Styles Track Update: "After You've Gone" (Week 1)

At Piano With Jonny, there are three learning tracks: Foundations, Styles, and Skills. This year, I’m dividing most of my practice time between the three, and I'll be posting updates on each both here and in the PWJ Community. Within Styles, I'll be spending the first quarter (and possibly the first half) of the year in Ragtime/Stride, after which I'll switch back to Blues.

Which brings me to my current course: "After You've Gone," stride-style.

Week 1: Melody and Chords (with one stubborn problem)

The first lesson strips everything down to just the melody and chords. My goal this week was to memorize both completely.

Done. Since it was such a nice tune, and I actually enjoyed playing it using a "four on the floor" style with the root chords, I decided to work just a little harder and to be able to play this bare-bones version at performance level.

Not so easy.

There was one line that absolutely refused to cooperate—the one where the lyrics go:

“Someday, when you grow lonely
Your heart will break like mine
And you’ll want me only”

The chords move quickly, the melody sneaks in a few accidentals, and for reasons I still can’t fully explain, that line became my nemesis. Two days ago, I had the entire song ready to record—except for that line. I could play everything else comfortably, then hit those measures and suddenly feel like I’d never seen the song before.

This morning I did some good old-fashioned work with the metronome, inching it a little higher after playing the line four or five times each, and voila! I had it down. Of course, then I had to practice transitioning to the measure that followed because I wasn't used to playing that smoothly. But eventually, I got it, and I was able to share my stripped-down version with the PWJ Community.

The Weeks's Win (Actually, a Couple of Them)

One really cool win is that I’m already using tools from the Analysis course to dabble with "After You’ve Gone" in different keys. That connection of learning something in one course and immediately applying to another feels like a huge deal. It's also thrilling when I hit all the right chords without really thinking about them!

And a smaller win: I didn’t really know this song before, and now I love it. I’ve been humming for days, and I know it's becoming a part of me.

Of course, the lyrics also make me laugh because they sound like a template for a Taylor Swift song: you’ll miss me, you’ll regret it, you’ll want me back. I guess some emotional formulas are timeless!

Progress Video

Here’s my Week 1 update video for "After You’ve Gone." This is very much the early stage, but it’s the groundwork everything else will build on. Until next time!

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