Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Someone to Watch Over Me
The Peacocks
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I’d like to throw in an idea if you’re still looking for suggestions. “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.” It’s often done as a ballad, but it also sounds good at a medium swing tempo.
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Thanks Hayden for this one. I always had a goal to play this song and Amazing Grace in all 12 keys. You are awesome!
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Hayden and Tuomo, If i have the nerve to ask you if the Jazz Standard, “I Loves You Porgy” is ready yet, will you promise NOT to ask me if I finished learning the other 68 Standards you painstakingly recorded and edited?
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I’m also looking forward to Porgy. There is a LOT of editing going on for numerous tunes that are in the pipeline. It’s coming!
I have returned to Tenderly… because I used to have an arrangement, and it slipped away from me and I have to learn it all over again. Hate it when that happens, however in revisiting the tune, I’ve learned new things from it.
Lori, I’ve got to stop using our teachers’ playing as a de-stresser–listening while I work online–and actually sit down and learn some of the beautiful music they so carefully demonstrate/teach. I subscribe to another wonderful, online teacher, Willie Myette, who gave and also continues to give me additional grounding in theory and jazz standards to learn.
Limitations with actually practicing/playing the piano because of rheumatoid arthritis set me back for some years and i just got in the habit of “watching” lessons and learning theory instead of playing. But friends insisted on sending me videos of people playing piano with only one good hand or who play with their toes or their nose and they embarrassed me into practicing…(darn, I was so comfortable at my pity party drinking alone…). Good luck with “Tenderly.” What a gorgeous composition. I’m positive all your chops will come back quickly!
Yes we will prioritise the editing so that it is the next one published by Tuomo.
Looking at the script Tuomo sent, here are the versions he recommends listening to:
Good versions to check out are of course any versions you can find of the opera itself, Nina Simone has a great one, Bill Evans Trio live at the Village Vanguard as well as Solo Sessions Vol. 2, Billie Holiday, Keith Jarrett, just to name few.
In creating the arrangement Tuomo transcribed material from the Bill Evans version, so it will be a Bill Evans-Esque arrangement of the tune.
@LoriNelson & @lonnie1277456 I will keep you both posted and ensure this lesson is published ASAP 
That’s great… I have seen some of Willie’s materials and he is a wonderful teacher. It’s always good to get multiple insights and perspectives when studying jazz and ultimately it will broaden your own perspective with music.
… That’s certainly one way to encourage!
The way I see it Lonnie, is that we all have different physical constraints in some form, and it’s important to work with them, and not against them.
It can sometimes be easy to dwell on these constraints, but I think it’s best to accept the limitations created in certain aspects of our playing and instead focus our attention on the things we can execute well on the piano.
As another example, I’ve receive a lot of emails about hand reach, and hand stretch, and that many students simply can’t reach the bigger voicings in the arrangements which they find very frustrating.
In my newer lessons, I always try to demonstrate ways in which we can reorder, or rearrange the notes, or even change the stylistic way that we play so that we can achieve the same, or a very similar sound no matter what the hand size. More often than not it is easy to do.
Anyhow, I hope the arthritis is not too painful Lonnie, and I’m sure a soothing arrangement of “I loves you Porgy” will help 
Cheers!
Yeah that happens.
If I tried to recite from memory all 50 or so arrangements I have created on PianoGroove - i think i would certainly fall short.
As you say it can be nice sometimes because we revisit the tune ‘with fresh eyes’ and often figure out all kinds of cool stuff and new ways to play over the same changes. A fun process!
Hey @LoriNelson and @lonnie1277456 - here’s the lesson on “I Loves You, Porgy” taught by Tuomo.
Tuomo covers some beautiful voicings and I can’t wait to study it when I get a second.
Enjoy the arrangement!
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Hi Hayden I know someone requested “I Remember Clifford” before…think it was Lisa. It would be great to get some help with voicings on that one. A beautiful ballad for sure.
Thanks Peter
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Hi Peter 
Apologies for the late reply. It’s been a hectic but productive few days working with our teachers.
Yes I will certainly cover “I Remember Clifford”.
The next jazz standard tutorial by myself is “When Sunny Gets Blue”. I have already recorded a R-3-7 arrangement and it’s in the editing stages. I’ll also be creating another tutorial for the tune incorporating more advanced jazz theory.
For “I Remember Clifford”, if there are any versions you particularly like on YouTube or Spotify, post them here and I will take a listen for inspiration.
Cheers!
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DJANGO by John Lewis. Lovely tune.
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Hiya Hayden,
What about the classic ‘Make Someone Happy’?
Regards
Bill K
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Thanks for the suggestion Bill - it’s certainly a tune we can cover.
We try our best to honour all lesson requests and ideas.
Cheers!
hi there!
Can’t seem to locate “All the Way” piece as I would really like to add it onto my list of songs to learn - Would appreciate if you can point me to the lesson please? 
Hope you are all doing well! Take care.
Hey Kristeta 
I don’t believe we have covered that tune but we can certainly add it to our upcoming lesson schedule.
If there are any particular versions that you like on YouTube/Spotify you can post them here and we can use them for inspiration.
Cheers,
Hayden
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This tune wasn’t on the list in this thread - Pure Imagination - but I arranged and recorded it a couple of weeks ago, here’s the full arrangement, and there will be a simpler version too.
This arrangement is quite heavily reharmonised but I like the result:
It’s a lovely tune to play… I will get the tutorial edited and published asap.
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Hayden,
This is so lush and beautiful! Thank you. I can’t wait to get started on it! It is nice to have something to look forward to. I have missed your lessons.
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Thanks Celia! I’m starting on the editing today.
The last few weeks I’ve been busy working on some new ideas for PianoGroove.
In addition to the video lessons, we want to offer ‘live sessions’ with the teachers, perhaps on a monthly basis, where students can ask specific questions to our teaching team for direct feedback.
I will be doing the first one to help our beginner/intermediate jazz students and I’m exploring the software and technology to allow our teachers to do this remotely if they are interested.
I hope to announce more on this shortly 
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