AQUA

12 responses so far ↓

• 1 Sebastian // Dec 6, 2007 at 12:39 pm

  Hi Jonathon, thanks a lot for that great tutorial! I’m having a lot of fun with it ! What would be great if continue this in future times is the riffs written down on sheet to donwload.

  I’m looking forward to more!

  Greetings from Germany, Sebastian

• 2 Follow-Up: How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano (PDF of Techniques Available) // Mar 9, 2008 at 11:27 pm

  […] in November, 2007 I posted my video series on How to Play a Funk Groove on the Piano. A number of people have contacted me hoping for written music for the techniques shown in the […]

• 3 slawko // Mar 18, 2008 at 3:32 pm

  Hi Jonathon, thanks for great tutorial!
  My friend and I try to follow it (and we are very motivated to learn the groove because it sounds, well… groovy :o) ). The problem is with the lesson 4 so far. I think that what’s missing is the part where you’re plaing both left and right hand’s part together but slowly, just like you do when you introduce new part. We have problem synchronizing left and right hand in this lesson :o)
  Anyway - we keep practice. I hope the music sheet will help a bit.

  Greetings from Poland, Slawek

• 4 Jonathon // Mar 18, 2008 at 6:04 pm

  Yeah, definitely download the music. It shows both hands together. I would try to break the measures down into a sixteenth-note grid, so you can see which notes line up between the hands. In other words, if you break the beats down into the old “One ee and a, Two ee and a, Three ee and a, Four ee and a” — where each syllable is a sixteenth note. See if you can figure out where you push the keys down to line up. Do it very very slowly, until you get the feel of it. Good luck, and thanks for commenting! -Jonathon

• 5 Free Video Blues Piano Lessons - 30 Must-Have Blues Piano Licks // Mar 18, 2008 at 11:26 pm

  […] 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 […]

• 6 dbertels // Mar 25, 2008 at 4:18 am

  Hi Jonathan

  Thanks for the great series on funk piano.

  I have one reservation about presenting the bass and comping individually (as in your first lessons) - because I’m really learning them together - or do you advocate learning them separate this way?

  I myself have some videos on playing Bach at http://www.dirkbertels.net/music/favourite_Bach_performances.php and some funk grooves at
  http://www.dirkbertels.net/music/Piano_diary_2000_03.html
  Maybe some is of interest to you.

  Once again thanks for the excellent presentations …

  Dirk Bertels

  dirk@dirkbertels.net

• 7 Jonathon // Mar 25, 2008 at 6:05 am

  Excellent Stuff, Dirk! Although it’s always hard to pick just one, Bach is definitely very near the top of my list of favorite composers. I think its the programmer in me coming out. If you haven’t heard Glenn Gould perform Bach, then I’d recommend it.

  Your funk grooves look cool, too — I like the way you set the bass to not always hit the downbeats, and to interplay with the comping. Regarding your reservation — I chose to present them separately, so that students would have the simpler option of learning them one at a time, and also allows an understanding of what’s going on in each part. The music download shows them together. And you’re absolutely correct — to master them *together*, you’ll have to practice them that way!

• 8 dbertels // Mar 30, 2008 at 6:58 pm

  I have an (i think ) more exact rendition of your funk groove 13 score. If you’re interested send me a quick email and I will send it to you. Love that lick by the way.

  And your ‘rolling lick’ (14) is something I’ve been hearing so much and never been able to figure out before - so that was an eye-opener.

  It’s interesting how few websites offer free instructions on funk piano (are people crazy or what ?) … So yours is really the only one that ‘googles’ up in this category.

  I’m also interested in what SW you used for editing the videos (and what camera).

  Lastly, do you know of any interesting (free) repositories of funk grooves (either midi or score).

• 9 Jonathon // Mar 30, 2008 at 7:24 pm

  Cool! Just send it to me, and I’ll update my notation. I did the scores pretty quickly, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t some mistakes in there… Glad you like the rolling lick. It plays well in many genres (I have the same thing over in the blues licks series). Haven’t found much in the way of funk grooves for piano, I’m afraid — you and I will have to continue to help out here!

  As far as software, I edited these on Adobe Premiere, but I often use the more powerful, but less user-friendly, and *free* Avisynth. This is my old camera — a Canon ZR-200 cheap Mini DV camcorder. I’ve since upgraded to an HD Canon, which I’ll use on the next series. Hopefully it will be a bit sharper!

• 10 dbertels // Aug 14, 2008 at 7:37 am

  You play lick 16 differently each time in your example where you play all your funk licks. I liked every one of those iterations - so managed to score the 4 variations. Interested in the midi/score files for them?
  How about a deal, you release your 2nd lot of Funk licks and you get the files …

• 11 Jonathon // Aug 14, 2008 at 11:22 am

  Ha! Nice, Dirk! I’m definitely interested! I’ll trade you the music for funk groove #2 and an audio file (before the vid is out… early access!). Somehow, I feel like you’re going to give the best review of my scoring that I’d find anywhere… ;)

• 12 Jonathon // Aug 22, 2008 at 11:59 pm

  Alrighty — I added downloaded audio from the original video, along with sneak preview audio and the full downloadable notation for the upcoming sequel, “How to Play a Funk Groove, II”. Downloads are here: http://www.aqua-web.com/2008/08/22/early-beta-release-of-how-to-play-a-funk-groove-ii/

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