Beginner's Blues Tutorial

Hi everybody,

I am recovering from my surgery, I still can't really sit up so I am not quite able to do this the way I wanted with piano recordings as examples for each step along the way.  However, I can give an example of something I recorded a while ago, so that you can generally know what all of this adds up to.  This is in F, while the tutorial will be in A, but nonetheless here is an example.

 F'ing Blues by Malcolm81

I think everyone should learn the blues for a couple reasons, first it is very influential and well known.  Any one in the U.S. will instantly recognize a blues riff as a blues riff, and they will have heard something similar being played in the style of music that they listen to most.  I not too well versed in modern music, e.g. new music written for a classical orchestra, but if they aren't using any blues then they are not speaking in the full musical vocabulary of their audience.

Second, it is an excellent entry point into improvisational music.  This is essentially because there is relatively little theory to keep track of, but also because the leads in the blues are generally very riffy, and when you are in the groove you can find yourself improvising the lead over the blues in much the same way you would play a drum.  It is easier to get into the groove in blues than jazz for these reasons, and if you are going to learn to improvise, you have to come to grips with the fact that it is not really an intellectual exercise, your consciousness should receed somewhat from the immediate playing while still being engaged in the music, thinking about things like your spot in the chord progression, how many more cycles through before the song break, etc.  I think it easier to get to that point in the context of the blues than in jazz.

Fundamentals

While they're isn't much theory in the blues, there is some.  Remember, music theory is there to make it easier for musicians to make music, and for music critics to discuss music.  When you are good, and in the groove, it won't be your job to explain why your music is good.  While you are beginning, however, it is a useful guide in limiting the possibilities, thereby reducing the number of bad notes that you will play, helping you get a feel for the music.

Rhythm 

In blues you almost never play straight eighth notes (though that is common in closely related styles like blues based rock).  Swing rhythm is common in jazz as well as the blues, but since in the blues it is common to play triplets as well, it is easiest to explain blues rhythm as really being in 12/8 time.

When playing this, remember to emphasize the first note of the triplet, or another way to theink about it is the note on the beat.  Also, remember that this feel is going to be the same even if the time signature is 4/4, and in many cases even if it is 4/4 are notated with just two eight notes, it is played as if the first note is two thirds of a triplet, and the second one one third.  That's the same as swing rhythm in jazz.

Also, in blues the emphasized beats are the 1 and the 3, and in general in the blues unless you are the drummer or the bassists, it's better to find a spot off the beat to play, without allowing the syncopation to make it too funky. But if you are playing by yourself finding a way to emphasize the one and the three is definitely a good idea.

Scale

Since this is a piano blog, what I give here is what I think is the easiest way to play the blues on a keyboard.  Different instruments will of course play more easily in other keys.  But I think overall it is easiest to learn to play the blues on the piano in the key of A.

Ok,don't freak out, this scale is actually pretty easy, I will explain it note for note and it won't take long.  First of all the key signature is that of A major -- that is a matter of convention, a convention which does not make particularly good sense to me either, but will make somewhat more sense when you see the chords that are used.  Second of all,these are all white keys except for Eb, which is as easy as it gets.

Anyhow, the first note is the root, A.  The second note is a minor third, which has a flat accidental, because the key signature is A major.  Then there is a perfect fourth.  Then, there is a flat fifth.  This flat fifth is something of a defining note of the blues scale--especially over the I chord, it has the effect of providing dissonance with the fifth in the chord.  In other words, it sounds out of tune in a blue way, being just under neath a chord tone.  The minor third is similar in this respect, but somewhat less definitively bluesy.  Next is the perfect fifth.  While a perfect fifth is really nothing super fancy, it is a good note, you will use it a lot.  What is noteworthy here though is that there are three chromatic notes in a row -- the fourth, the flat fifth, and the fifth.  I know of no other scale, other than the chromatic scale, which has this.  Last is the minor seventh.  This tone actually doesn't always sound out of tune, but sometimes it emphasizes the flattened nature of the seventh in the chord.

Actually they are all good notes, and you will play them all a lot.  Since there are only six of them, and one of them is really there twice (the fifth), all of the notes get a lot of use.  Hopefully your fingers will get to know them quickly, that's one of the reasons I think the blues is a good way to learn to improvise.

Chords

The chords used in the blues are major dominent seventh chords.  Playing what is essentially a minor scale over major chords is what gives the blues it's out of tune feel.  These get played with your left hand, to free your right hand up for the lead.  If someone else is playing the lead, these in your right hand with a bass note from the chord in your left is an option, but maybe not the best one.

