During these difficult times, it's incredibly important to find the silver linings and always remember to count our blessings.  One of the upsides of social isolation from my fellow musicians in these past several months is that I’ve been really enjoying shedding some solo piano! 

I was wanting to learn some more tunes but instead of trying to expand my repertoire of jazz standards (which is never a bad thing!) I decided to work on songs that really resonated with me and the music I grew up listening to.  I was finding myself more drawn to pop tunes with strong melodic content which I thought would make great vehicles for solo piano arrangements and improvisation. 

One that I’ve been having some fun with recently is the Beatles’ "Michelle."  I tried to keep the main elements of the harmony in tact to not disrupt the beautiful play between major and minor resolution present in the original.  However, I wanted to sneak a few surprising changes in there to give the arrangement its own identity.  When I arrange a piece, I like to incorporate some concepts that I’d to more fluidly include in my solo piano playing -- in this arrangement I was trying to sneak in some atypical drop 2 voicings (with a crunchy diminished sound), some hybrid chords, 4th voicings, along with melodic counterlines in the left hand.  See if you can spot these different techniques in the arrangement!

This is a fairly advanced arrangement so instead of the typical tutorial I usually do, I decided to perform the arrangement (along with an improvised solo) and transcribe it note-for-note!  This was a labor of love for sure and an experiment in learning some new technology.  Let me know what you think!  

You can show your support for all things Piano Shed by purchasing the sheet music by clicking HERE.

Thanks for checking it out and happy shedding! 

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.