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Hi David,

I must say .... You are doing very well with this course.

If you keep at it in the focused manner which you apparently have you are going to get your money's worth from this course.

That sounded very, very good and near professional level.

Bravo !!!!!!!!!!!

You are doing well, David
I will see if I can work on this in parallel with the other stuff I'm doing.
My idea is to vocalize at the same time, learning each song away from the sheet music, and work it up to tempo.
I'm no singer, so far anyway. But belting out the tune at the same time should be good for ear training. I don't have to worry if somebody is listening, so I can totally let go.
I started arbitrarily on "Faith Of Our Fathers", since that was discussed recently.
Just doing held chords while learning the structure first. But I find that some of the chord changes at tempo, are not as smooth as they ought to be.
So doing some work on that first.
T.c.

Thank you for the kind affirmation. I did laugh out loud when I read the quote above.

I painfully regret not learning to play the piano as a child. Now as an adult learner I have to spend so much time learning just the basics. That's why I laughed when I read "professional" while thinking about how challenging it was for me to learn the Alberti pattern, or the molasses like pace I have to take while reading the single note melody songs in the books that accompany this course.

However, I do feel more like a piano player after 9 lessons of Duane's course than I did after 28 lessons of the Learn & Master course. At least with Duane's course I'm learning complete songs and getting the opportunity to apply the techniques he is teaching to the songs. The L&M series never did that. You would learn a technique and then move on never getting a chance to develop it. At the end of the course I felt like all I could do was play a few riffs in different styles.

So much to learn. I hope I can live long enough to get past the basics and play beautiful music that speaks to my heart. Thanks again for the kind response.

God Bless,
David

Oh ... I would not give that a second thought.

You are young enough so you will absolutely accomplish that ...

IF ...

If you just keep pluggin' away without too many detours.

Good Luck

Good counsel. Thanks.

God Bless,
David

I started lesson 14 and below is a song I just uploaded from lesson 12 that I like. It's a hymn (We Three Kings in Am). As usual we first learn to play the music as it is written (very simple single note melody and basic block chords in the left hand), then Duane gives us arraigning techniques and encourages us to arrange the song in a creative way. The arranging techniques are getting progressively more difficult and it's taking me longer to complete a lesson. I believe this course is going to take me over two years to finish. So far the journey has been enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeu5eIIFB0

God Bless,
David

That's beautiful, David. Your playing always impresses me.

You've probably answered this before, but I don't recall - are we hearing an unprocessed ES8 sound? If so, which one?

Oops, sorry! Didn't look at your signature. Is this Ravenscroft or . . .?

Thank you.

I've experimented with some virtual pianos (pianoteq and TrueKeys), but I keep coming back to the ES8 internal sounds. In the most recent song I uploaded (We Three Kings) I'm using the SK-EX concert grand internal sound. I do have my keyboard touch sensitivity set to Light+ which gives it a brighter sound, and I have the internal bass boost setting on as well which obviously enhances the lower frequencies. I think it sounds very nice though my monitors. That's pretty much it.

God Bless,
David

Welll played David! Keep it up.

How long it took to master it like that ? I just started lesson 13 now.
Lesson 12 took me almost 2 months but with a few forced pauses in between!

--stoppa

Nice!

You are playing beautifully.

I have to ask, though ....

Why are you pausing between each phrase ?

Is it because you need the time to get ready for the next phrase or do you just like the sound of doing it that way ?

If it is because you need the time for preparing then I would suggest working that pause out of there before going on.

Anyway .... you are playing very beautifully and your technique looks great. Keep it up.

Thank you.

I started lesson 12 on March 21st (which is when I would have started that song). Some songs in the lessons I learn well enough to move on (not perfect) and then never play those songs again. However, the hymns I'm keeping in my repertoire. Therefore, I end up playing those on a regular basis and get comfortable with them.

I could easily see this course taking over two years to finish, maybe even closer to three. I've been pretty consistent in my practice with the exception of a few days here and there where I just didn't have the time.