I usually play these an octave lower than I wrote them here, but that's a matter of taste since it can sound muddy.  Anyhow, these are very straight forward voicings.  One of the advantages of the key of A is that these voicings are all the same shape-- you can just set your hand and move them up and down the keyboard, and they should land on the right keys if you match up the root note.  Also, I feel like it's best to play all the notes of the dominant seventh chord until you have your own feel for it, a lot of the blues is based off of the dischord you get from playing the blues scale over these chords, so it is easiest to just play them and not worry about some notes being implied or extra notes softening it or anything like that.

Also, note that the same blues scale is played over all of these notes.  I think jazz people and others who like to think vertically secretly think of their being 3 different modes of the blues scale, one for each of these chords, even though I honestly have never really seen it expressed that way. Additionally, the root note, in this case A, retains some significance as the root even when the other chords are being played.

Progression

The main progression in the blues is the 12 bar blues structure.  A great many songs are just this, with a modification or two to make it a little more interesting.  Ok, without further ado, the basic 12 bar progression is:

Playing

Ok, the plan was that I was going to be including recordings along the way, and especially in this section.  However, I can't play the piano, because my leg still has to be elevated from the surgery, or else it starts to hurt. With these exercises, I recomment not learning them in all the keys as you go along, but rather learn to play in A first, or some other key, if you prefer, but I think A is easiest, and then transpose around the keys, skipping the exercises that you don't feel like you need to do in each key.  I also see a lot of jazz books recomment that you take all of your licks that you like, and transpose them around all the keys.  I am not entirely sure I agree with this advice--if the layout of a particular key makes a lick easy to play in that key, I say go for it.  There will be other licks unique to other keys that you can play on them.  But I do think there should be some stock licks that you can use over anything, for when you are out of ideas (having a "bag of tricks" is a part of improvisational technique that is not talked about too much, but is definitely part of improv.)

Exercise 1

Play the blues scale, using blues rhythms, trying to make interesting riffs. A metronome might be useful here.  Try to make them more dance rhythm like, and then more head dancing like, and then more melodic, and then more dancy again.  Get the feel of a blues lead.

Exercise 2

Learn the first chord, the A7 if you are using the A blues scale, as recommended.  Find a bluesy rhtyhm with it.  Groove a while with it.  In preparation for putting the lead and the rhythm together, use your left hand for this.  Then, make something really simple that still sounds kind of bluesy--I recommend a short duration on the one and the three as an idea.  If you are playing slower, try playing softer on the one and the three, but holding the chord down.  This feels like you are kind of pumping in harmony like it's a fluid.

Exercise 3

Play the blues scale licks from 1 in your right hand over your simple rhythms from exercise 2 in your left. Just do one chord at a time.  Feel free to really jam with this.  I've seen rock musicians on stage eseentially do this exercise for 10 minutes at a time, on stage, in front of crowds--so this is the exercise where all the magic should start to happen.  Don't be afraid to get repetitive.  Don't be afraid to play without any structure at all.  Just jam.  Enjoy yourself.  Get to the point where you are able to entertain yourself with this, not because your playing the piano, but because the music your playing is interestiong to yourself.

Do this over the different chords, just jamming over each one.  Notice how the scale feels a little different over each one.  Also, at this point you might start to get a little bored of A, feel free to get a head start exploring other key signatures.

Exercise 4

Put it together into a twelve bar!  This step is actually a little tougher than it sounds, feel free to use a metronome, and don't get down on yourself for counting wrong--it's really not simple.  Part of the problem is that you were probably using all of your attention on playing, now you have to find some more consciousness somewhere.  I think the best way to think about it is that you have to learn to see ahead to the next chord.  There might be a little more to it than that, but if you can anticipate the chord changes one at a time you are well on your way to jamming over a 12 bar, getting experience that way.

Another part of the problem is that the end of the twelve bar has 2 measures of A7, and the start has 4, for a total of 6.  That can be a little high to count to measure for measure.  The best solution, in a straght ahead 12 bar, is to think of the chord changes two measures at a time -- it's easier to count to three than to six.  Another way, if you're in control of the chord progression (playing by yourself or with accomadating people) is to add a measure of D7 as the second bar -- this is called an "anticipation" and is fairly common. The result is 2 meausures of A7 from the end, one measure at the beginning, for a total of 3.  Then the bar of D7, then 2 more of A7. Breaking it up like this can really help.

