Comments on: Cross-country move in progress – Slow Updates

By: mikeiscoool

mikeiscoool — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:48:17 +0000

Hey puppy, I favorited your Groove series on YouTube and I am impressed! You are extremely talented!!

Jonathan, I’ve been playing piano for a long time, since 5 traditionally, since 9 in church. I’m completing (hopefully) my Comp major at Oberlin in honor of my late, lifetime piano instructor, Bernice L. Riseborough. I would love to study with you if I were in your area!. Right now I’m a student of Art Tatum on YouTube, and you. Thanks for transcribing and metronoming your work :)
J. Michael William Wohlford mikeiscoool@hotmail.com

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:21:45 +0000

Too true, Senora! Those latin rhythms are some of my favorite, both to listen to and to play. I’ve had several other requests for things like Montunos, so I’ll see if I can’t put something together… Salsa!

By: Senora L

Senora L — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:57:02 +0000

Hola Jonathon. Thank you very much for sharing your talent so freely. I am an experienced pianist/synth player but have never really mastered salsa and latin riffs. Is there any chance you could do a course showing them as well as funk and blues (which are great by the way!). Hasta luego de Espana.

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:03:14 +0000

Hey, no worries — I rather like Austin :) It’ll do for the time being.

On other suggestions — just the usual stuff — Play, play, play, and play some more! Find those players you like the sound of and do your best to emulate. Makes the best jumping off point for your own style. I think there’s a lot more value in simply trying to play real pieces than scales, etc. Take chunks of stuff you like from other player’s tunes and combine them in new and different ways… I’m sure you’ve heard all of this before :)

By: drsteviewonder

drsteviewonder — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:23:28 +0000

Oops… just read your previous post… sorry about the non-move. Austin’s not a bad place to be.

By: drsteviewonder

drsteviewonder — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:22:40 +0000

Jonathon – I’m assuming your move is complete by now. I hope all is going well. I can’t thank you enough for the piano tutorials — really great stuff.

Seems like the videos you’ve posted will help a lot with technical chops around the keyboard. Any other suggestions (scales, exercises) to improve facility for Jazz/Blues?

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:31:42 +0000

Thanks Dave, as it turns out, the move is off (for the time being). We gave it the old college try (and it was a fair bit of work), but it just wasn’t the right time. We’ll try again in the future.

For now, I’m here in good old Austin, TX — home for the time being. The good news — once I can get a few cleanup tasks finished to put things back into place, the new videos should resume…

By: Dave Lux

Dave Lux — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:37:01 +0000

Good luck with the move, and take your time to get settled, no sense in rushing charity, i’m sure anyone here could use the time to tighten up what you’ve already posted, and look for things that they’ve missed.

If it’s not too personal to ask what state you’ll be moving to, i’d love to know. I was hoping to catch you playin a gig or something eventually.

Thanks again for the music,
Dave

By: simondrake

simondrake — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:35:16 +0000

I am enjoying your splendid videos and tutorial since last years. I like sipping them just a bit at the time because they’re so good that I don’t want to waist your great job.
I wonder if you could add chords on the music sheets because I think this might help begginers like me to easily understand the armonic progression of the music. I’m struggling with theory and I found out that if I have clear in mind how the armonic chord pattern flows I can better learn playing. I don’t know if I’m doing ludicrous statements, I’m not a musician and this is my experience. Let me bless you and your family that allows you to dedicate some of your private time to people like me that is falling in love with this superb music lessons.
All the best, Simone

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:47:35 +0000

Thank you for the nice words, Jesse! In the emails I get, Hand Independence is definitely one of the most common questions, so I think you’re right on. The sheet music has fingerings here and there… or at least *one* of the funk grooves does — It’s another excellent suggestion and I’ll get it more consistent…