Hello
I have been playing the piano for more than 30 years. I would say from my point of view I am no longer a beginner. So I thought that blues lessons for beginners would be easy for me - but it’s not! Never in my life have I heard a “beginner” play at such a high level. It’s not just about harmony, it’s also about playing technique. If you can play all the stuff from beginner lessons, as a REAL beginner (never played piano before), after, say, half a year, then you are a genius.
Please help me, maybe I got some basics wrong. But this is never ever a beginner course, it is at least an advanced course.
If so, then I am a highly untalented piano player
I agree…somewhat. I’ve played piano on and off for decades (mostly off until the last 10 years.) I’ve subscribed to PianoGroove for more than 3 years. The “beginner level” lessons are much tougher than I would think a beginning lesson should be. (Now there are novice lessons as well. ) Maybe there should be a different way to articulate the levels… But at root the designation is a just a matter of semantics. Dive in. Start with the easiest lessons. Stick with them until you’re comfortable. Then move on. Then go back and do them again. There are so many different styles of learning. For my money Hayden is a magnificent teacher. The info is there. You can figure out what works for you if you try. And it blows my mind that with all he does, he generally will answer an email in a day or two. I don’t think you can ask for more.
It’s a very good point that you mention, here are my thoughts:
Firstly, PianoGroove is not designed for people who are complete beginners at the piano, but it is designed for people who are beginners at jazz and blues piano. If a student has never touched the piano before, they will find it difficult to get the kind of results many of our students get.
To talk more about the blues courses:
Playing blues piano - particularly solo piano - is very challenging, and so firstly it’s important to understand that just to manage expectations. These lessons are not designed for students who are new to the piano, but with your 30 years of experience, simply follow my drills and demonstrations and in the space of 6 to 12 months I’m very confident that you will be able to play the style similar to myself.
If you are referring to my slow blues lessons, which I believe you are, this is material that I have just learnt and it took me around a year of consistent practice to get to the point where I could teach the slow blues course. Start with the slow blues in F course:
Following the system that I outline in my slow blues in F course, I believe that a basic proficiency can be achieved quicker that 1 year. Take it each step at a time, don’t move onto the next lesson until you are comfortable with the contents of the previous lesson, otherwise you will be flooding yourself with too much information.
The slow blues courses are intensive. I packed 1 year of my own study and exploration into a 4-hour course, and so it’s not a case of simply watching the lessons and playing the style.
I would have classed myself as a beginner at slow blues when I started learning it about 2 years ago despite being relatively adept at jazz piano, as they are 2 different skills. There is overlap in the theory between blues and jazz, and so studying the “essential jazz piano courses” here is also important:
As @wendy highlighted it is difficult to classify everything perfectly and neatly into Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced. There is often overlap between these classifications.
Wendy also mentioned the new “Novice” section which currently just exists for the jazz lessons, you can find more information here:
My plan is to replicate this in the blues section, probably though lessons on shuffle blues/Chicago blues, instead of slow blues.
In summary, I feel that with your 30 years of piano experience you will have no trouble picking up the slow blues material, but it will take time. I’d estimate 6-12 months and so set that as your expectations and chip away at the drills each day. Even in a matter of weeks with consistent daily practice, you can see very noticeable improvements.
and finally for some ‘quick wins’ learn a few of the songs in the “Novice” Jazz section.
I do agree with this - as per my explanations above.
I don’t agree that you are an untalented player. If you have played for 30 years you clearly have a passion for the instrument and that’s the most important thing.
Switching to jazz and blues after studying classical and contemporary piano can be a quite a humbling experience, I know from my own experience.
Be patient and have fun, if something is too challenging then look for something else on the website or go back earlier in the course.
Mastering and truly understanding the theory is a huge task. This is something that we pursue all of our lives and I can say that even with 15 years of jazz piano experience, the sheer volume of theory can still seem daunting. The irony is the more we learn, the more we realise there is to learn. Once we accept that, I personally find that it takes the pressure off and allows me to enjoy my incremental progress.
The terms are confusing to me. For me blues is easier than jazz. Or in other words: jazz is build on blues. Thus it makes no sence to my brain, that Jazz lessons are listed before blues lessons. I would expect the harder stuff in jazz not in blues.
So I started with blues lessons an saw that there are beginner, intermediate and advanced lessons. I thought that this are all the levels that exist over all courses. Then I was surprised that in jazz lessons there is an additional novice level.
But I agree with @wendy . You are a great teacher. I like that you don’t talk to mutch about general things but instead you go straight forward. And you explain everything very comprehensible. Thank you for that!
I started now “Reading Lead Sheets For Beginners”
(it is listed under novice level and this confuses me again )
Yes I agree it is a little confusing in that sense.
Perhaps one reason is that we can play jazz standards with 3-note spread voicings - root, 3rd, 7th and the melody on top - and by adding subtle melodic embellishments we can create simple but beautiful sounding arrangements as we do in the Novice section of the jazz lessons.
In reality, the melody note of jazz standards (the melody that is written on the lead sheet) is often a chord extension such as 9, 11, or 13, and so the Novice lessons slowly introduce new jazz students to the sound of jazz harmony, but the focus is on basic R-3-7 spread voicings and clean voice leading in 25s, 251s, and other common progressions.
This is where I recommend to start for new jazz piano students.
I’d say our Chicago Blues course taught by Steve is one the most accessible blues course:
However, the left hand shuffle patterns can be deceptively difficult to play and can require a stronger rhythmic awareness than when playing a jazz ballad, for example.
We have a wide mix of student levels and interests and so there is no ‘single set path’ to progress through the courses.
I’d recommend to experiment and find a course that’s a good fit for you in the jazz section, perhaps a course in the blues section too if you have interest in blues, and take it from there!
Thanks - my pleasure!
Good point - I will clear that up too.
Start Here Page & Notification Box
On a related note, I’m adding a little notification box to the Student Dashboard page which directs new students to a "Start Here" page which contains 3 videos and will explain much of what we have discussed here.
The box can be hidden by clicking “don’t show this again” so that it’s not a nuisance for students who don’t need it.
The Start Here page will contain 3 videos where I explain the different areas of the website, the 2 syllabuses/learning paths that I recommend for new students (depending if they are completely new to jazz piano or have a little experience) and also how best to ask questions.
See the screenshots below.
I will also be sure to include a little information on the blues courses as we have discussed here - thanks for the feedback and suggesstions.
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