Exercise 5

Transpose this around the cycle of fourths (from A to D, to G, to C, to F, to Bb, etc), and learn to play in all 12 keyes.  Oh come on, you knew this was coming.

Next Steps

You can now play 12 Bar blues, so feel free to try to find other poeple to jam with.  Also you can learn the melodies of a lot of tunes, where the solo sections will either be 12 bar or very similar.  Additionaly you can write your own tunes, either over the 12 bar prgression, a modified 12 bar progression, or you can make an 8 bar progression also.

Now that you have a feel for playing through staying withing the blues scale, it's worth realizing that no blues players really do that.  So feel free to add notes.  And I have two recommendations for beginning the expansion of notes: adding chord tones when you want to sound more harmonic, and adding chromatic phrases when you want to be more out of tune.  Most blues players use both of these devices.  I will maybe include some more stuff later on, and I will be adding some recordings to use as examples, so feel free to check this blog in the future.

Left Hand Voicing Practice

Hi everyone,

Still practicing those pesky left hand voicings.  I jammed with some people yesterday, they were kind of a Phish type bunch of guys, it was kind of fun.  They were not really theory junkies like I am, so my ear got a work out in trying to find acceptable keys to play in in what was more or less free improv.  Once I had the key, or even without it necessarily, I was finding myself coming up with creative voicings for the most part, and finding places in the beat to play.  They had a guitar, a bass, and drums.

Also, I went to see what turned out to be a "jazz recital", which is part of the Pittsfield City Jazz, a thing that spreads over two or three weeks and has various events, it involved some teenage players, in what was called the prodigy series.  The website listed for the pianist and I think the trio too is http://almamacbride.com/ .  The pianist name was Alma Macbride, the names of the other performers are probably available through one of the links above.

I have a couple thoughts on this.  One, a prodigy is not a smart kid, or a talented kid, or something like that, a prodigy is a freak of a nature that does things that boggle the mind as to how a child of that age can do it.  Calling something a prodigy series is just destined to put unrealistic expectations on young performers, who it turned out to little surprise to just be young musicians who will probably have to work for their abilities just like the rest of us.  Secondly, I think jazz is getting a lot of kids of classical backgrounds, and this is not necessarily good.  Classical training teaches you not to make mistakes.  The biggest danger in jazz is not making mistakes--people will forgive a lot of errors--it's being boring.  If jazz was golf, the object would not be to finish with a low score by not making any bogeys, it would be to make the highlight real the most times, even if you finish over par because you keep whacking the ball in the water.  I think these kids were probably a little nervous, and I think because of a classical background, and the setting was a little stuffy too, they retreated into overly safe playing, the result being that it was insufferably boring.  I left shortly.

Anyhow, here's the chord voicings I'm using here:

I solo over that using the notes of the Ab major scale, except over the one chord I use the Ab Lydian sometimes (not always, I will use the Db note as a passing note sometimes too).  Oh I was suppose to use the Eb pentatonic, which you can use over all three chords, but I forgot to do it here for the recording I think.  Darn.  Anyhow, here it is, it's literally just me starting figuring out the voicings and playing the scale on top, so don't expect Beethoven's fifth:

 Left Hand Voicing Practice by Malcolm81 

Piano is in My Car

Hi everybody,

Went to go jam with some people today, it was fun, but that means my piano is in my car, where it doesn't help me blog, and my leg is hurting so I'm not going to get it just now.

I might do some writing on stuff that doesn't need any piano playing to be recorded, I will see.  I had a lot I wanted to get done this week, but it has just been too nice out this week.

Anyhow,  I might post again a little later with something, or else tomorrow.
Malcolm

Coming Up This Week

Hi everybody,

I don't really have anything to post today, and I'm more or less out of day, so I guess I will just kind of give you my plans for the week on this blog.  I have a surgery on Friday, so chances are nothing new will come out then.  But, in the meantime, I have a lot of plans:

a) crash course on the blues
b) jamming with ii - V7 -I with left hand voicings, major scales, and pentatonics.
c) Discussion of tritones and tempered tunings, and basically the western musical scale / tradition, in particular as it relates to jazz.

Topic C, I know, looks a little mysterious as of now, but trust me, it is an interesting topic.  And I think it will fit in well somewhat with the blues discussion, but I think I will leave a lot of the interrelations there to the reader, it's just that one is meant to be a crash course in playing a style of music, and mixing that with a theoretical discussion would not serve either purpose well.

