Lesson Goal: To internalize some tasty New Orleans Piano Styles… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
Basic music reading, basic scale, chord, and chord progression theory, basic technique, the LOVE of music and the discipline to study and practice.
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Study, Practice, & Performance Tips
- Don’t be shy… Play it like you mean it!
- Never play mindlessly and mechanically. Always aspire to play musically.
- Your goal is not to merely memorize this, but to study and practice it until you internalize it using all four musical intelligences: ears, intellect, eyes, and muscles.
- Every time you practice something, you are programming your brain. So always play accurately.
- Practice with a Click Track or a Rhythm Track. Doing so will give you immediate feedback on any rhythmic misconceptions or places where your timing gets sloppy.
- Record Yourself. Always. Listen to the playback immediately. And ask yourself: Is that what you intended to play?”
- If anything feels tense or awkward, stop immediately and experiment with alternative fingerings or choreography.
- Play this in other keys you expect to play in. By the way, once you see the patterns (which is guaranteed if you know your scales and chords) finding the notes in other keys will be a piece of cake!
- If you feel stuck or overwhelmed, realize that anything can and will be mastered if you slow things down or break things down to small enough pieces.
- All of this might sound like a lot of work, but it’s not nearly as much as you think. Because even though it takes time to talk about all these things, in practice they can all be done simultaneously!
- Mastering all this takes no special talent. All it takes is a wee bit of knowledge and the discipline to employ a very short list of productive study and practice habits.
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New Orleans Piano Style #1
Mastering this two-fisted Rhumba rhythm is essential as it forms the basis for so many New Orleans styles and would make Professor Longhair proud…
Technique Reminder: Feel and keep the time from your core outward through your arms, not in your fingers.
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New Orleans Piano Style #2
How one might comp to the eight bar classic “Rockin’ Pneumonia“…
Don’t merely “memorize” these patterns. Use your knowledge of scales and chords to discover what makes them really tick!
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New Orleans Piano Style #3
One of the famous Professor Longhair licks in 12 bar blues form, with the rhumba left hand and right hand lick that makes liberal use of the b3, 3, and 6 of each chord…
Don’t merely memorize this. Use your knowledge of scales and chords to discover the fundamental pattern and how it’s used to suit each of the “big three” chords.
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New Orleans Piano Style #4
Another killer Professor Longhair lick in 12 bar blues form. Notice how the exact same notes are repeated over all three chords.
Don’t merely “memorize” these patterns. Use your knowledge of scales and chord to studying what makes them tick!
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New Orleans Piano Style #5
Yet more spicy ingredients for our tasty New Orleans gumbo…
Technique Reminder. As always, the freedom and ease to play this like an artist is not by achieved by mindlessly playing Hanon exercises, but by experimenting in order to discover a full body choreography.
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New Orleans Piano Style #6
A playful, deceptively simple-looking two-fisted groove…
Frank’s not happy with his rhythm on this recording. Stay tuned for take #2.
Practice & Performance Notes: (1) The right hand chords are always the two definitive tones (3 & b7) connected to each by voice-leading, (2) Slow things down until you feel the groove and know exactly where the notes belong in the meter and rhythm, (3) The left hand digital pattern is always the same: 1-8-5-5-6-5
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New Orleans Piano Intros
New Orleans Piano Intro #1
This bluesy, no nonsense New Orleans style piano introduction commands attention and really sets the tone…
Notice the characteristic b3-3 thing…
Performance Tip: Don’t be shy. Play it like you mean it!
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New Orleans Piano Intro #2
Another spicy piano intro to add to your New Orleans rock and roll gumbo… Notice that the identical pattern 2-#2(b3)-3-1 is played on both the I and V chords…
Performance Tips
- Don’t be shy. Play it like you mean it!
- Technique is all about momentum and rotation, rotation, rotation!
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