Growing up playing classical music, I struggle a ton with jazz. I thought I was never going to sound natural, but this video really helped me to snap out of my stupor.
Brilliant, Bill! I knew this instinctively, but you actually explained it in a way I could understand and relate to someone myself! Thank you! Thank you!! This is so timely in my musical development!! 😘
@AndrewDInSydney No worries :) I'd say definitely count that way while you're learning, but then see how it goes. As I said, I just count straight fours now. You'll also find it becomes fairly unconscious after a while. Drummers are drummers - in my limited experience, when you're drumming you do indeed count the smallest division (say, hi-hat) and time other beats (say, bass and snare) against that. I couldn't say for sure, though.
I agree..A good way to enter the jazz world is playing Blues which I have done for many years. I had piano lessons for years...but timing was my weakest spot..then I had a jazz performer/teacher who taught me to sing the timing . Here is a quick example Sing the the song..Fly me to the moon..just a few seconds. Now sing these and just put in the music. One and two and three and four and/ One and two and three.and four and/ One and two and three.../ Accents will come natural.Notice the and three..and is the and of four. in seconds you can do this too many songs.. No need for metronome..tap a table etc..to eighth beats.
It's actually not. Classical teaches you the very basics of technique, fingering, dexterity. It gives you great basis. Of course Jazz is great for learning timing and some theory. However, if you don't got your finger technique down you'll be very limited using any rhythm. Doing any licks.
@AndrewDInSydney Good question! I always count quarter notes (that's crotchets, for the sake of UK/European readers). When I was learning to swing I counted threes (i.e., as if in 12/8 time). However, swing is as much about emphasis as about timing, so in the end I found counting fours easier. Pro tip: if you're struggling to count fours, do what I do and bang your foot on the floor ;)
Exactly! I just can't understand why is it I have sung Jazz for years but now that I'm learning piano I can't master Swung Quavers..... I have been learning only classical! This is very helpful thank you.
Bill I play swing by nature but starting with standard music and going backwards is not the way to go. I helped a computer programmer ( also a classical pianist), a while back get a close approximation.. I actually had sent him some of my music to him and It sounded just a little off. The best way to learn swing is to listen to your favorite swing songs. Get it internally. Then go back to some favorite swing pieces and play the notes with the Overlay of the swing beat. Do this often, repeat and rinse I personally think that our sheet music can only approximate swing rhythm. If I remember right the the human brain has 100,000 chemical reactions per second. I think it it more a human thing not a purely mathematical thing.
Hmm - you could very well be right, as I'm speaking from the position of not having had many drum lessons. When I did (aged about 12) the first rock beat I was taught went [1 hi hat + bass][2 hi hat][3 hi hat + snare][4 hi hat]. However, I'm prepared to bow to your greater knowledge here - I'm not a drummer in any sense!
Cool video thank you for sharing. I am about to teach my student jazz, blues, and ragtime without even really knowing how to play that style so this has helped! Haha I never hear anyone say "dotted quaver." That threw me off! I can't wait to get into the "swing" of this style of playing and pass it on.
Look into the backing track producer Guitara Improvisation..it's french. Try the track Bb jazz blues at 130 BPM. Then go to the one at 170 BPM There are a lot of people that say their band leader is using this. Almost for sure..this will be a hit with your students.
I am reviewing this again.. the notes seem to be a c6.. and I think e g a g c g a g. so i count 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + the beats are on 1 and 3...and we hold out and emphasize beats 1 and 3..
Pretty much exactly the same as for when you're playing different notes, except you have the slight added difficultly of lifting off and re-hitting the same note, which can make it a little harder to get a really regular, even rhythm - it comes with practice, though!
@threehourzsleep It's an old (i.e., pre-Nord) vid, Matt - the red beast is alive and well and will be appearing again early in the New Year. Did you have a good Christmas?
Absolutely great video! I play guitar and I love your advice on practicing scales/arpeggios in a swing groove! Never really thought of that before, thanks!
OML THANKS. i moved from south africa a while ago although i was born here in america, and i cant get hold of these half notes and wierd stuff lol. crotchets, semi-quavers everything yasss thanks for using them
Thanks Alex! I do try to use both sets of terminology when I can. The problem I have is that - I guess like you - crotchets and minims and everything come naturally, but I always seem to have to pause and figure out the US equivalent...
