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:
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!
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!
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