Beginners blues/boogie/rock discussion

Sophia · 2024-05-29T17:17:55+00:00

I have always been fascinated by boogie woogie, but of course I am limited by my very limited piano skills 😃 However now that I'm in the second Alfred book, I thought perhaps it's time to give it a try. Hopefully we can use this thread to discuss methods, challenges and most importantly, just silly banter as usual 😃 Let me start off... I'm following the method "Blues Piano for Beginners" on Youtube as recommended by @WieWaldi and I think it might be a good way to ease into the genre. Here's my attempt at applying lesson 1: This in addition to my regular Alfred "lessons" so I don't expect to progress fast... but now that I started this thread that will probably make me more committed to actually continue with it 🙂

Sophia

WieWaldi Yikes! Someone is running and me, glued to the ground...

Actually that is not entirely true. My lesson is going pretty smoothly. I'm now adding lick six, since yesterday. Only 2 more and the ending left. Plus a few of my own, and getting more adventurous by the day. I will definitely try to add a few to my recording. Congrats on finalizing the boogie lesson!

Sophia

My life is a little hectic right now and I don't have time to play much, but I still managed to add lick 7 today. It's almost identical to #6, just a few small changes. I don't think I'll win this race to finish the lesson this time, but I'm not far behind you WieWie 😋

WieWaldi

This one was very similar to blues, but a bit faster. Tempo was "moderato", this means not right up to the speed of a real boogie-woogie, but definitely faster than a blues. Anyway, it was the very first boogie lesson. Call it boogie-woogie for bloody beginners. And this is a good explanation: This one was actually a blues with heavy use of the major blues scale. Most of the elements where taken from one of the dozens of blues lessons before.

There are some klonks and boinks, here and there. But most often, I missed some notes. My fingers are too slow. The ending was a fake, just repeat last phrase and then play it backwards while slowing down. Let's hope we'll learn a proper ending for boogie woogie in the future.

WieWaldi

Sophia I don't think I'll win this race to finish the lesson this time, but I'm not far behind you WieWie 😋

Sorry, but Boogie is faster than Blues.

Nightowl

WieWaldi WieWie that was fantastic! 😃 I couldn't detect any missing notes and it all seemed very fluid to me. If I walked into a bar and heard the recording of this video playing in the background, I would think they had a pro pianist in the bar, it's that good. Well done, BBK! 👑

hebele

WieWaldi that was quite pleasant to listen. I think the ending also nicely fits to rest of it. Well done.

WieWaldi

Nightowl Thanks a lot, for your kind words. As always, you are full of praise. You know, if you are the player, you'll hear the missing notes, because you know how it should sound. Same with hickups. The challenge was to speed it up, and the challenge isn't yet over. (4 more Boogie lessons to go 😍)

WieWaldi

hebele Thanks, hebele. It seems the Blues course is paying off, slowly. How's your progress? You have finished the recital recording, so there are resources free.

hebele

WieWaldi I will do a couple of pieces from the method books; "Lion sleeps tonight" from Faber and maybe one more piece from John Thompson book. They shouldn't take too much time. Famous last words? Then I will do another blues lesson from Christian.

Sophia

I finally had a chance to sit down and listen to your boogie... ooooh we need to rename you now... Move over Wie Waldi - Wie Wooglie is in town!!!

That was super nice, well played and so relaxing (trust me, I needed something relaxing). I listened to it twice in a row, I enjoyed it so much. There were some very tricky passages! Very well played from start to finish, and I liked the ending. Especially that last Proop! Which clearly told us about your frame of mind... "Phooh, finished!I" I know that feeling so well

It was also a lot faster than I thought you'd play it. I know from experience that playing faster gets exponentially harder somehow, so again, kudos. It was also nice to hear one of my favourite licks of all the lessons. You played it first at 1:40 and then a few more times throughout.

Very nice! Onwards to the next!