Bill I never unsubscribed to you. I have been busy with many projects..including self study.. It just so happens that I just took a lesson from you on the tritone sub in a piano app in the advanced section.. Some was review but I learned a few things that helped to put a few thing in prospective. I am today working on a project, trying to find of free to use or publish songs like Aura Lee. I thought it would make a great tutorial on reading music and just fun to do. I could write it out by hand or an app but that seems unnecessary.. I want to post a clear piece of music as I play.. Also I very been doing a lot of woodwork projects. The best
That's a good idea actually, Rodger - I keep meaning to do a "scales can be fun, honest"-type tutorial, and I might well feature that very exercise. Watch this space!
Bill - Doesn't the stress fall on every Downbeat, not just 2 and 4? Swinging the 1/8ths . Jazz & Blues swings all 1/8ths not just those falling on beats 2 & 4 so less emphasis on the upbeats in a pattern of 1/8ths. Or at least this how I have understood it be previously. Reason I say this is because I am currently practising getting my left hand shuffle pattern to work with my right hand triplets. I have found it easier to concentrate on the triplets and tie in the left hand to coincide with those, leaving out one middle triplet in the Left hand pattern. This seems to work well for me as the triplets tie the beat down keeping it in constant timings. Hence is Swing the same as Shuffle or not???????
Basically it depends on what you're counting, Steve: counting fours on the off beat you'd land the stress on the first eighth note of beats two and four if the line was divided into eights, whether that eighth note is swung, tripleted or what-have-you. Probably the easiest ways of resolving the swing/shuffle thing is to say the former is a subset of the latter. Once again, one of those areas that's easy to demonstrate on a piano, but which sounds like gobbledegook the instant I try to put it in writing...!
Fascinating. I guess blues/jazz and swing rhythms shouldn't be written down but just felt....The black men who started playing jazz, blues and ultimately swing probably never wrote anything down; they just came together after a hard day's work in the fields and let off some steam and frustration with their instruments enjoying those few scares hours of free time in good company. I was in New Orleans on a corner of Frenchmen St and I was so amazed that nobody there used sheet music or asked in what key something was played. People just came and joined in and jammed along, the left and another would come and join. I guess like the old days on the Mississippi delta. And very complicated grooves if you were to write them down, you'd probably not even get them right.
Yup, I think you're dead right, Raymond. The fundamental thing is that scoring as we have it evolved to notate western classical music from medieval times onwards, and although western classical music has had an influence on jazz from its earliest days (through the filter of nineteenth century dance music and marches to start with, I think) the two traditions are sufficiently different that notating one in the format of another is always going to cause hiccups. It's not just the rhythms, either: jazz and blues use microtones in the form of blue notes - very hard to notate on a traditional stave!
Bill from an earlier post...If I remember right the the human brain has 100,000 chemical reactions per second. I think it it more a human thing not a purely mathematical thing. I've never heard a computer program truly nail swing rhythm.. you would think the algorithm would be simple. But not so much.. Also when I'm swinging something..there will be times I don't accent at the same exact minute time or I don't play the note with the same accent. On top of that the structure is very loose many swing players don't read music unless they are in a high level band... Also many Blues/ jazz piano players were blind or partially blind but yet created beautiful wing music..their ear was extremely keen. Most of the time when I am playing a piano, guitar, bass, banjo. I have my eyes closed. Probably that is typical for musicians ..with years of practice.
thanks.. I have lately begun to make a study of the altered scale.. I think it is one of the best ways to learn where the notes like sharp 9 etc are.. I am trying to do this scale in all keys. I find it fastest by doing the scale pinky to thumb whole scale descending and then what's left is dominant diminished. I'm not natural at improv in this scale, buts is coming.. love your channel.
In response to the part where you show the swing notes written as dotted or triplets...I've always seen swing written as just eighth notes (semi-quavers?) with the word "swing" indicated in the tempo. You just know you're supposed to swing the notes in that case.
Yup, that's one way of doing it. Another is to show an indication at the top equating quaver pairs (or dotted quaver/semiquaver pairs) with tripleted crotchet/quaver pairs. Some of it comes down to personal taste, but different ways of specifying swing can be handy in pieces where, for example, you have both swung and "straight" quavers.
