll develop the ability to "noodle" in the RH while the LH is playing rock steady, but I'm gonna guess that for most of us it'll be a while (years) coming.

I'm learning three RH "bits" from Mark Harrison's Book, because they sound cool, fit with some of the LH in IBP and are relatively simple (in fact, easy HS). HT is another story... it seems that with each very minor change in the RH, HT becomes impossible again *sigh*.

Anyway, the MH stuff is just what Richards calls "Five -finger" thirds, so it all comes back to IBP ...

Hey, I finally got the book !!!

looks great, great layout!

started on the 1st exercise, pretty easy,
oh,
oops, legato fingering... mmm
have to slow down...

oh well, already learned something.
lot of catching up to do!
and since I am starting to voice Stormy Weather
and trying to learn the first part of David Nevue's God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman ,
I expect to be ever behind everyone else.


doing my best...

Do not fret, lord samurai, I hold the crown as "The Beginner's Beginner." No one shall get behind me!
- angelo

Voicing "Stormy Weather"? Learning "David Nevue's God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman"? You call THOSE excuses, KS?

What about training for the Olympics? Increasing humanity's knowledge of subatomic physics? :p

I can't wait hear those lush Sudnow voicings on "Beginner's Boogie"!!!

angelojf; Im only in book one of Alfreds, but the nice thing about IBP is that there is something in there for all levels. Its a book I'll grow into as I learn more of the keyboard, and I imagin it'l take years to actually get through it. Im in no hurry.

Well subatomic physics was one of my favorite subjects in high school as well as trying to get good enough for olympic swimming. (actually not kidding and no I didn't make it, though Mark Spitz was a friend of the family.).

besides running two martial arts clubs for two different martial arts, thinking about chaos theory and cognitive neuroscience and working on my 80 year old arts and crafts house, I decided to add piano last year.

I have been thinking lately about getting back in to swimming...

:p

[QUOTE]Originally posted by zoso:
the nice thing about IBP is that there is something in there for all levels.

I agree zozo. You can have this book for years and there will always something you can work on, it accomodates all levels. I'm working on the NEW ORLEANS TRIPLETS WORKOUT pg 25. I find it is harder than it looks. The notes are all easy it is just trying to keep the right hand balanced with the left hand that I find difficult.I think it is a good blues workout to learn with all the other songs that will follow in the book. This song follows the Fats Domino pattern with his trademark left hand bass line, like what you hear in the famous BLUEBERRY HILL pg 28.

Anyway has anyone else worked on the NEW ORLEANS TRIPLET, PG 25? What is the trick in keeping the left hand playing correctly against the right hand triplets? It looks easier than it is to play for me.

Although I struggled like crazy with BLUE THIRD BLUES, (I had a heck of a time playing the triplets against the bass line), NEW ORLEANS was pretty easy in comparison.

I found the easiest way to get it done was to slow it down, then focus on the LH while 'automatically' playing the RH triplets. I didn't worry about chord changes or anything else until I had the feel of the bass line against the triplet figure....and it worked pretty quickly.

Use the RH triplets to "count out" the bass line in the LH. This should make the whole thing easier to play. Also, don't worry about the accent on the 2nd and 4th triplets until everything is secure. I find this family of bass lines really satisfying to play. Play it slowly, really trying to bring out the syncopation and the percussive quality, and rely on the RH for timing cues.