As to those left hand voicings I have been talking about ad nauseum, I mean the rootless ones that everyone credits to Bill Evans.  I think they are actually much easier to play, though a bit harder to learn.  But once they are learned, they will sound very jazzy, and be very easy to conjure up without talking much mental focus.  The difficulty with them is not playing them, but mastering them to the point where all the alterations of all the notes can be played with ease so that they can be used creatively.  But hey, have to walk before you run.

And of course I will still use shell voicings from time to time -- I am just beginning to appreciate that having the root necessitates a lot of left hand leaps, and I have not yet been able to get that to the point where I can do it subconsciously, while I am already there in the keys that I know for the Bill Evans style chords.

Hopefully I will be learning tunes using these newfangled voicing really quickly -- but there is an A and a B position of the ii-V7-I progressions, and there are 12 keys total, so it might not be overnight.

Anyhow,  big week for me, blogging, playing, surgery.
Malcolm

Recieved "The Jazz Piano Book"

Hi everyone,

I got my copy of "The Jazz Piano Book", by Mark Levine, in the mail today.  Looking at it a lot of the stuff is familiar, but on the other hand it places much different emphasis on a lot of the stuff.  The shell voicings I have been playing is given half a chapter towards the end, with the rootless voicings in the the seventh chapter, for instance--whereas I thought they were both common.

Also, looking at the theory, I am not seeing a whole lot different from what I already knew.  And there is only so much discussion of rhythm patterns, etc.

But all in all there is definitely a lot in there, and I am sure I will learn a lot from it.  Expect a review at some point in the future.

Oh, another thing--there is no real discussion of blues.  I really don't understand this, I think a lot of instructors and performers underestimate the popularity of blues tunes, both die hard jazz fans and casual listeners really like them, so it would make sense for there to be a little coverage on playing them in this book.  But I digress.  Maybe a crash course in blues theory on this blog at some point, that's all I can do about it.

Anyhow, nothing else for today,
Malcolm

Crash Course in Jazz Harmonic Theory

I have ordered "The Jazz Piano Book," and it's estimated delivery time is today, at which point I will hopefully be tackling jazz piano with renewed vigor.  But for now, I guess I would like to pause, and convey a little bit of theory, so that people interested in a jazz theory at a glance can get it, and also as something to refer to.  I suppose I will drop in tidbits on how to read the symbols in fakebooks where I can, but that is not really the focus of this blog post, that would be more of a practical theory type posting.

Also, over the course of writing this, I have realized that I really should not be writing this.  I don't quite know what I am talking about, but I am trying to confine this discussion to things that I believe are fairly common knowledge, even if I can't expound upon them or entirely justify them.

Chords


Chords are often referred to as "vertical", since that is how they appear written out on staff paper.  In Jazz, generally speaking, chords come from the piano.  Of course, you do not play notes abstractly, but rather you play a specific voicing--a layout of notes on the keyboard.  And you do this using a specific fingering, but that is purely a matter of technique, the music produced by the piano does not indicate which fingers struck which keys.

Jazz, at a fundamental level, is concerned with the ii-V7-I progression.  Thus, these different chords represent functions.  The V is often referred to as the dominant, and in a related but not identical concept, all major chords with the flattened seventh are called dominant seventh.  Anyhow, here are the basic notes to these chords:

Note that those are not necessarily the best voicings to use on a piano.  Also note, that in general, you are better off to drop the fifth than the other notes in jazz in the event that you are trying to economize--either because you are playing in a low register and want to avoid mud, or because you are out of fingers, or because you want a sparser sound, etc.  The fifth does not help to determine which of the above three functions a chord is.  

Also note the C delta notation, actually my software is putting that in.  Alternate notation is maj7, and also if you see just a 6 or a 9 that is also going to be a major seventh chord (most likely).  If you see just the letter "C" in a fakebook, that generally means a dominant seventh, whereas a "C7" would probably indicate that more extensions--e.g. a ninth--are supposed to be included as well.  Often context will help, sometimes it will be confusing.  

Scales and Modes

When making melodies designed to fit with a chord progression, or extending harmonies using a sequence of notes over time, you need some theory to help you with the horizontal aspect of harmony.  The main scale in jazz is just the good old fashioned major scale, which we will use in C.  It looks like this: 

Note that that's just all the notes in the key of C, which is the key which results from there being no key signature.  Those notes form the C major scale.  But, taking the c to be the root of the scale, you have the C Ionian mode.  Taking the D as the root of the scale with these notes gives you the D Dorian mode.  Taking the G as the root gives you the G Mixolydian mode.  You can play the C ionian over the I. the D Dorian over the ii, and the G Mixolydian over the V.  You can transpose these scales to another key by moving all of the notes the same interval (i.e. the same number of steps), with the root note being in the desired key.

