Showing posts with label willie myette. Show all posts

Otis Spann Blues and Popular Blues Songs

Image via WikipediaMy Cousin came over for the Holidays and he told me that he had visited The House of Blues in L.A.
Have you ever been there?

Anyways, we got to talking about popular blues songs and I wondered if you have a favorite...

Here's a few:

1. AIN'T NOBODY'S BUSINESS IF I DO  by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins


[Bb] There ain't nothin' [D7] I can do, [Gm] nor nothin' I can [D7] say,
[G7] That folks don't [Dm7] cri[G7]ti[Cm]cize [G7] me.
[Cm] But I'm gonna [G7] do just as I [Cm] want to any[C]way,
[C7] I don't care if they all des[F#7]pise [F7] me.

[Bb] If I should [D7] take a notion
[Gm] To jump in[Eb]to the ocean,
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do. [G7] [C7] [F7]

[Bb] Rather than [D7] persecute me,
[Gm] I choose that [Eb] you would shoot me,
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do. [G7] [C7] [F7]

[Bb] If I should [D7] get the feelin'
[Gm] To dance up[Eb]on the ceiling',
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do. [G7] [C7] [F7]

[Bb] If I let my [D7] best companion
[Gm] Drive me right in[Eb]to the canyon,
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do. [G7] [C7] [F7]

[Bb] After all the [D7] way to do [Gm] is do just as you [D7] please,
[G7] Regardless [Dm7] of [G7] their [Cm] talk[G7]in'
[Cm] Often times the [G7] ones that talk will get [Cm] down on their [C] knees,
[C7] And beg your pardon for their [F#7] squak[F7]in'. (sp?)

[Bb] If I dis[D7]like my lover
[Gm] And leave (him/her) [Eb] for another,
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do. [G7] [C7] [F7]

[Bb] If I go to [D7] church on Sunday,
[Gm] Then caba[Eb]ret on Monday,
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do. [G7] [C7] [F7]

[Bb] If my friend ain't [D7] got no money
[Gm] And I say, "Take [Eb] all mine honey,"
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do. [G7] [C7] [F7]

[Bb] If I lend (him/her) [D7] my last nickel
[Gm] And it leaves me [Eb] in a pickle,
[Bb] It ain't nobody's [F7] business if I [Bb] do.

2. Baby Please Don't Go

Baby, please don't go.

	F
Baby, please don't	go.

Baby, please don't go back to New Orleans

	G7	C
You know it	hurts me	so

Babe, I'm way down here,
You know I'm way  down here.
Babe, I'm way down here in a rollin' fog,
Baby, please don't go.

Babe, I'm way down here,
You know I'm way  down here.
Babe, I'm way down here on old Parchman Farm*,
Baby, please don't go.

Baby, please don't go, (twice)
Baby, please don't go and leave me here,
You know it's cold  down here.

You know it's cold  down here.
Babe, it's cold down here.
You know it's cold  down here on old Parchman Farm,
Baby, please don't go.

I'm half dead  down here, (twice)
I'm half dead  down here on old Parchman Farm,
Baby, please don't go.

3. Got My Mojo Workin by Muddy waters

D/G/A
twleve bar blues
key is D

Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you
Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you
I wanna love you so bad till I don't know what to do

I'm going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand
I'm going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand
I'm gonna have all you women right here at my command

Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you
Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you
I wanna love you so bad till I don't know what to do

I got a gypsy woman givin' me advice
I got a gypsy woman givin' me advice
I got some red hot tips I got to keep on ice

Got my mojo working
Got my mojo working
Got my mojo working
.....

But it - uh uh - just won't work on you

Otis Spann Blues Piano Licks

You might want to stop by and visit these sites, too:

http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/lesson.html

http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/tabsandchords.htm

Wishing my readers a peaceful New Year 2011!

