When I first started here I had no intentions of uploading a video. I have learned a great deal just from watching myself on the videos, even If I thought I had it right, Corey pointed some things out to me I should have noticed and didn't. There is a great deal to be learned from uploading videos.
I wanted to say that those who've never uploaded an audio or video, there really are some hidden benefits from doing it. You can get feedback from some of the best players in the world, and you know *that* can't be bad. But that should be obvious.
And of course it gives feedback to the teacher; they can better gague how their message is getting across.
One of the things I get from it is that I have to actually learn to play stuff a level beyond just playing good enough to play along with the lessons. And don't get me wrong, I get a LOT from that. But when you record it, you start expecting a bit more from yourself. And you learn a heck of a lot through the process of whipping it in to shape.
Yeah, it's scary. And frustrating. And hard. And sometimes feels embarassing. But after watching Duke Robillard be able to make a mistake on video and stop and say, "Oh, I made a mistake there", I felt a little less nervous about 1) being human and 2) not being perfect.
So for me, even though I dread doing it (I really do) I don't feel like I've really finished a lesson until doing a recording of it. It kind of feels like turning in an exam, but I'm really anxious to see what great I get. And when Duke says "Great job!" -- it feels like getting a Grammy! ;-)
I never got the 10ths as good as Dean, but passable, when I was practicing them. It is a technique that is "use it or lose it", and it's been a few years now since I was doing piano gigs. Learning guitar has become my hobby since retiring from the professional scene. I just wasn't having fun anymore and the LA scene is pretty soul-sucking. I'm 59, so I hope I have at least a few more years to improve on guitar before my hands stop cooperating.
As far as your playing goes, Duke -- I was recently watching this video of you from just a few years ago, and was completely knocked out by your work on it. I've admired your playing going all the way back to the Roomful days, and I do remember seeing you pull off some pretty flashy stuff, butI think you sound even better now; more lyrical, more musical, and that huge bag of tricks to draw on that you've accumulated from 50 years of playing and learning serves you very, very well.
I've been lucky in my life to have some great teachers. You're still an inspiration!
Hi Bruce, I suppose you do nearly anything if you really are persistent and practice a ton. My hands have been slowing down gradually for years. I must say playing a lot hasn't really helped or physical therapy either. But that's OK. Musicality is much more important. We're you ever able to play those stride tenths?
I know this thread is a bit old now, but since I'm relatively new here, I'm adding my 2 cents.
I wanted to make a point about small hands. I'm 5'6", and consequently have pretty small hands. My piano teacher at Berklee in the 70s was a guy named Dean Earl, who was a great musician, teacher and person. Dean was trying to get me to play some 10ths in my left hand, and I was having enough trouble just playing octaves! I said, "Dean, I just can't reach it, man, my hands are too small!". He said, "Stand up". I stood up. Dean was about 5'3" or 5'4". He said hold out your hands, which I did. My fingers were longer than his! He sat down and played some incredible stride riffs using 10ths up and down the keyboard. Dean said, "First, learn to relax your hands while you play and practice stretching them", and while he said that, he was pushing his palm against the wood of the piano, showing me how far he could stretch his thumb to little finger. "Second", he continued, "Stop telling me what you can't do, and show me what you can do." I suppose if he was Yoda, he would've said "Do or do not, there is no try". ;-)
Just wanted to pass this on to other folks with smaller hands to say that the size of your hands may affect your style, but doesn't have to limit your musicianship. Look what Django did with only two fingers!
I'll get down off my soapbox now. Thanks again Duke for your lessons and musical insights! They've made a real difference in my life and that's no exaggeration. Did you ever get into playing any Otis Rush stuff? I was trying to cop some of his licks from "Double Trouble" yesterday. What a ferocious, soulful and haunting player he was!
There's a great live clip of him playing "I Can't Quit You Baby" on YouTube but it drives me crazy watching him playing left-handed. It makes my brain hurt trying to translate it! ;-)
According to the Apple site, it's "iPad (3rd generation) Early 2012 model A1416 64GB". I've tried doing a hard reboot, but that didn't help.
I think the idea of throttling the downloads to only two simultaneous makes sense. It's not only when you first load the app that you experience the download pain. I've been going back through some of Duke's older lessons, and when I do, I put all the lessons for a particular song in my practice list. I personally would still like the option of saying "download this lesson now" instead of it being automatic, though. But maybe it's not worth the trouble.
Question: if I remove a lesson from my practice list, does the app automatically do clean up and delete the video if already downloaded?
I also find that on my iPad, the app crashes when I try to change playback speed, either from the upper right hand corner link or the button in with the tab. It crashes immediately when you click on the link; I'm not presented with a list of choices.
But it works fine on my iPhone! My iPhone is a 5 (not 5S) but my iPad is a little older. It's a retina display, but I think the first of the retina models. I'm running iOS 8.1 on both devices.
Let me know if there's any other info I can send you to help determine the issue!
Thank you Sunny, I will try and get to these all. There are all great tunes and of course there are thousands of songs from that era that I would love to learn and teach! Duke
Greetings Kurtis -- For me, the song and melody come first and then I write lyrics to it. I have a lot of lyrics that I have written but did not find the right music for it so they stay in the notebook. It doesn't usually happen for me that I write lyrics and then the music comes. So I would say you should think about what kind of song you want to write, musically. Think of it like you are ordering a sandwich..what the ingredients will be and how you want it to taste. Do you want it raw or no? Complex or simple? This way we can whittle down to what we want to do. So create chord progressions that you like...listen to the rhythms that are already there and then grow them dialy by going back to the song over and over again. Thru trial and error, you will eventually know what feels right for you (and it has to be right for YOU and nobody else...it has to move YOU first). Find the right music within you and the words will follow!
I noticed that I was able to add the older Flash based lessons like Duke's Blues-A-Rama via the app, but there's no preview icon and it crashes the app when I try to play it. I don't think it actually downloaded anything, because it appeared to download all 10 Blues-A-Ramas instantly, where download are normally kind of pokey, especially multiple simultaneous downloads. Just FYI!
Hi Glo --- you may want to try some of Duke's three note voicings that he does on several lessons. His "gospel" chord is a bit of a stretch --- but the others are pretty good. Romance in the Dark or The Song Has Ended may be two to look at.
Have you though about adding a chromatic harmonica lesson? I am sure I am not the only person with a Hohner Super Chromonica lying about the house gathering dust.
I am not sure if Jerry plays the chromatic, if not Dennis or Rick could do a lesson if they are planning to guest again for further lessons.