An astute reader will note that doing that is the same as just playing the C major scale over all three.  And that is true.  However, sometimes you will see a stray dominant seventh in a progression that doesn't seem to link up to anything else (or what amounts to the same, links up chromatically), and in those situations is easiest to think of playing over that chord in the mixolydian mode of that chord.  Furthermore, the fourth of the ionion mode over a major chord can sound a little dissonant, so it might work to play in a lydian mode (the mode you get using the notes of the C major scale starting with F, it is the same only with a sharpened fourth) while you are over the I.  Similarly, the Dorian can work well over the vi chord, which in C would be an Am.  

Additionally, it is helpful to start thinking in terms of modes because there are alternative scales that can be used in many circumstances -- such as the whole tone scale (all notes are one whole step apart) -- but often those are not viable options for an entire piece, and sometimes are just be dropped in for one chord.  

Conclusion

This is not even scratching the surface of the enormous topic that is jazz harmonic theory, and it's a topic that as soon as you pin it down, someone will change it, just because you pinned it down and they've got a horn and want to make you look like an idiot.  Damn jazz people!

But anyhow, it's hopefully a useful introduction to the topic, and gives you something of an idea of what is going on with all those notes and chords.

Feel free to leave questions in the comment sections, or otherwise ask me, but remember I'm not a professional jazz instructor or anything.

Take care,

Malcolm

Giant Steps

Ok, this is really rough.  And it's not using the rootless voicings I was working on.  But, there's nothing wrong with shell voicings, especially when playing solo piano, and in fact I feel they are probably more versatile, so I want to be able to play it using these, and I was actually farther along with these voicings so I decided to give it a go.

In reality, the difficulty from the chords is not really the problem, the problem is the constantly shifting scales.  And since the scales are a major third apart (a Giant Step), there is going to be left hand leaps between chords no matter what, in a relatively irregular pattern at that.

So, anyhow, this is rough, filled with mistakes, and I lost my train of thought once or twice, but it's definitely a version of Coltrane's classic, "Giant Steps".


In other news, I've been practicing with the trumpet and that has been coming along pretty good.  I think I can afford one lesson but I want to be able to do a little more before I get it.

 Giant Steps (John Coltrane) -- Rough by Malcolm81

New Keyboard Amp

I got a keyboard amp today, which is new to me but actually it was used.  Also, SoundCloud is back up, so I can go ahead and post the G rhythm changes I did.  I didn't record anything new today.

 G Rhythm Changes by Malcolm81

Baby Steps to Giant Steps

Hi Everybody,

I am going to get these new fangled rootless voicings to the point where I can use them to play Coltraine's "Giant Steps".  But of course they are useful for all sorts of other things as well I am sure, and I think I want to learn them in my right hand as well, but first I will learn them in my left.

But long story long, I am going to be doing rhythms changes as practice, and for Giant Steps I need G, Eb, and B.  Since G seemed the easiest of those that's where I started, and I can pretty much play rhythm changes in G now.

Oh ok, SoundCloud is down.  Well anyhow, I've done G, and I will post it along with the others when I get them, with Giant Steps out there in the distance.  And I ordered another book, I will be looking forward to getting that for sure.

Anyhow, till next time,
Malcolm

Rootless Left Hand voicings, F Rhythm Changes

Ok everyone,

This is a blog.  I post what I'm doing, whether or not what I'm doing is actually any good.  That's me keeping it real.  And now I'm working on using left hand rootless voicings.

These are described around the web a little bit, e.g.:
http://earlmacdonald.com/jazz-piano-lessons/rootless-left-hand-piano-voicings.html
http://www.thejazzresource.com/4_note_voicings.html

The are also talked about in the book I reviewed yesterday, which is where I first learned of them.  I am finding that they are easier than root position chords in a way, because you have two positions to play from, meaning no leaps between V7 and I, for instance, since you can just flop the third and the seventh.

Also, I have small hands, which makes the Bud Powell type voicings which use the 10th impossible, and using the third is fine in a way, except that the big benefit from those voicings--that you can play them low without them getting muddy, get lost because my hands are too small.  I can reach an octave without much trouble though, so don't cry for me Argentina.

