Wow! It’s been a long time!
No, wait. It’s been a ridiculously long time!
However, I’m now devoting a significant amount of my free time to getting a ton of new stuff ready, so hang in there. Exciting things are coming soon!We decided not to move, so at the moment, we’re still settled in good old Austin, Texas, and I’m making the time to put together some fresh stuff.
Here’s a quick little jam I threw together the other night to tide you over…
Stay tuned!
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Not much to report, but I did want to make mention that my family is in the middle of preparing for a cross-country move, so it’s been too busy for much in the way of new piano videos! Sorry for the slowness, but once we’re all settled in our new digs, the funk will resume. :) Hopefully this will be in the June time frame.
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I’ve been trying to get to this for a while, but it was never quiet enough in the house, or there was too much going on. I finally got a quick recording of this chart along with the backing track so you can get a feel for how it sounds with all the parts. I’m working on a set of free lessons that will break this (and the first funk groove in C, and the funk groove in F) down into pieces with tips on how to get the feel right, some practice techniques for getting the more technically challenging parts under your fingers, and some of the voicing and theory that makes it all work.
I’m eager for early feedback on how these lessons would benefit you the most, so don’t hesitate to either comment or contact me directly with any suggestions or requests for these upcoming series.
Check back (or subscribe to my youtube channel) for these upcoming series!
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It has become a tradition for me to write a lullaby for my wife for Christmas. I keep hoping that one of these years, I’ll write something that comes close to conveying how important she is to me, but I always fail miserably. This year is no exception, but I do like the way this piece turned out. It also happens to be a lot of fun to play, with the way the middle voice rolls off the fingers passing back and forth from hand to hand. Here are some files for downloading, and a video of me playing it on my trusty Yamaha.
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Here’s another little piano funk groove for you. This one falls squarely in the “funk” category (not as jazzy as the last one). I’ve put together some sheet music which is reasonably true to what I played. I made a few intentional alterations where I feel like I should have played something slightly different. You can also get an MP3 of the audio, as well as three different speeds of the backing drums and bass to practice with.
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That time is here again. The first part of December is always my favorite, because I haven’t been overwhelmed with too much of a good thing. The season is new and its the best time to enjoy my all-time favorite Christmas song — "Christmas Time is Here" from A Charlie Brown Christmas (written by Vince Guaraldi). Simple and reflective is how I like this tune, and how I’ve chosen to play it. If you feel so inclined, head over to YouTube, and offer up a rating and a comment. It helps bring it up for other people’s searches.
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Ok, lots of happenings in the FunkGroovoSphere these days. Two separate people (that I know of) have managed to pull off decent videos of themselves playing the first funk groove:
Excellent stuff! If you’re working on any of the stuff in my videos, shoot some video and post them as video responses! First, I love to see other people get these down. Second, I’ll be happy to offer tips/suggestions — if you want ‘em :)
In addition, friend and reader, Dirk Bertels has honored me with putting some snippets from the first funk groove in as one of the built-in demos for his cool Piano Groove Tutor.
Find the ‘Launch’ button on his page to bring this cool beast up. It provides a musical view of Midi Files which shows some notation, and highlights the playing of that notation on an onscreen keyboard. You can freely change the tempo to anything you’d like, enable/disable the right or left hand, backing rythm and metronome. This could really develop into a great practice tool!
Here’s a quick clip of my simplistic MIDI sound card rendering up this funky little section:
http://www.aqua-web.com/assets/PianoGrooveTutor-Funk1.mp3
Dirk’s other default demos include some very tasty traditional latin piano parts, so be sure to check that out as well.
It’s so very cool to see these things find their way out onto the net!
Until next time,
- Jonathon
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(plus downloadable audio from “How to Play a Funk Groove, I”)
I’ve been trying. Really trying.
Honest.
I’ve gotten my second funk groove all written, and I can actually play it(!) but with summer vacations and busy work schedules, I haven’t found the time to get the video for it put together yet. So lets spin this into a positive, shall we? Read on…
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Just a minor update while I continue to try and find time to finish up my in-progress piano series, “How to Play a Funk Groove, II.”
A number of people have requested transpositions of the 30 must-have blues licks into other keys. Thanks to software, this is very easy! You can now get PDF files for the 30 blues licks in most of the major keys. I’ve also uploaded the raw Finale file, so if you have that software, you can take them and bend them to your will! See below for links to them all. [Read more →]
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For those of you who have followed my Series on How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano, I’ve got another free video series for you. This time — it’s over to the blues for 30 must-have blues piano licks.
Here’s the final demo of the series (after the break), where I run through a bunch of the licks from the series. Scroll down for links to the downloadable music (as a PDF), downloadable MP3 files of the backing tracks and links to the entire series.
[Read more →]
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