Several years back, some old college friends of mine asked if I wanted to play in a roots/reggae cover band.  Of course, I happily agreed.  What's better than playing feel-good music with old friends?   While I was excited to play music for the pure fun of it, I also looked at the new experience as an opportunity to learn something, to expand my horizons as a keyboard player.  I had dabbled in reggae here and there, but never took the time and effort to really study it.  Early on in checking out this new style, I made a discovery that completely changed how I played reggae keyboard.  The discovery was a technique called "The Bubble."  

The key to the bubble is, of course, the rhythm.  The right hand plays predictably on beats two and four (think of the classic reggae-guitar "chick - chick").  The spiciness is in the left hand, which plays all up-beats (or the "ands").  You'll mostly hear the bubble played on organ, but it also sounds great on piano as well as a Rhodes or Wurly patch.     

Once I started using The Bubble in reggae music, I found it extremely useful in other styles as well, including funk, jazz, and Afro-Cuban music.   I noticed master jazz pianists like Herbie Hancock and Danilo Perez playing similar types of rhythms when they were comping.

Check out the video tutorial below, it's a technique much more easily demonstrated than written-out. 

And last, it's only appropriate to end with my favorite Bob Marley lyric:  "One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain." 

Happy Shedding!
  

It may be blasphemous in some circles of heady jazz musicians, but I love folk music.  I've even been known to call my trio music "instrumental folk" but that might be pushing it a bit.   But in any case, I can't deny it: old country music, folk songs, and Americana hold a special spot in my heart.  I just love the longing lyrics, the not-so-polished vocals, and the hypnotic rhythm of finger-picking.  Maybe in another life I was (or will be?) a guitar playing singer-songwriter.

This is why I was thrilled when I Skype student of the Piano Shed asked to learn the Willie Nelson tune "Crazy."  This is a song that I've always loved but never played on piano, so I decided to write an intermediate level piano arrangement for my student, myself, and for you all!  This song was made famous by Patsy Cline and has been covered like crazy (pun INTENDED).  Here's Willie's version:  

Below is a video of me playing the arrangement a few different ways.  Listen to the youTube video as you follow along with the sheet music.  

I thought this tune would be a good opportunity to work on a steady left-hand quarter note pulse.  This reminds me of the Erroll Garner style.  The left-hand chomps away on the chords, providing a solid rhythmic foundation, while the right hand freely interprets the melody.   Check out the master at work --  listen to the way he makes the quarter notes groove in the left hand!

Here's how I would go about learning this one:

STEP 1:  Get the left-hand solid until you can play along with a metronome.  Start with a metronome on all 4 beats, and then if you are up for a challenge, check it out with the metronome on 2 & 4 like I do in the video.  It's harder than you might think!  

STEP 2:  Right hand.  Similar to the Garner style, the right hand has a way of floating over the steady rhythm of the left hand.  It's important to mention that I didn't transcribe the melody exactly as Willie sang it. Why that's?  Well, Willie has a very unique way of phrasing the melody.  (Phrasing, by the way, describes the way a melody is interpreted by the performer -- the way he/she changes the rhythm, the timing, the dynamics, and articulations to make it sound more...well...human).  He plays around with the rhythm, often singing behind the pulse, giving it this great lazy and defeated feeling.  If I transcribed the rhythm exactly as he sang it it would be terribly confusing to read and wouldn't be fun for anyone.  It's more about a feeling than notes on a page.  
So, first learn the melody as I wrote it.  Again, it won't sound like the recording but it will be close (check out the video!). Then once you have it down, try and get a little more adventurous with the rhythm.  Listen to the Willie Nelson recording and see how close you can get to off-kilter rhythmic stylings.  

When working on playing melodies on an instrument, one of the best things we can do is listen to vocalists and imitate how they do it.  Miles Davis said that he used to listen to Frank Sinatra records to learn how to interpret melodies.  If we can make our instrument sound like it's singing, we are doing something right. 

Now see if you can that grooving persistent left hand, all while playing a loose melody on the top of it.  Make Erroll Garner proud! 

STEP 3:  As a final challenge for the advanced player, you can try to go off the page a bit and make your own stride arrangement of the tune.  Check out what I did at the end of the video for a guideline.  This is a whole other topic, but basically what I am doing is: 

LH:  plays root notes on beat 1 or (beats 1 and 3) then then the chord (or parts of the chord) on the other beats.  
RH:  plays the melody but thickens it up by adding in octaves and chord tones.  

Happy Shedding!

Autumn Leaves is a classic that every jazz pianist should know.  I first fell in love with this tune listening to the Bill Evans Trio version from the album “Portrait in Jazz.”

In case you don’t know it, I’m here to help with an easy piano arrangement that includes a notated rhythm in the right hand (so you don’t sound like a square when you play it for all of your friends) and some super easy left hand voicings, called “shell voicings”

Here is a video with step-by-step instructions and sheet music to go with it.  

In Step 1, we learn just the right hand melody.  It’s important to note here that I want you to play this rhythm exactly as it’s written.  This is a bit different than reading a melody off of a lead sheet (such as what you’d find in the Real Book) where you might interpret the rhythm.  One of the goals of this arrangement is to help you learn how to play swing rhythms that are typical for the style.  

Pay close attention to whether the notes fall on downbeats or upbeats and really make sure you hit it in the right place.  Articulations are very important:  a good rule of thumb for swing articulations is that quarter notes get played short and eight notes are played legato (connected).   And last, don’t forget to swing those eighth notes!  That’s not notated in the music, so you’ll just have to watch the video to get the feel. 

Once you have the melody down and can play it with a swing feel, try to really lock it in by playing with the metronome on beats 2 and 4, like I do in the video. 

Step 2:  Left hand alone.  The left hand uses “shell voicings” which are basically ways to play a chord that don’t utilize every note in the chord – sometimes they only have 2 notes in them!  The voicings I use in this arrangement are either root + 3, root + 7, or root + 6. 

In the arrangement of Beautiful Love I recently wrote for the Shed, I used some voicings that spanned a tenth in the left hand and I got a lot of comments that that was too big of a stretch.  Understandably so, a 10th is not easy for all to reach.  Well…the people spoke and I listened.  You’ll be happy to know that these voicings are much easier to reach, spanning a 7th at most. 

Step 3:  Put it all together.  Again, try it with a metronome on 2 and 4.

Step 4:  Embellish the rhythm.  Here’s where the fun starts.  Get creative – first keep the right hand as is and just play around with the rhythm of the left hand.  Then once you are comfortable with that, start to embellish the right hand.  Switch up the rhythm, heck, go crazy and add a few notes here and there.  Watch the video for inspiration. 

Step 5:  Improvisation over the Shell Voicings.  Shell voicings are great to use in your LH while you improvise.  They provide just enough harmonic and rhythmic support without being such loud and full voicings that they take up all the sound.  They really let the right hand sing without getting in the way.  No matter what your level of experience is, give it a try.  If you are new to improvisation, stick to using Bb major scale or even a G minor pentatonic scale just to get a feel for it.

There ya have it…Autumn Leaves in 5 easy steps. 

Happy Shedding!