-- LadyD

Have a heart that never hardens and a touch that never hurts. Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Slow, Soulful Blues Piano - Gospel Blues Piano

I love the sound of slow, soulful blues. Listen to Willie's amazing piano playing... love the style.

Slow, Soulful Blues Piano - Gospel Blues Piano

My friend dazza from the zone community at hear and play sure can play the

blues! You will learn so much from dazza's

piano tutorial on playing slow blues. I have posted a chord chart for his

chord progressions. Those quick grace notes add such a cool sound!

Learn this at:

http://www.learnasongseries.com, plus loads of free videos on how to play piano

* Chord Chart

Pick Up - (r.h. notes) Bb, B, D, E

G D/B G

B B/A B D G

C C/Bb, (Eb), E G, (Bb, B, D, E) (C9)

D D/F# C D (D7)

/ D Bb, C A

G D/(Bb) B G

E E/Gb D G (E7 add9)

A A/G C# (A7)

D D/F# C (D7)

All the best,

-- LadyD I Write for Fortitude. Fortitude is for people who write with passion. http://fo.rtitu.de/1014

How To Comp Chords- Comping Chords on the Piano

In my opinion, one of the best piano teachers online is Willie Myette. I have subscribed to his lessons and am pleased that he shares his musician tips on jazz and gospel piano. You might want to visit the link that I've posted for this article to see the piano note illustrations Willie had provided. I found this article to be so informative that I wanted to share its entirety with you.

How to comp chords - comping chords on the piano

"This is definitely one of the more complicated aspects of playing the piano. It is relatively “easy” to play a chord in the left hand, hold it down, and improvise with the right hand. However, as soon as you try adding any type of rhythm to that left hand chord, the time seems to fall apart. So, let’s go through some ideas that will help loosen up your left hand.

First, keep control of where you are in the measure. For this example, let’s say that we are in 4/4 time…four beats per measure. It is extremely important that while comping, you do not add or remove beats from the measure. This is where a metronome or play-along track is helpful. I’ve heard students rush the time or drag because they were overly focused on comping. The lesson…the time comes first!

Second, keep your chords simple to start. Try starting with only the root and seventh of the chord, a R7 chord. Or, just the root and third, a R3 chord. So, for C7, this would be C–Bb or C–E. Simple chords allow you to focus on what is important…the time.

Now is a good point to pause and discuss “concept breakdown”. You do not have to go far to find difficult-to-understand concepts in jazz piano. Comping is a perfect example. It seems easy, but it is not. Worst yet, it is the “seems easy” concepts that make it frustrating to learn and often cause students to throw their arms up in disgust. But, there is a solution!

Concept Breakdown is just that, a breakdown of difficult concepts in to easy to handle and easier to understand parts. To break down the concept of comping, I would consider its parts:

- Chord voicing - the notes of the chord and how they are arranged

- Number of chords per measure

- Tempo of the song

- Interaction with the right hand / soloist

- Rhythmic spontaneity

So, if we were to focus on each of these sections of the larger concept, we can more easily practice them. Here we go…

Chord voicing - as I said earlier, create simpler versions of your chord voicings for now. After you become more comfortable with the chords and comping, you can more easily add tensions and notes to your chord.

Number of chords per measure - if the section has more than two chords per measure, try only hitting the chords on beats 1 and 3. Now, this doesn’t always work, but depending on the tempo and complexity of the chord progression, it might just get you through the section till you have more time to practice it and get it right.

Tempo of the song - this should be obvious, but…slow down! I’m always amazed when I ask a student to slow down and they play at exactly the same tempo. A good way to slow yourself down is to pay attention to a clock ticking or your heart beat for a moment. then, try to mimic that tempo. It should be around 60-80 beats per minute.

Interaction with the right hand / soloist - this is the heart of comping. Comping is ALL about supporting the melodic line. This is usually either a soloist or a melody instrument (like a vocalist, trumpet or your right hand, etc.) Good comping ADDS to the piece. It ADDS to what the soloist is playing. It ADDS to melody, and so on. So when practicing comping, it is essential to listen. Listen for “holes” in the line. Take a look at the example below. Notice that the line has places in which there is space. These are prime areas to fill with some tasty comping.