I was practicing a classical piece it might have been Allah turca I ran into descending triplets so i tried to accentuate the first note of trip. sounded wired. I should have just played it straight but in time right. I do the same thing with a table to get right feel. audiences also get it wrong they clap on bests one and three I used to .. then some are clapping on 2 and 4 ...what happens lol is there is a clap on every beat..unless the drummer and base are a little loud the rhythm is nullified
@billhiltonbiz Thankyou for your quick response:) Oh yes, Im a great foot-banger! I think I treat all my blues playing as though it is 12/8 - probably not the best for jamming with others then? Ive been told by drummers that they count every sub-division when they play (in whatever style). So if they have a 4/4 bar with a triplet then, say a 4 semiquaver beat, then maybe 2 crotchets, then thats what they count.. Would you say you count like that in other styles? Thankyou.
hi hello I'm trying to learn a new song with it including swing going down the keys of the piano, I can play it at the speed perfectly but not the the swing way any advice on what to do?
Yup - slow it down a little at first and count aloud as you play. In normal "straight" time you'd stress the onbeat - ONE two THREE four. Instead, stress the *offbeat* as you count: one TWO three FOUR (or one TWO one TWO if it's in twos rather than fours). That's probably the single most effective thing you can do to get a swinging feel. It make take a little while, as it can be counterinstinctive at first - as with all these things, it's just a question of putting in the time at the piano keyboard until it suddenly "clicks". It will!
+Sxire Sean In the major it tends to be C and G and then the "flat" keys - F, Bb, Eb. In the minor, it's the relative minors of those major keys - Am, Em, Dm, Gm and Cm. Strictly speaking all keys sound the same in terms of their emotional intensity. Some people think that keys with more flats and sharps (i.e., black keys on the piano keyboard) sound darker and richer, but as far as I know there's no real evidence for that :)
No problem, Grace - I'm glad you find it useful. Hmmm: tricky question. I'm afraid the simple answer is plain old trial and error. After a while you kind of get a feel for what suits what, but when you're learning it's very much a case of sitting down at the piano and experimenting with different approaches and techniques for different songs. I'm sorry there isn't a simpler solution!
Bill Hilton Yes I'd be curious to know a little of the bass patterns the bass players use. it sounded like what you were doing.. I was playing around with whole tone and noticed that scale is described by Lydian b7 sharp 5.. c d e f# g# Bb c... I had never seen it as such before. I have noticed that the altered dominant scale is the whole from the root in descending order. . c bb ab gb untill it gets to the third the whole half to c. Enjoy your channel.
@billhiltonbiz Yes! We opted for tried and true, usual gifts this year. A transmission for our son's car and new tires for my wife's. Difficult to wrap or keep secret. We did go out of town and impose on some relatives we only see once a year, and that was fun. Taught a few the game of cribbage, which I just learned myself this year. Yourself? (btw very much enjoyed this vid; many useful ideas to try)
hey bill, you give us a great exercise to do. but what is the use if we dont know the keys used, the note progression or the rythm you used id realy like to atleast know the notes you use so that i can practise them
Hi Bill, loving your videos! I have a question regarding counting time - in this case when playing blues.. (I hope this is the right place to ask a question?) How do you count in your head when doing a blues impro? Do you just count the quarter notes or do you count in triplets? ie. "1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a" I seem to easily get lost when trying to improvise and I dont know whether I should be counting down to the lowest "denominator" all the time? Thankyou. Andrew
That is 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... Thats why it appeared that it was the 1 and 3... they teach eight note rhythms. Check out my channel I have tutorial on this subject. Its pretty straight forward and extends into quintuplets and seventuplets. Thanks for the lesson. swing is triplets minus the middle note.
You write and say that a rock drummer emphasises beats 1 and 3. Sorry, but the snare in rock (= emphasis) falls on 2 and 4, and it's the bass drum that gets beats 1 and 3, as one can see in any score for beginner rock drummers. What you're singing is : two quavers (bass drum) on beat 1, one crotchet (snare) on beat 2, two quavers (bass drum) on beat 3, one crotchet (snare) on beat 4.
hi Bill! Have been in touch with you some months ago. Quote you 100 US$ for a video I am able to learn 'here comes Emily Brown' Henry Thies orchestra. Here on youtube. In a Piano version. Can we make that deal?
Good question: in British English the verb ("practise") and its derived forms are spelled with an "s", but the noun with a "c". US English uses "c" for both. So in the UK you'd write: "it's time for my piano practice - I need to practise my scales".
