Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Duane Shinn 52 Week Crash Course

It sounds nice as written. Your playing is really sounding good. I thought I knew the melody when you first start playing but as I listened i don't believe i have heard it either. Does not matter, another great job showing the power of Duane's teaching. I appreciate you taking the time to post your progress.

I finished lesson 33 and here is Liebestraum arranged. This is a very simplified version of Duane's arrangement. There is no way I can do what he does and I was tempted several times to skip this song, but once I accepted that the arrangement has to be at my level and I quit trying to copy Duane, I was ok.

With the help of a forum member (Karvala), I finally got my VSL Steinway D sounding really nice. The arrangement of this song has the most updated sound profile and it has become my favorite piano sound. I'll play the song as written and then arranged with the new VSL Steinway sound.



God Bless,
David

Its sounding good to me David. The course seems to be working for you.

What exactly was different about Duane's arrangement ?

He added a lot more to the song. He had chord substitutions, a counter melody, and simply many more notes. The bridge was full of beautiful chords and straddles. It all flowed together seamlessly and wonderfully and sounded much more rich and textured than my simplified version.

That's why he's the master and I'm the grasshopper.

God Bless,
David

You sound great!
I appreciate you posting these for us.

I watched the lesson 10 video tonight after spending way too long on lesson 9. After all these months I finally feel like my fingers are starting to do what they are supposed to. I have a long way to go but can see where this will all pay off somewhere down the road. This journey with Duane has been very exciting.

I just want to encourage folks to not quit and keep going, there are newer shiner ways to learn out there but at least for me this is a good way to learn. I believe it will take me 3 to 5 years to get through this course.

That's great to hear. I ended up refunding the Piano Marvel and Pianote and kept with this. I'm still on lesson 2.

Interloper here but I read this thread every once in awhile and something has always bugged me, so I thought I would get it out there: Does anyone have any theories of why Duane Shinn would think lessons would take one week when real people sometimes spend months on a single lesson? Is this just some inside joke of his? Marketing hype? Or does he have an unrealistic view of what non-pianists are capable of learning and doing? Is he targeting younger students who may learn faster? Is it targeted at people who have 8 hours a day to spend at piano?

Also, has anyone actually heard of anyone at all who has done the 52 week course in a real 52 weeks? Sounds like something someone should try as that would probably go in the record books... From reading this thread, I would bet Duane Shinn couldn't have gotten through his own course in 52 weeks when he was just starting!

[Ok, as you were... interloper out! ]

This course has been very much a mental game for me at times. There are only a few of the songs so far that I would want to keep playing long term and sometimes that makes it tough. As a long time bass player it is hard to go back to square one but for whatever reason things I have learned in Duane’s course seem to stick with me in a way no other course has. I am just getting to the arraignment part and it is very exciting to me to think some day I will be able to play a song different ways depending on how I feel and my mood. This is what I do on bass, I never play a song the same way twice, maybe close but not the same.

Ib

I can’t speak for others but there is no way I could do a lesson in a week, I don’t mind though because I am enjoying the journey. One of the reasons it takes me so long is because I take what I have learned and apply it to songs outside of the course, and Duane suggests going back over the earlier songs and trying what you just learned. I don’t know if I will ever finish or not but that is not as important to me right now as sitting down with what music I am capable of playing today.

I guess a person "could" go through the course one-per-week but I found that I make progress when I let things "percolate" for a couple of days. If I keep at the same thing over and over I seem to not make progress but if I leave the tune or lesson and just mess with other things or take a day off, when I come back I can see that I'm doing better at it.
That's what I've noticed...it's as if the brain needs time to assimilate the information and you can go faster than that.

Thank you for the encouragement. I've been at it two years (currently on lesson 34) and I'm hoping to get through one lesson a month this year.

Keep up the good work folks. As Duane would say, "you reap what you sow."

God Bless,
David

I think 1 one lesson a month is probably a good pace, I did 9 in 2018 having never played before when I started and i stopped and did private lessons for a few months, so hopefully should be able to get in 12 this year, but we will see. I appreciate your videos so much, they have kept me going more than once when i was discouraged.

I've noticed that the last few lessons are definitely getting harder for me. There is more theory involved with chord substitutions and counter Melodies. One lesson a month this year might be a little overly optimistic given how much time I actually have to practice, but that's my goal.



It's my pleasure. Actually, making and posting the videos helps keep me going.

I'm happy you and others are sticking with it. Please keep posting your progress as well. It's encouraging to me also.

God bless,
David

Wonderful and best wishes. Please keep us posted about your progress since it's inevitable that you will improve as you put time in.

God Bless,
David

Thanks!

I will certainly do that. I started at ground zero at Christmas having never played keyboards.

Here is a song from lesson 34, Old Susanna. Duane introduced chord substitutions, counter melody, walkups/downs, and alternating bass, i.e., 1st, 5th, 1st, 5th, etc. Some of these concepts have all been covered before. I’ve never played the arrangement of this song without making mistakes. I’ve added syncopation and it makes it challenging for me. I’m putting this song behind me never to play it again. The piano sound is the N1X CFX. I'll play it as written and then arranged.



Here is a hymn from lesson 35 which I love. I’m keeping this one. Nothing new taught in the arrangement. The piano sound is VSL CFX played as written and then arranged.



I’ve started lesson 36, but there is one other song in lesson 35 that I really like and will record soon.

God Bless,
David

Once again thanks for sharing David, Oh Suzzana sounds great, I love your choices. As someone who loves hymns Just As I Am is very moving. I enjoyed both of these videos a lot

Thank you.

That's funny, as I was reading your post I realized I was mistakenly calling the song Old Susanna instead of Oh Susanna.

These are the kind of things about me that make my wife laugh.

God bless,
David

Tonight I was going back through some of the old songs in the course practicing swing bass(I don’t think I will ever get smooth) and there was Oh Suzanna early in the course. Thought was funny since you just posted your version.