Anyhow, this is me messing around with them:
 F Rhythm Changes by Malcolm81

As always, take it easy,
Malcolm

Book Review Time! "The Piano Handbook" by Paul Humphries

Hi everybody,

The book that really got me interested in piano again, though of course I must have had an underlying interest or else I probably would not have gotten it, is "The Piano Handbook" by Carl Humphries.  I give it 4/5 piano stools!  Since I'm in a multipersonality mood, let's format this review as responses to rhetorical questions:

Why did you pick this book?

Well I was at Barnes and Noble, and it was basically either this or piano for dummies, and that probably would not have done me any good.  This book did not set arbitrary intelligence minimums for their book's audience!  Heh.  Anyhow, I didn't actually flip through the piano for dummies, it might be excellent, but I don't think it was much cheaper and this book seemed to cover a lot of ground.

Ok, why is it good?

Well, as I just said it covers a lot of ground.  It's really a good crash course in the piano.  What I did is I started on page one and went through it page by page until unit 10 or so, and then I just started skipping around to get the stuff I wanted.

Oh, wow, how well said!  By why is it not so good?

It doesn't really provide an in depth look into anything.  Also, it's basically worthless as a discussion on various musical styles, at least other than classical.  I feel like you already have to know a lot about that kind of music, maybe from playing another instrument, or maybe just from listening, in order to have any clue what the book is talking about.

That's perhaps a matter of taste.  But where this book really falls down is cohesion.  It's suppose to be a handbook, which means it should be possible to look up a topic, and learn about that topic.  But the book is not really laid out that way, instead you have to kind of remember what unit what you want to know is in, and then if it references stuff from before, you have to kind of remember what unit that stuff is in, etc.  There is a table of contents for each unit, but there isn't one for the entire book.  Honestly, I think they just didn't understand that this was suppose to used in some ways like a reference book, and that it therefore requires certain things, such as a table of contents you can use without flipping pages to all the unit table of content pages.

I see, how clearly stated.  What about the CD?

Actually, I never used the CD.  To be honest, I didn't feel like I needed it.  And no, I don't feel like the CD addresses the main issues above, the problem is that it attempts to cover an entire musical genre, and by musical genre I mean like "Rock and Roll", using only a couple of examples, each approximately 2 or three measures long.  Which is fine in a way--it's a handbook, it could be helpful if you see a listing on craigslist for a musical style you have no idea how to play, you can learn enough to fudge it, buy some clothes indicative of that style of music, and then say you are heavily influenced by the type of music you actually like to play.  But, it's not in depth study material in any case.

Wow, that was defensive.  Well defend this, you suck!  Anyhow, who should read it?

This is a really good book for someone who has played a rather large amount of piano without any formal training whatsoever, since it does touch on a bunch of techniques and exercises that you have probably been missing out on.  Also, it is good to rekindle an interest in piano, since it's broad survey nature is likely to touch on something that you might find interesting, and then you can look into playing that using materials that cover that more in depth.  And if you're interested in classical or jazz, well you are boring and artsy, respectively.  And more apropos, you will definitely find the purchase price worth of instructional material in this book, provided you are not a beginner.

As to whether a beginner could use it successfully, I don't know.  The terseness of the coverage begins on page one, and if you don't already understand how to read music notes, and how to follow rhythms, then this book could be a bit overwhelming.  I am not a music teacher, but I want to say this material is more for someone who already knows it but needs a refresher that they might be able to use as a reference than as first time instruction material.  Or who already knows most of it, but has a gap or two.  If you know how to play but don't know how to read music, for instance, this would probably be adequate.  It's just that learning to play the piano is hard to learn from scratch, and this material is probably not good enough for you.  Feel free to try it, it won't be a total waste of money because you might use it later, but then again if it doesn't work don't give up, try something specifically written to help a beginner start making music, or else hire an instructor.

So that's 4/5 piano stools?

Yep.

Anyhow, have a good one.
Malcolm

12 Bar Blues in A, Stride, Rootless Chords

Hi everybody,

In my latest hairbrained attempt, I have been playing something similar to a stride pattern except instead of hitting the downbeats with chords, they are syncopated.  And instead of playing triads I play 4 note rootless jazz voicings, this combined with having it off the beat definitely takes it out of the realm of ragtime and into a jazz type of texture that is very steady rhythmically as far as jazz piano goes.

 12 Bar Blues in A by Malcolm81

Ok, this posting counts as yesterdays because it's before 1:00.

Ok, hope everyone's having a good weekend.
Malcolm