God Bless,
David

P.S. Edited to add that it took me three recordings of that song and it was the third one that I uploaded because that one sounded the best to me. So I don't think I can play that song on demand perfect every-time.

Thank you.

I've added the pauses in there because to me it seems to add a little tension to the song. Perhaps tension is not the right word, but that melody in the key of Am seems to have a darker feel to it, and the pauses to me seem to add a little more drama to the song. I guess it's just my way of trying to be expressive. Thank you for noticing that.

I'm am working on another song to upload in the next day or so from lesson 11 and it is totally different in feel from We Three Kings. Pauses would not enhance this song. There is a lot of tripletized walk ups that make it really fun and upbeat to play. It's also a great hymn as well. My favorite one in the course so far. Duane gave us a lot of fun things to do with it.

God Bless,
David

Here is a song from lesson 9 that I really like. Duane gave us some fun things to do with this song. The techniques were new to me. Octaves with 3rd and 6th harmonics added in, tripletized walk-ups and downs.

As it's been noted before, the biggest benefit to this course is not only learning how to read music because that's what we have to do every lesson with numerous songs, but in my opinion, the value in each lesson is Duane's instruction on theory, improvisation, and arranging. That's what takes the most time for me with each lesson. Duane keeps giving us teasers by showing us what we're going to learn in the future and I just wish I could accelerate my learning process, but I have to accept that it's going to take time, effort, and consistent work at the bench. One thing I realize now is that there are no short cuts. If you want to learn, you have to put the time in. I wish I had a child's brain because as an adult, I think the learning process is a lot slower.

This has been my favorite song to learn so far because it's a great hymn with an incredibly positive message (for me).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbAVvD9rOgA

God Bless,
David

Here are a couple of songs I like from lesson 14 (I'm in the process of finishing up lesson 15).

This song is Volga Boatman and it was mostly arranged by Duane. It was a tough song for me to learn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLNIancAX64

This next song is Artists Life Waltz and it is arranged by me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2VECr4YhDM

The lessons are getting longer and harder, but the journey is fun. I'm still hoping to be halfway through this course by the end of the year.

God Bless,
David

As always, David, very nice! I do enjoy your work at the ES8!

Can you talk a bit about the ways in which Volga Boatman was difficult, and also a bit about your arranging process for Artists Life Waltz?

Thank you.

Volga Boatman was difficult for me to get the piece up to the right tempo (75-80 bpm). I was stuck for a while playing is slower. It was the chord inversion transitions that was stumping me up. I wasn't used to them.

For Artists Life Waltz I switched up the left hand between chording and arpeggios. With the right hand I added some some harmony notes (the score is single note melody) and on the second verse I re-harmonized the melody (that's what Duane calls it).

Most of the songs in the lesson books I don't care to play again after I learn them, but these two I kind of like.

God Bless,
David

I finally finished lesson 15 after several months. I've been traveling a lot (most of July and August) and only recently purchased a keyboard to take with me when I travel.

Here are two cool songs that I like from lesson 15. I've done something a little different. I played a few bars of the song the way it's written in the lesson book. Then I played it using the techniques Duane has taught us so far. I wanted to show the diversity of what is being taught. I like the way Duane explains the theory and builds on the lesson after we've learned how to read/play the song the way it's written.

The first is called Bicycle Made for Two. I like the walk-ups and downs from C to F or G to C. They are fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NEa56xGmD8

Then next song is Salut D'Amour. After I played it the way it's written, I play through the song two more times using different arrangements that Duane showed in the lesson. This is also a fun song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04C_RG8AbXA

I'm looking forward to starting lesson 16, but unfortunately I'll be traveling for another couple weeks this month and don't know how much time I'll have to practice.

God bless,
David

Hi David ....

Great Job !

You are absolutely doing things in the right way.

You seem to have become the "proof" that this course will work if you do things the way Duane suggests and do it well before moving on.

Keep it up.

Hi David
I second the accolade of "great job" I was impressed how you were able to vary the original score based on your training