For my latest youTube tutorial, we'll be digging into a Stevie Wonder classic -- You Are the Sunshine of My Life.  I play this tune all the times on gigs -- it's great one to play with both vocalists and instrumentalists.  The inspiration to teach this one came from a Skype student of mine.  So...this one is for you Cara!  Cara decided to learn this song and sing it to her father for his birthday...how sweet is that!  

I hope you enjoy learning this one.  It has some great piano voicings which mostly utilize root notes in the left hand with 7/3/5 or 3/7/9 in the right hand.  It has some great examples of how simple voice-leading moves with one finger in the right hand can lead to whole new chords and sounds!  It also has a few "hybrid chords" (where we have one chord in the right hand and a different bass note in the left).  Check out the G/F in the 2nd measure -- wooo!!   And of course, a beautiful mini-modulation to A major from C major.  What I can say -- it's Stevie Wonder.  It's perfect.  

You can click on the button below to purchase the sheet music transcription of the arrangement I play in the Part 1 video as well as the Part 2 video which completes the song.  

Happy shedding!  

Hello Piano-shedders!  

Boy I've missed you all.  I hope you've missed me too.  It's hard to believe it's been TWO YEARS since my last blog post.  You may have wondered where I've been all this time?

Well, the great news is that I landed my dream job teaching in the harmony department at the Berklee College of Music.  I'm incredibly happy to working with such talented and diverse musicians from all around the globe.  It's been a whirlwind of a two years getting acclimated to the new teaching environment.  I'm learning so much from other faculty members, my students, and am absolutely loving it.  

Unfortunately, it has meant that the Piano Shed Blog has been placed on the backburner for a bit, but I'm writing to assure you that I am not gone for good!  I'm still here and I've got some great things lined up!  First off, I have a whole new way of analyzing and thinking of contemporary harmony thanks to the brilliant minds at Berklee that I'm excited to share with you all.   First up is re-analysis of Georgia on My Mind, and next I have a great lesson planned on Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life.

I've been receiving requests for some more jazz standards (on it!) and also for downloadable sheet music, all of which coming this Spring.  Be on the lookout.    

In the meantime, check out my latest release from HDPiano.  I teach the piano intro to the brilliant You've Got a Friend by Carol King.  This has some great gospel voicings and progression in it, check it out!  

Happy shedding -- Jeff D. 

In my latest offering from HDpiano, I show you how to play the chords to the Verse (the "A" section of the AABA form) of the Hoagy Carmichael classic "Georgia on My Mind."  For this tutorial, I decided to teach the chords as played in the well-known Ray Charles version of the tune.