Sophia

Well, all eight licks added now - only the ending left. I have been busy with my own improvising (your fault WieWie, you encouraged me to experiment). Some of my attempts sound like and some like . But all of it makes me

WieWaldi

Sophia your fault WieWie, you encouraged me to experiment

This is so nice to hear. Your first own improvising! I really can't wait to hear that. After all, this is what it is about: Learning some basic Lego^TM bricks and then glueing them together. Erm - improvising them together. And the more often you do, the easier it gets. (Says the theory)

Trust me, you will love that ending. Basically, it is THIS ending that separates us total beginners^TM from the bloody beginners^TM.

Btw: just recorded my recital piece - just in time! And tomorrow the other piece for the other forum... at least this is the plan.

Sophia

I just realized - in exactly one month (May 29) this thread will celebrate its one year anniversary! Considering I started probably a month before I posted the topic in this new forum that means I have had the blues for one year now.

It's fun to read back some of the beginning in the thread - @hebele talking about wanting to start the course someday, @WieWaldi crying about my rapid progress (not so rapid now, it's him now who did two lessons against my none) and @rsl12 offering to be my accountability partner again. And then he actually became my recital partner 😃 And lots of the jazz gurus offering advice and encouragement. @Nightowl cheering us on and ~~almost~~ convinced it's a lovely genre... This is a fun thread!

WieWaldi

Sophia @WieWaldi crying about my rapid progress (not so rapid now, it's him now who did two lessons against my none)

Ok, let's lose some serious words about it:

Playing piano is my 1_st hobby. Crying about your fast progress is my 2_nd one.
This is just a snapshot. And I cheated the last month: I played every day! It is like a sprint. It seems like I am fast, but I am not. Because this is what it is right now:

And we all know, how it ends, right?

Sophia

Eh, remember PACT. I had no choice but to play every day too! 😇 There have been a few 5 minute days, but I didn't skip one 😃 But you have committed to 40 pieces, you need to work hard too.

I just listened to the ending, it's beautiful! I can't wait to add that one. Actually I may start to add that tomorrow. The last lick is super easy, it's just the blues scale once and half a blues scale for the repeat. Even my overloaded head can learn that in a day. And then I can put the whole thing together, and add my improvisation stuff at the end. This really is a lovely lesson.

Wait, what? I walked a bit further through memory lane and I just read what you said back then! Now I feel just as bad as you did then

WieWaldi

Sophia But you have committed to 40 pieces, you need to work hard too.

40 pieces? Really?
OMG, I must have been drunk back then...

Well - I committed and I will deliver! I have a lot of easy peasy stuff to play. It is just so boring...

Sophia ow I feel just as bad as you did then

Don't worry, there are a lot of beginner grades to come.

rsl12

Congratulations! You all have made so much progress and I'm proud of you. Once I get a recital video recorded, I'm planning to focus a few months on blues. Maybe not here, but on my own thread. But I'll visit more often.

WieWaldi

rsl12 Once I get a recital video recorded,

I guess this is the general hassle of these days. I recorded yesterday and did all the video editing. And today I decided, I don't like it. And recorded again. And again - video editing on the todo list... Maybe tomorrow morning, before Sam opens up.

Blues should be quite easy for you. IMO it is the easiest genre, except for nursery rhymes, maybe. Waiting curious, what you will submit.

rsl12

WieWaldi Blues should be quite easy for you. IMO it is the easiest genre, except for nursery rhymes, maybe. Waiting curious, what you will submit.

Well.... blues can be as difficult as you want it to be!!! Here is one of my attempts from a couple years ago:

It's more jazz than blues. Because my blues is weak! For my next project, I want to focus on New Orleans music, which means a lot of blues-related material. I'm looking forward to it!

Sophia

What? I felt so cool, so suave, so grown up... playing blues. And then this:

WieWaldi Blues ... IMO it is the easiest genre, except for nursery rhymes, maybe.

Reduced from to in two seconds is

NOT FAIR!

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