Growing up playing classical music, I struggle a ton with jazz. I thought I was never going to sound natural, but this video really helped me to snap out of my stupor.
Glad it helps, Inna! Have you see my series of jazz piano tutorials? You might find them useful!
Oldest videos are always the best
Brilliant, Bill! I knew this instinctively, but you actually explained it in a way I could understand and relate to someone myself! Thank you! Thank you!! This is so timely in my musical development!! 😘
No problem Sally - glad to have been of help!
Thank you for making this video! I finally understand the notations on sheet music when referring to swing music time. So helpful!
@AndrewDInSydney No worries :)
I'd say definitely count that way while you're learning, but then see how it goes. As I said, I just count straight fours now. You'll also find it becomes fairly unconscious after a while.
Drummers are drummers - in my limited experience, when you're drumming you do indeed count the smallest division (say, hi-hat) and time other beats (say, bass and snare) against that. I couldn't say for sure, though.
Imagine how much easier life would be starting piano by learning jazz.
I agree..A good way to enter the jazz world is playing Blues which I have done for many years. I had piano lessons for years...but timing was my weakest spot..then I had a jazz performer/teacher who taught me to sing the timing .
Here is a quick example Sing the the song..Fly me to the moon..just a few seconds. Now sing these and just put in the music. One and two and three and four and/ One and two and three.and four and/ One and two and three.../ Accents will come natural.Notice the and three..and is
the and of four. in seconds you can do this too many songs.. No need for metronome..tap a table etc..to eighth beats.
It's actually not.
Classical teaches you the very basics of technique, fingering, dexterity. It gives you great basis. Of course Jazz is great for learning timing and some theory. However, if you don't got your finger technique down you'll be very limited using any rhythm. Doing any licks.
That’s what my teacher is doing for me rn. Which is why I’m here
@AndrewDInSydney Good question! I always count quarter notes (that's crotchets, for the sake of UK/European readers). When I was learning to swing I counted threes (i.e., as if in 12/8 time). However, swing is as much about emphasis as about timing, so in the end I found counting fours easier. Pro tip: if you're struggling to count fours, do what I do and bang your foot on the floor ;)
Exactly! I just can't understand why is it I have sung Jazz for years but now that I'm learning piano I can't master Swung Quavers..... I have been learning only classical! This is very helpful thank you.
Very clearly explained - thank you
You're welcome Ruth!
Bill is awesome in. I have zero rythm but it's coming this type of help!
Brilliantly demonstrated, Maestro. Don't rule out the beatboxing though! :)
Bill I play swing by nature but starting with standard music and going backwards is not the way to go. I helped a computer programmer ( also a classical pianist), a while back get a close approximation.. I actually had sent him some of my music to him and
It sounded just a little off.
The best way to learn swing is to listen to your favorite swing songs. Get it internally. Then go
back to some favorite swing pieces and play the notes with the
Overlay of the swing beat. Do this often, repeat and rinse I personally think that our sheet music can only approximate swing rhythm. If I remember right the the human brain has 100,000 chemical reactions per second. I think it it more a human thing not a purely mathematical thing.
Hmm - you could very well be right, as I'm speaking from the position of not having had many drum lessons. When I did (aged about 12) the first rock beat I was taught went [1 hi hat + bass][2 hi hat][3 hi hat + snare][4 hi hat]. However, I'm prepared to bow to your greater knowledge here - I'm not a drummer in any sense!
I love jazz and swing
Great video
Cool video thank you for sharing. I am about to teach my student jazz, blues, and ragtime without even really knowing how to play that style so this has helped! Haha I never hear anyone say "dotted quaver." That threw me off! I can't wait to get into the "swing" of this style of playing and pass it on.
Look into the backing track producer Guitara Improvisation..it's french. Try the
track Bb jazz blues at 130 BPM.
Then go to the one at 170 BPM
There are a lot of people that say their band leader is using this. Almost for sure..this will be a hit with your students.
Great instruction on how to get the "groove." Thank you. And, I love your "How to Really Play the Piano. Thank you !
Glad it was helpful, David, and thanks very much for buying the book!
I am reviewing this again.. the notes seem to be a c6.. and I think e g a g c g a g. so i count 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + the beats are on 1 and 3...and we hold out and emphasize beats 1 and 3..
