Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum TIM RICHARDS - Improvising Blues Piano Book 1

I thought it would take longer, but four days of slow careful practice on just walking bass and on-off in just C, and I've got it solid. Then three days more and now I've got the rest of the white keys. They came really fast after the foundation in C. Now I've started the black keys, continuing clockwise around the circle of fifths, so my first black key is Db. Back to slow careful practice because the fingering is different, but after just one session of that, Db is feeling pretty good.

Today I discovered that I can now keep the beat going when I screw up. Screw up the RH, and LH just keeps walking up and down. Screw up the LH notes, and I can keep pounding out some kind of LH notes on the beat until I can find my way back to the correct notes. I couldn't do this when I started.

Had to do some adjustments: my LH finger 2 was getting strained from reaching from IV back to I, so I'm retraining myself to keep my LH hand shape closed instead of extended as I make those moves. OK to reach between thumb and 2, not so OK to reach more than small distances between any of 2-5.

Getting strain in my right side of my back; not sure where that's coming from. Experimenting with wiggling around in the bench as I play, to try to find where I'm holding tension. I've never experienced this before, so I believe it's something linked to the repetitive chords in the RH, which I'm not used to.

I have very much enjoyed playing just rhythm, but I'm starting to hear how it would sound even better with a melody, so once I've finished the circle of fifths with the black keys, I'll be eager for the next couple of pages of the book.

I'm a real believer in the value of lessons, but one thing that's nice about doing this on my own is that I can go entirely at my own pace. No feeling of self-imposed pressure to make a certain amount of progress in preparation for my next lesson. It's really nice to have the book as the teacher though, because this is not the sort of thing I personally would be able to pick up from listening. Maybe once I've learned the book, I'll have the experience to start to be able to pick up new ideas by ear, but that's just not a strong suit of mine now, and especially not for being able to pick up enough to put a whole piece together.

Clarifying tiny technical point: F# is a black key, but I'm playing it with the same fingering as the white keys, so I'm counting it as a white key above: C G D A E B F#.

But that reminds me, I need to practice it thinking of it as Gb, too. Maybe eventually I'll just think of all the keys as just patterns of black and white notes, but for me, the names of the notes are fused with the keys (both physical keys, and what key I'm playing in). So for example when playing blues in F# major, IV is a C# triad (not Db) and its notes as I play them are C# E# G# (not C# F G#). Some of the note names are dropping away: for example I'm now automatically knowing that the triad based on the first of the set of three black keys is the three-black-key triad (instead of thinking,as I had to when I was learning it, "F# A# C#"). And I'm starting to feel the turnarounds as patterns of black and white keys, and distances, rather than specifically as the names of the notes in the key. So maybe I'm moving away from needing the note name as part of my linkage to what I'm playing, at least sometimes. This is interesting.

Playing rhythm of Circle of Fifths is a good practicing strategy. May be I can use the BlueBurry Hill rhythm play on other keys.

Nice work Pianostudent88 and Weiyan.
I think working round the circle of fifths is a great idea.

I'm a bit "behind" in progress here because
a) I started working more hours! (good!) and b) I'm still very much in the "get to know you stage" of working with my teacher. (also good) - I know I could be doing it on my own, but I'm also trying to get up to speed up on general scales and arpeggios (he has to see what I can do) and he really wants to focus on technique, so he has me working on some familiar pieces that I want to improve. (I've seen some great progress in giving nuance of sound to a few pieces and it is very rewarding.)

I have not given up on the blues, ....I'm just delaying it for a bit.

I will probably wait a few more weeks before getting back into it. In the meantime I'm going to follow your posts and see what you're up to!

Cheers!

Blueburry Hill RH melody with LH base.

I had recorded this song song some months ago. Today I take a second record. This time focus on improving rhythm.

http://www.hypedsound.com/music/songs.php?action=listen&id=26577

Hi Weiyan, I remember listening to your earlier version.
I can see - or rather hear! - the work you've been putting into this one. I think it is as challening to play this kind of bass with a melody as it is to play things from the classics that have the Albertini bass under a melody - it takes great focus, not to mention the coordination!

Good for you!

After a delay, I'm now 3/4 of the way around the circle of fifths. Eb, Bb, and F remaining.

Then to start on the next exercise, which I believe is a combination of playing the RH in both root position and first inversion, and playing a melody and then improvising with the RH.

We shall see how solid my LH is once I start adding things besides the root position off-on RH to it!

The LH rhythm is not easy. The second beat rest at first 2/3 time, then play a staccato and go to 3rd beat.

Which chord are you using? Do you use major chord only for the circle?

I can't wait to join in on the fun. I ordered the book about 2 weeks ago. It may arrive tomorrow.

Weiyan I can't listen to your pieces on my phone. I will try later from my regular computer.

Congratulation! Waiting for you submission.

The website require flash. Next time post to another cloud.

I'm practicing the major key walking bass blues pattern, with turnaround, which is the first thing taught in chapter 1:
I I I I
IV IV I I
V V I I

and each LH chord is played as 1 3 5 3.

I'm practicing this in each major key.

I missed this section. Thank you for reminding me.

Hi everybody! I got the book on Friday. It looks really good and well thought out. I just fiddled around with the first few pages and was having great fun. I will try to post more when I have had a bit more time with the book. This is going to be fun to work through.

I've finished working around the circle of fifths with the basic pattern. That's the first three pages. Now for the next four pages. These introduce, for the RH, first and second inversion chords, playing a melody, and improvising a melody. For the LH, three new patterns.

That's seven new skills, and I want to work around the circle of fifths for each one. If I take one day per skill per key, that's 7 x 12 = 84 days = 12 weeks. Ok, see y'all in 3 months .

I'm not sure if I'm nuts for wanting to take this so slowly and methodically. If I didn't work around the circle of fifths, it would take less time of course. But I don't want to get locked into only being able to play in a few keys. Plus the circle of fifths practice gives me lots and lots of practice at the skills, so they get really solid.

PS88 - you are being very methodical and I'm quite sure your skills are increasing dramatically as a result! I wonder if I should do something similar. But the book looks so interesting I'm very tempted to skips parts. I will have to hold back and make sure I really understand each skill and concept.

ZoeCalgary: Cogratulation. You have a good start. Hope you enjoy your music journey.

PS88: You seems like hard working at first then enjoy the fruit later.

This is my newly played Blueberry Blues. Its on the page 186.
https://www.box.com/files/0/f/0/1/f_3903091124

I think this book is going to be a lot of fun! I am planning on recording the first few pieces this weekend. My favorite so far is Blues Thirds or Thirds Blues ((can't remember the exact name!). I can't play the triplets with the cool LH part yet but I can play the rest of it. It's very fun. Stay tuned and I'll post in the next day or so.

Weiyan I couldn't find your Blueberry Hill in the link you provided. Can you double check it? Thanks.

I'm happy to see you folks moving along!
I've been busy getting to know my new teacher and working on some specific technical aspects of my playing - I do hope to plunge back into this book soon!!!

Weiyan I couldn't access your music either?

I saw the book at the music store today and see you have mentioned it. I would like to hear how you are doing. I am a beginner so I thought even book one was a little steep for me.