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I do not have any CD, and the book is in B/W

I am going to contact. But I had to pay a customs fee for the parcel. I'd rather they sent me the DVD with the next order...

Sorry about the confusion. I have several of Duane's courses. Some have CDs, some have DVDs, and some have both. As for the books, yes, mine are B/W too. I think the color versions were probably available back when the course was distributed on VHS.

For more information about Duane's courses and his approach to teaching piano, his youtube channel has over 1,000 videos:

https://www.youtube.com/user/chordsgalore/featured

https://www.youtube.com/user/chordsgalore/videos

I seem to be getting more involved here than I intended, but hopefully have helped with some of the questions. I think the youtube videos can provide quite a bit of information. As I continue through the course, I don't intend to be posting videos frequently as DavidB so generously has, but might post one on occasion. My tendency is to just disappear and do the work on my own. Forums become something of a "time suck" after a while. Some folks can manage to balance things probably better than I can with this sort of thing.

Years ago, when working with the Sudnow method for cocktail style piano, there was a local group of folks that formed around the method as a sort of study group. There were mostly folks who had years of formal piano lessons who wanted to learn something besides reading/playing classical piano music as was typically taught in piano lessons then. The unfortunate thing was that the group served to dissipate the core intentions over time because these folks who already played seemed to steer the group away from Sudnow's core teaching and more toward territory familiar to them. Since then, I have tended to shy away from that sort of thing and go my own way.

Tony

Thank you.
Now I have to allocate the time needed for the course.
I spent yesterday quite a long time between ripping, watching the guide and following the first lesson. Which with the help of house/family duties let me no time for classical.
Today - I have a couple of hours before going out with my wife and meeting friends TGIF - I am going to play classical first and repeat the first part of the first lesson afterwards.
I need a plan.
And I'm spending a lot of time here, talking about time management.
Happy Friday.

Rather than spend the same amount of time on classical as you did before, and just add on chord piano on top, it is usually better to do less of each so you don't end up burning out on piano. If it works, then you could ramp it up over time.

I didn't know the course was for sheer beginners.
I have finished lesson 7 and I am a bit disappointed about the progression. I hesitate now about spending another $200 in the next 8 lessons.


I think I am going to wait for Liquidmantis' experience with PWJ

I’d highly recommend just signing up for the two week trial at PWJ, maybe even just taking a month. I’ve had some personal issues that interfered a bit with my practice volume, but I’ve stalled a bit on the Crash Course and have solely focused on PWJ. I’m not giving up on the CC, I just need to integrate the two, and I’m really enjoying PWJ. Honestly, if I had found it first I’d probably wouldn’t have spent the money on the CC.

In case anybody is interested in converting DVDs to, say, MP4 (or most any other format), for that I use Any Video Converter. This software converts most anything to anything, CD or DVD media or disk file. It can also download and convert from web sites. However, since VLC can work with the files from a DVD just as if it was a DVD (i.e. honoring the DVD menus correctly), I prefer that with the Duane Shinn Crash Course since there are 4 lessons on each DVD. I could rip the individual lesson video files, but VLC just seems easier. If I needed the space on my SSD, I would go through the extra work to do that.

Tony

I can finally put lesson 40 behind me. I'm actually finishing up lesson 42, but I did not want to close lesson 40 until I finished this song (There is a Tavern in the Town). I'd say it's the hardest song I've had to learn in the course so far. It's hard for me because there is so much going on between both hands. It would be easier if I didn't have to use the pedal. It's written with no pedal, but we use it in the arrangement. It's Duane's arrangement with a bit of my own personality sprinkled throughout. It's played as written with the Garritan CFX and arranged with the VSL Steinway D. I tried to make the VSL Steinway D as dry as possible because the song didn't sound good with all the reverb in the Garritan CFX.



God Bless,
David

Very nice arrangement. Really like night and day between the original and the arrangement. But I wonder why there are so many detached notes in the right hand? I guess I'm not familiar with this folk song. Is it supposed to be choppy like that because of the folk lyrics?

Congrats on finishing Lesson 40! 🎉

I add a bit more syncopation in the right hand than Dwayne does. Depending on what portion of the song you’re talking about, it could be my flavoring sprinkled in.

God bless,
David

Yep, a "drinking" song - sometimes even played on a honky tonk piano!

Very nice, David.

It occurs to me that it would sound perfectly natural to put those 2 versions together as a single performance.

Superb! I love your arrangement. Keep posting your videos, please.

Thanks. I never heard the song before and I'll never play it again, but it was rewarding to learn. It took longer to learn than any other song in the course for me. I included it in my daily practice for over a month.

Duane doesn't really arrange songs in lesson 41 and 42. The emphasis in those lessons is on reading music. However, there is one song that sounds decent as written in lesson 41 and I'll probably record that.

Lesson 42 has a simple little boogie piece that might be worth recording. There is a nice song in lesson 43 that I'm looking forward to learning with Duane's arrangement.

God Bless,
David

Ha, ha, it's hard enough to get through one version without too many mistakes.

God Bless,
David

Lesson 41 is finished. There were no arrangements in this lesson. Duane suggested to learn the music as written. All the songs were pretty boring except for this one. It has a little beauty to it. Actually, there is really no arranging in lessons 41 and 42. It's good for me because I need to practice reading music more.

Here is a pic of the sheet music for this song.



The piano sound is my VSL Steinway D.



God Bless,
David

Nicely done! 👏

You are almost down to a single digit number of lessons left.

You realize that when you do finish, you must give us a profound essay on what the last 3 years of Duane Shinn have taught you! 😀

I should be done with lesson 42 next week. Duane got playful on a little boogie song that's kind of cute. However, there is nothing much in the lesson to speak of. I hope to have lesson 44 or 45 done by the end of the year.



It definitely taught me how to play the piano. I really didn't know much at all prior to the course. I'm looking forward with great anticipation to Duane's Praise and Gospel series and his Pro Secrets course. I will start both after the 52 week course is done.

God bless,
David

Good luck with it!
I finished lesson 7 and I'll wait for a reseller to turn up. The course, interesting as it might be, is too expensive for me.

Thank you for posting your videos.