I have a question, how do you do swing rhythm when the notes are repeated?
Thank you
Pretty much exactly the same as for when you're playing different notes, except you have the slight added difficultly of lifting off and re-hitting the same note, which can make it a little harder to get a really regular, even rhythm - it comes with practice, though!
Change fingering on one key.
@threehourzsleep It's an old (i.e., pre-Nord) vid, Matt - the red beast is alive and well and will be appearing again early in the New Year. Did you have a good Christmas?
I use those same three notes to teach piano to older beginners. Nice video..
Thanks very much - good to have you back! :)
Absolutely great video! I play guitar and I love your advice on practicing scales/arpeggios in a swing groove! Never really thought of that before, thanks!
OML THANKS. i moved from south africa a while ago although i was born here in america, and i cant get hold of these half notes and wierd stuff lol. crotchets, semi-quavers everything yasss thanks for using them
Thanks Alex! I do try to use both sets of terminology when I can. The problem I have is that - I guess like you - crotchets and minims and everything come naturally, but I always seem to have to pause and figure out the US equivalent...
Bill I never unsubscribed to you. I have been busy with many projects..including self study..
It just so happens that I just took a lesson from you on the tritone sub in a piano app in the advanced section.. Some was review but I learned a few things that helped to
put a few thing in prospective. I am today working on a project, trying to find of free to use or publish songs like Aura Lee. I thought it would make a great tutorial on reading music and just fun to do. I could write it out by hand or an app but that seems unnecessary.. I want to post a clear piece of music as I play.. Also I very been doing a lot of woodwork projects. The best
Cool! Out of interest, what was the app?
Bill Hilton it was called piano lessons on playstore. Functional Harmony and secondary dominanants.
Cheers - I'll look it up!
That was VERY helpful. Now I'm looking for the chord theory info to go with the rhythm so I can master "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" by Christmas.
I would like to see a demo of doing scales one hand swing the other legato. This helps with swing and hand independence.
That's a good idea actually, Rodger - I keep meaning to do a "scales can be fun, honest"-type tutorial, and I might well feature that very exercise. Watch this space!
It was really useful for me.thanks alot.
Bill - Doesn't the stress fall on every Downbeat, not just 2 and 4? Swinging the 1/8ths . Jazz & Blues swings all 1/8ths not just those falling on beats 2 & 4 so less emphasis on the upbeats in a pattern of 1/8ths. Or at least this how I have understood it be previously. Reason I say this is because I am currently practising getting my left hand shuffle pattern to work with my right hand triplets. I have found it easier to concentrate on the triplets and tie in the left hand to coincide with those, leaving out one middle triplet in the Left hand pattern. This seems to work well for me as the triplets tie the beat down keeping it in constant timings. Hence is Swing the same as Shuffle or not???????
Basically it depends on what you're counting, Steve: counting fours on the off beat you'd land the stress on the first eighth note of beats two and four if the line was divided into eights, whether that eighth note is swung, tripleted or what-have-you. Probably the easiest ways of resolving the swing/shuffle thing is to say the former is a subset of the latter. Once again, one of those areas that's easy to demonstrate on a piano, but which sounds like gobbledegook the instant I try to put it in writing...!
Thank you so much. That is so helpful- particularly for a fledgeling pianist!
No problem Lesley - glad you found it useful!
Thanks to you i can play blues piano im grateful
Fascinating. I guess blues/jazz and swing rhythms shouldn't be written down but just felt....The black men who started playing jazz, blues and ultimately swing probably never wrote anything down; they just came together after a hard day's work in the fields and let off some steam and frustration with their instruments enjoying those few scares hours of free time in good company.
I was in New Orleans on a corner of Frenchmen St and I was so amazed that nobody there used sheet music or asked in what key something was played. People just came and joined in and jammed along, the left and another would come and join.
I guess like the old days on the Mississippi delta.
And very complicated grooves if you were to write them down, you'd probably not even get them right.
Yup, I think you're dead right, Raymond. The fundamental thing is that scoring as we have it evolved to notate western classical music from medieval times onwards, and although western classical music has had an influence on jazz from its earliest days (through the filter of nineteenth century dance music and marches to start with, I think) the two traditions are sufficiently different that notating one in the format of another is always going to cause hiccups. It's not just the rhythms, either: jazz and blues use microtones in the form of blue notes - very hard to notate on a traditional stave!
