Bluesy Amazing Grace

I did not see this coming.

On Wednesday after work, I headed north to Brevard, NC, where my parents live. My mom was getting cataract surgery Thursday morning, and even though my sister lives here in Brevard, my mom wanted me here to stay with my dad while she was getting surgery.

So I packed my laptop (so I could work remotely) and my 61-key Yamaha keyboard (so I could at least do some minor 7th and blues improvisation exercises).

I got a good bit of work done (I had to), but I honestly didn't expect to get much done on piano.

Boy, was I wrong.

Looking for "Amazing Grace"

I wanted to play "Amazing Grace" for my dad. Even though I can play it by ear, I wanted to find a good arrangement. I was looking ... and then it dawned on me that Piano With Jonny probably had one.

Well, they have a whole course on how to play Amazing Grace in a gospel blues style! Not only that, but they have it in intermediate and advanced versions!

My time to learn something new was limited, so I started working through the intermediate course, and all I can say is ... wow. Just wow.

Maybe It's a Grace Thing

I had no intention of learning anything new this weekend, much less on a little plastic keyboard, but instead I found the course I have been needing all my life. I have so many years of playing hymns and adding broken chords in the left hand, thinking of how they all sounded pretty but also how I was dying of boredom, doing the same old things over and over.

Friends, my days of being bored while improvising on hymns are over.

I have a lot still to learn and a lot of work to do, but this course has started me on the unexpected journey of learning to play in that gospel blues style I have always loved but never understood: slides, harmonizations, tremolo, walking bass, etc. All that stuff that I just needed someone to teach me because, for whatever reason, this classically trained girl couldn't figure out for herself.

Here is a halting version of "Amazing Grace" from the course, just a few hours after working my way through it at breakneck speed because I was so eager to learn it all. I'm mostly reading the music, but not completely. Since making this video a few hours ago, I've already worked on similar versions for "Higher Ground" and a couple of other hymns. I'm so excited.

My favorite part is the end when my dad says it's a pretty song. He is 90 years old and I know I will treasure that little clip for the rest of my life.

That rusty old key turned big-time this weekend. I'm on my way to being the pianist I want to be. So thankful for Jonny May and PWJ.

Comments

Rethinking Bare Necessities

Today's breakthrough moment (there are actually two of them) focuses on "Bare Necessities." As you'll remember, I discovered Jonny May's arrangement back in early March and immediately decided to learn it. I printed out the music, started the course, and proceeded to learn the stride section, posting a few videos of my progress. Ha. I bet those videos make it look like I was making progress. I guess I was ... but not really. And I realized something this weekend that I hadn't before: Because I was thinking of "Bare Necessities" as a "fun" piece, I wasn't practicing it seriously or diligently. I wasn't treating it as something I wanted to master. This mindset might work with an easier piece, but this arrangement isn't easy. The result: despite a little progress at the outset, I wasn't moving forward. I was stalled. Breakthrough #1 The first breakthrough was realizing that if I truly want to learn this piece and play it well,...

March Goals Recap/Looking Ahead to April

It's April 1, and time to revisit the goals I set for last month. I practiced a total of 50.45 hours in March, averaging 1.62 hours (or just over an hour and a half) per day. Realistically, I practice about 45 minutes to an hour a day on weekdays, and I usually get at least one longer practice (or multiple shorter practices) in on one or both days of the weekend to bring the average up. CLASSICAL GOALS Chopin, F Minor Nocturne March Goal: Have entire piece by memory and performance-ready. I have about 90% of the piece by memory, but I still have some work to do before it's performance-ready. The only two sections that I don't quite have are "The Agitation" and the "stretto" section with the seventh chords. I'll work on both this week and will have them both memorized before the weekend. April Goal: Finish memorizing, and polish, polish, polish! My focus now is really on phrasing and dynamics. I have the notes down, even in the difficult passages. Fro...

Maple Leaf Rag Breakthrough

Oh, Maple Leaf. Where to begin? At the Beginning I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I learned the A and B sections of Maple Leaf Rag back in the 1990s. I can’t tell you if it was early, mid- or late 90s, but it was during those 10 years after I’d graduated college, when I was playing a good bit of piano but not taking regular lessons from anyone. I don’t remember teaching it to myself at all. I just know that, at some point, the first half of Maple Leaf Rag was part of my two- or three-song repertoire of pieces I’d be able to play by memory over the next 25 years. It was always sloppy and I knew it, but people loved it, and so I played it if there was ever a piano around. Back in January, I decided to properly re-learn those two sections, and to finally learn the C and D sections of this wonderful piece. I worked on these over the next month or two, learning (and-relearning) the notes pretty quickly ... but it took time to memorize, and also to get everything to tempo surpassing a...

Picking Up the Pieces

Search This Blog