You might be asking yourself “Where are these spaces?” Well, look for rests and notes tied into one another. Also remember, that you can play each new chord toward the beginning of the measure. So, there are four chords, and at least four opportunities to play a chord in the left hand. There are also spaces in the line where you have long notes and rests. But, comping does not have to only fill in the “cracks”. You can play a chord simultaneously with a melody note in the right hand.

Let’s go through six comping variations on this line and you’ll see how to put this into practice.

1) Chords on beat one. In this example you see that we are simply playing each new chord on the first beat of the measure. This is a good place to start learning how to “comp” because if you can not do this exercise in time, you will not be able to do the rest! So, make sure that you are comfortable with this exercise before moving on.

**NOTE** If you are learning this line for the first time, you might notice that you miss the chord on the first beat. If it is difficult to play chords on beat one while improvising in the right hand, this is a good indication that you need to become more comfortable with your right hand soloing before trying any fancier comping rhythms. Moral here, stick to a simple whole-note rhythm until this becomes fluid for you.

2) Short “stabs” on beats 1 and 3. The next step is to change those whole-note chords into short stabs. A “stab” is just a short rhythm applied to a chord. It is often used with horns. For example, “The horn stabs happen behind the soloist.” This exercise is important because it will help you change between long chords and short chords. Long chords are those held for a quarter note or longer and short chords are those held shorter than a quarter note (this is my definition).

3) Short “stabs” on beats 1 and the “+” of 3. The “+” of beat three is the upbeat. This exercise will help you begin feeling off-the-beat rhythms. This also adds syncopation to your line. I cover syncopation in my lesson Mastering Rhythms Volumes 1 and 2.

4) Look for opportunities to anticipate. Do you see the last eighth note in measure one, tied into measure two? This is an anticipation. The melody is anticipating the strong beat resolution of beat one. Guess what? We can also anticipate the chord in the left hand. However, watch out that you don’t drop beats. It is easy to get confused and rush the measure when anticipating chords. So, make sure you feel where the beat is! If you can’t feel it just yet, stick with step 3 for a few more practice sessions.

5) Look for opportunities to support the melody. In the last measure we can “highlight” the notes of the solo/melody by comping chords along with them. As your solo gains in intensity, this is a great way to accent your solo notes.

6) Use both long and short chord rhythms. If you play all of your chords short or long, your comping will sound predictable. Be sure to vary your comping rhythms between short/long rhythms…and…rhythms that fall on/off the beat.

Lastly, we come to Rhythmic Spontaneity. The goal of comping chords is to be able to create interesting chordal rhythms on-the-spot. Now, the only way to do this is to start with easy rhythms and then gradually build them up. Basically, you want to create a vocabulary of rhythms that you can apply to your chords. This means you need to be comfortable with one- and two-handed rhythms."

http://www.jazzpianolessons.com/2009/10/29/how-to-comp-chords-comping-chords-on-the-piano

Warm Regards,
D.

http://www.LadyDpiano.com

Practice with the Circle of Fifths

I was pleased to receive this very informative article on the Circle of Fifths from Willie Myette. I feel it's a very important resource for all musicians to use. In fact,
I call it "the musician's bible" and incorporate it in my piano student's lessons. I have posted the entire article here:

The Circle of Fifths (part 1)

by Willie on September 17, 2009

"The circle of fifths is a fantastic practice tool. It can help you practice scales more effectively, learn key signatures and even learn basic and advanced harmonization techniques.

In this article, I am going to show you some circle of fifths “tricks” that will help you maximize your practice.