Enjoyed your lessons
Bill from an earlier post...If I remember right the the human brain has 100,000 chemical reactions per second. I think it it more a human thing not a purely mathematical thing. I've never heard a computer program truly nail swing rhythm.. you would think the algorithm would be simple. But not so much.. Also when I'm swinging something..there will be times I don't accent at the same exact minute time or I don't play the note with the same accent. On top of that the structure is very loose many swing players don't read music unless they are in a high level band... Also many Blues/ jazz piano players were blind or partially blind but yet created beautiful wing music..their ear was extremely keen. Most of the time when I am playing a piano, guitar, bass, banjo. I have my eyes closed. Probably that is typical for musicians ..with years of practice.
Thanks very much for a great lesson!
this really good i like
I'm glad you like it!
I'll try this at home.
thanks.. I have lately begun to make a study of the altered scale.. I think it is one of the best ways to learn where the notes like sharp 9 etc are.. I am trying to do this scale in all keys. I find it fastest by doing the scale pinky to thumb whole scale descending and then what's left is dominant diminished.
I'm not natural at improv in this scale, buts is coming.. love your channel.
Thank you!!
Very helpful!!
Thanks man, great introduction to swing.
great explanation!!! thank you!!!
In response to the part where you show the swing notes written as dotted or triplets...I've always seen swing written as just eighth notes (semi-quavers?) with the word "swing" indicated in the tempo. You just know you're supposed to swing the notes in that case.
Yup, that's one way of doing it. Another is to show an indication at the top equating quaver pairs (or dotted quaver/semiquaver pairs) with tripleted crotchet/quaver pairs. Some of it comes down to personal taste, but different ways of specifying swing can be handy in pieces where, for example, you have both swung and "straight" quavers.
Great tutorial, man. Thanks!
good video. thank you!
Thanks, very helpful indeed
can you make a video on how to play one fast rhythm with one hand a slow one with the other?
I was practicing a classical piece it might have been Allah turca I ran into descending triplets so i tried to accentuate the first note of trip. sounded wired. I should have just played it straight but in time right. I do the same thing with a table to get right feel. audiences also get it wrong they clap on bests one and three I used to .. then some are clapping on 2 and 4 ...what happens lol is there is a clap on every beat..unless the drummer and base are a little loud the rhythm is nullified
@billhiltonbiz Thankyou for your quick response:)
Oh yes, Im a great foot-banger!
I think I treat all my blues playing as though it is 12/8 - probably not the best for jamming with others then?
Ive been told by drummers that they count every sub-division when they play (in whatever style). So if they have a 4/4 bar with a triplet then, say a 4 semiquaver beat, then maybe 2 crotchets, then thats what they count.. Would you say you count like that in other styles? Thankyou.
I'm so confused. What on earth are quavers semi quaver and crotchets?I am in the US, so...
Aha - sorry, I'm using UK terms. Here's a quick translation:
Semibreve = whole note
Minim = half note
Crotchet = quarter note
Quaver = eighth note
Semiquaver = sixteenth note
...etc.
Brilliant!
Good video! I also feel like I can understand my music sheets better too
@HvKleist090 Alas for me! Glad you like the explanation, though :)
Thanks a lot ...👍🏾👍🏾⚘
Hi Bill, could you teach us how to play swing if there's no band to back you up, ie just piano and vocals? thanks very much! love your videos!!!
Thanks so much for your explanations! As always they are very useful. :)
Musica para mis oidos
Thank you so much, this helped me alot! and what kind of piano do you use?
How about 16 beats swing thanks
hi hello I'm trying to learn a new song with it including swing going down the keys of the piano, I can play it at the speed perfectly but not the the swing way any advice on what to do?
Yup - slow it down a little at first and count aloud as you play. In normal "straight" time you'd stress the onbeat - ONE two THREE four. Instead, stress the *offbeat* as you count: one TWO three FOUR (or one TWO one TWO if it's in twos rather than fours). That's probably the single most effective thing you can do to get a swinging feel. It make take a little while, as it can be counterinstinctive at first - as with all these things, it's just a question of putting in the time at the piano keyboard until it suddenly "clicks". It will!
Bill Hilton thank u so much I will take that into account
What are some popular keys used in swing? With exciting emotions.
