Duke Ellington titled his autobiography "Music is My Mistress."  Well, if music is MY mistress than comedy is my girlfriend on the side when I get tired of my mistress.  (Wait...what?!?)  Anyway, I love a good laugh and Jimmy Fallon never fails to deliver.  I loved watching him on "Late Night" and now he is seriously killing it on the "The Tonight Show."  The Roots, "the best band in Late Night," add an incredible amount to the show, of course with their incredible musical flexibility and wittiness but also in their sporadic comedic performances.  I love the play between Jimmy and Roots' keyboardist James Poyser during the weekly "Thank You Notes" sketch.  I'm excited to teach to you all how to play Poyser's "Thank You Notes" piano music.  Check out the video tutorial below. 

 By the way if you haven't heard of James Poyser, check him out...NOW!  He's a fabulous pianist, keyboardist, & producer.  He has worked with many great R&B and hip hop artists like J Dilla, Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, and Bilal and plays some REAL DEAL R&B and gospel keyboards.  

Happy Shedding!

Hey guys and girls!  Today I wanted to share some exciting news with you all -- I've recently joined the team at HD Piano, a super-cool website that produces high quality video tutorials that teach current pop music & classic rock tunes. They combine HD video with this great program called "Synthesia"  (Think Guitar Hero for the piano).  I wouldn't recommend exclusively using Synthesia to learn piano, but it's a great way for novices to get their feet wet and get some fast results.  I've been recording a new song tutorial about once a week for the guys at HD Piano and I am thrilled to be reaching their huge community of students --- they have over 100,000 subscribers on youTube!   I'll be sharing some of my favorite videos that I've done for them on my blog.  If you go to Hdpiano.com, you should check out some videos by Phil, the other teacher for the website.  He has a great teaching style -- fun, laid-back, and very clear.  

Check out this recent tune I did for them -- it's a killer piano introduction to "Desparado" by the Eagles.  I'm not ashamed to say that I just love this tune.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for a sappy piano ballad.  I remember when I was growing up as an angsty teenager like it was yesterday.  I printed out the lyrics from my AOL account (we are talking dial-up motem folks!), plunking out what chords I could figure out by ear, and singing my heart out.  

Anyway, I hope you enjoy learning the intro.  I sure enjoyed revisiting this tune after all these years.  

Happy Shedding!