What is the Circle of Fifths?
The circle of fifths is all 12 keys of music written on a wheel or “circle”. The keys are divided into intervals of a fifth. Looking at the circle of fifths below, you’ll notice that at the top is ‘C’ and moving clockwise, we move through all twelve keys by intervals of a fifth. So we start with C, then go to G, D, E, A, B, F# (or Gb…same note), Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, F and end back at C.

If you go counter-clockwise (to the left) we move through all twelve keys by fourths. Starting with C, we move a fourth to F, Bb, Eb and so on.

How to incorporate the Circle of Fifths into your practice routine

Perhaps the easiest way to use the circle of fifths is to use it as a scale practice tool. Let me explain…

When practicing scales (Major, minor, etc…) I often see students get very good at playing their scales in easy keys like the key of C, F or G. However, when it comes to more challenging keys like Gb, Ab, etc., students become a bit “shy”. This is usually because they have practiced a lot in the easy keys but not as much in the difficult keys.

Many times, this imbalance of scale practice is because students sit down, practice three or four scales then move on to something else. The next day, they sit down, start with the same scales and never end up practicing those more difficult keys.

You can break this pattern by using the circle of fifths. Download and print the circle, then while practicing, mark which of the keys you practiced. For example, circle the keys you practice on day 1, put a triangle around those you practice on day 2, a box around the scales practiced on day 3 and so on.

Using this method, you can be sure that you get through all keys both easy and difficult."

http://www.jazzpianolessons.com/2009/09/17/the-circle-of-fifths

Check out Circle of Fifths for more information:

http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/2009/08/learn-circle-of-fifths-patterns.html

All the best,
~ LadyD

http://www.LadyDpiano.com

Learn To Play Piano- JazzEdge

With modern technology, you can learn how to play piano via YouTube, live chats on numerous online musician forums and now Talk Radio. I have found Willie Myette's music sites, uploaded tutorial videos on YouTube and his websites to be very informative. If you're looking for an online piano teacher, Willie is the one I recommend.

* Learn the piano - Radio show - 4/9/2009 pt1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SbSffeMsH

* Learn the piano - Radio show - 4/9/2009 pt2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmCMD7

Part2 is where the meat and potatoes are if you're looking for a recipe to play the blues... Here's some good points to remember form this video:

* Chord Structure

1. A minor
2. D minor7
3. F7 ( F/Eb G )
4. E7
5. A minor7

Willie goes on to explain turnarounds. Like taking the last two measures of the blues form, changing it to other chords that take you back to the beginning. Turnarounds are not just found in blues but in pop songs also called "the hook." Last summer I posted on my other site "Gospel Turnarounds". If interested, you can see it at,

http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-are-gospel-turnarounds.html

Stay with the video and you'll learn about Willie's Quartal Groove, natural 6th minor,

G C E
A B F#
B E G

We can stay on this subject of quartal grooves for a long time, but that's another post. In fact, you can browse through this post if interested in quartal voicings.

http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/2008/10/rich-quartal-chord-voicings.html

Have you heard of ghosting notes? That's where you're playing shorter and softer than other notes, E G# C/ F Bb D

I would like to extend the invitation to come aboard Willie Myette's online site!
JazzPianoLessons.com - Signup for 50 hours of FREE Piano Lessons.

http://www.LadyDpiano.com

Jazz Piano- Willie Myette- Talk Radio and Gospel Piano

I signed up for Gospel Piano and love playing this arrangement of Amazing Grace!
I especially love the fact that you can stylize the song, change the rhythm and give it a blues ending. Amazing Grace is a very popular song for this Easter season and always!

Gospel Piano - Amazing Grace 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjCwUS8LX

"Listen to Willie Myettes April 7 internet radio show about jazz piano and learn piano with Berklee grad professional musician teacher and author Willie Myette. Willies fun, no pressure, informative approach to piano has taught thousands of musicians how to be more creative in music and take their piano playing to the next level. Join our radio show to get your questions answered live!"

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/JAZZEDGE/2009/04/07/JAZZEDGE-Learniing-The-Piano

http://www.LadyDpiano.com