+Sxire Sean In the major it tends to be C and G and then the "flat" keys - F, Bb, Eb. In the minor, it's the relative minors of those major keys - Am, Em, Dm, Gm and Cm. Strictly speaking all keys sound the same in terms of their emotional intensity. Some people think that keys with more flats and sharps (i.e., black keys on the piano keyboard) sound darker and richer, but as far as I know there's no real evidence for that :)
+Bill Hilton Could the latter be simply their "distance" from C major, which tends to be unfairly favoured in Western music?
I akways felt that way about the black keys, its not just me then? is there any study on it?
It ain't got a thing if ain't got that swing .... (gasp! what happen to the Nord? a pint in the upper registers?)
Hiya really appreciate what you do
How would you find out which rythmn pattern is suitable for which song xx
No problem, Grace - I'm glad you find it useful. Hmmm: tricky question. I'm afraid the simple answer is plain old trial and error. After a while you kind of get a feel for what suits what, but when you're learning it's very much a case of sitting down at the piano and experimenting with different approaches and techniques for different songs. I'm sorry there isn't a simpler solution!
To me it sounds more like a shuffle than a swing what you taught here Bill. Great tutorial though.
bill I can more or less swing notes but the left hand comping may need some help..Can you repeat the left hand..
I'm planning another swing rhythm tutorial sometime soon - I'll add that to the notes...!
Bill Hilton Yes I'd be curious to know a little of the bass patterns the bass players use. it sounded like what you were doing.. I was playing around with whole tone and noticed that scale is described by Lydian b7 sharp 5.. c d e f# g# Bb c... I had never seen it as such before. I have noticed that the altered dominant scale is the whole from the root in descending order. . c bb ab gb untill it gets to the third the whole half to c. Enjoy your channel.
I'm going through my history
@billhiltonbiz Yes! We opted for tried and true, usual gifts this year. A transmission for our son's car and new tires for my wife's. Difficult to wrap or keep secret. We did go out of town and impose on some relatives we only see once a year, and that was fun. Taught a few the game of cribbage, which I just learned myself this year. Yourself? (btw very much enjoyed this vid; many useful ideas to try)
Thanks for bowing, you really made my day ! ;-) Regards.
On the right hand I am accenting the right-hand one and three and in left two and four.. I'll go back over the video.
@billhiltonbiz Thankyou Bill.
I really appreciate your taking time to respond, and everything else you do:)
hey bill, you give us a great exercise to do. but what is the use if we dont know the keys used, the note progression or the rythm you used
id realy like to atleast know the notes you use so that i can practise them
Hi Bill, loving your videos!
I have a question regarding counting time - in this case when playing blues..
(I hope this is the right place to ask a question?)
How do you count in your head when doing a blues impro?
Do you just count the quarter notes or do you count in triplets?
ie. "1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a"
I seem to easily get lost when trying to improvise and I dont know whether I should be counting down to the lowest "denominator" all the time?
Thankyou. Andrew
That is 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... Thats why it appeared that it was the 1 and 3... they teach eight note rhythms. Check out my channel I have tutorial on this subject. Its pretty straight forward and extends into quintuplets and seventuplets. Thanks for the lesson. swing is triplets minus the middle note.
You write and say that a rock drummer emphasises beats 1 and 3. Sorry, but the snare in rock (= emphasis) falls on 2 and 4, and it's the bass drum that gets beats 1 and 3, as one can see in any score for beginner rock drummers. What you're singing is : two quavers (bass drum) on beat 1, one crotchet (snare) on beat 2, two quavers (bass drum) on beat 3, one crotchet (snare) on beat 4.
You spent the whole 8:42 talking and did not show or how to practice anything! Thanks a lot
I don't know music theory :(
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what fucking happen with the lef hand ?
Si only a selsmen
hi Bill! Have been in touch with you some months ago. Quote you 100 US$ for a video I am able to learn 'here comes Emily Brown' Henry Thies orchestra. Here on youtube. In a Piano version. Can we make that deal?
isn't it practicing not practising
Good question: in British English the verb ("practise") and its derived forms are spelled with an "s", but the noun with a "c". US English uses "c" for both. So in the UK you'd write: "it's time for my piano practice - I need to practise my scales".
Americans’ favourite colours change depending how long they have been in the queues at the supermarkets.
first time I've heard his name pronounced Shubert with a hard "t"