Beginners blues/boogie/rock discussion

Sophia

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 🙂

rsl12

Sophia I think I'm still your accountability partner, so I have to congratulate you on taking your first steps toward boogie woogie, just like you were planning!

WieWaldi

This reminds me very much of my first blues scale, about a year ago. Maybe more.
Last July I finished lesson 8 and posted on the themed "jazz and blues" recital.

Boogie lessons would be something for the fast pieces, but I doubt I ll have something presentable ready until then.

Sophia

WieWaldi Very nice!!! Some of those licks are so cute... as are those bass lines. Something to look forward to some day 😃

WieWaldi

Sophia I have this strange feeling that you catch up to me very soon...
And yes, this course of Christian is just fun to do. We pianists are said to be very serious, too serious about our playing. He isn't, it's just the right mixture between fun and learning.

Pallas

WieWaldi I'm being a fly in the wall in this discussion, but I wanted to say that I'd seen Christian's channel before and he seems like a wonderful teacher and amazing, charismatic person. He's delightful.

Sophia

Oh lovely!!! I didn't dare bring that conversation across, but yes. I was actually going to call it the accountability thread but I didn't think that was fair to the other forum 😃 You're the reason of this topic for sure 😃

Sophia

Finished lesson 2 (not perfect, but good enough to move on to lesson 3, I think). That one will a little (ok a lot) longer, I'm sure of it. But we'll get there 🙂

hebele

Sounds like a lot of fun. I am adding that course to my todo list 🙂 Maybe for next year.

Sophia

I know right? 😃 So many delightful genres, so little time... I want to learn it all. But for now I'll stick with the method book that will lead to more lyrical/classical pieces eventually. And now this blues course on the side which will lead to being able to play boogie woogie, hopefully, eventually 😎

TC3

I'll second (third?) Christian Fuch's videos, lots of great stuff there. He also sells sheet music to go along with the lessons, which is often helpful.

Sophia

I purchased three of his books to support him. I'm also halfway lesson 3. He's a fun teacher, and his lessons are easy to follow. No recording yet, because I want it to sound a little smoother first and also finish the entire lesson.

Oh, and it just so happens that the next piece in my Alfred book is a boogie woogie version of Frankie & Johnnie!

Sophia

An atypical practice session - I thought I had it licked because Frankie and Johnnie is not exactly hard to play. I had the camera ready, a kitten appeared out of nowhere and of course disaster ensued! I still had fun learning how to add some titles and basic editing... and of course it's a boogie of sorts so it still counts! 😃

TC3

Sophia Kitty! 😃

That's a fun tune. I worked it up to a halfway decent tempo at one point but I haven't played it in quite a while.

Sophia

Lesson 3! Not entirely done yet, but eh... who cares when you can feature kittens to distract from the mistakes! 😃

TC3

Sophia Love everything about it!

Jazzpunk

Sophia I’m working through this course as well. Fuchs is a great teacher and the lessons are fun to play. Once you teach those kittens to play the “blues” notes, you’ll have a nice little band going. 🙂

WieWaldi

Reminds me a little bit about Tom & Jerry. Tom trying to play piano while Jerry is making his efforts as hard as possible. Nevertheless Tom manages to finish the piece - somehow. 🤣
Here you are, try to play piano and Jerry and Nibbles (Tuffy Mouse) are doing their best to distract you. And nevertherless - you finished! Yeah!!! 👏👏👍
Great show!!

Sophia

WieWaldi lol!!! You know what really amazed me? They continued their stoic quest no matter what and actually timed getting that pencil down just as I managed to struggle through to the end 🤣

Sophia

Jazzpunk Yeah, he is a lot of fun. I just started to watch video 4 - pfew! That's going to take some doing! I'm glad I bought the sheet music, because my brain memory bank is starting to get a little overloaded by now. It's nice to be able to peek every now and then, without having to play the video 10 times in a row ^_^

WieWaldi

Sophia Lesson 4? 😲 It took me more than one month to go through lesson 16! Your progress is remarkably fast. You'll catch up very soon. Keep going. 👍
Can't wait to learn the same stuff, then.