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Wow! I loved the chords you played, and the ending was very beautiful! Very good taste.

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Lori. Very lovely. You under rate yourself. A lovely arrangement. All the effort is paying off!

Iā€™m envious!

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You should know that four years ago I could not have done anything like this! 85% of my piano abilities flourished by learning TUNES on PianoGrooveā€¦ I completely ignored the theory lessons, because I feared they would be boring and all I wanted to do was learn a song. But with each tune I slowly (inadvertently) absorbed some root,1,3,7 knowledge and my hands began naturally grabbing those voicings from the lesson. I STILL lack a lot of understanding, but I get to enjoy playing tunes that I have learned and memorized.
Hayden has put forth an amazing volume of instruction. We are blessed.

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Likewise. Iā€™ve spent my time learning the tunes based on the video without looking deeply into the theory. Like you I tend to play the tunes each day that Iā€™ve learnt so that I donā€™t forget (haha) and still in several tunes still refer to the transcription.

While there are some learnings on my part, maybe I need to revisit the theory thatā€™s referred to in each tune rather than mirroring what has been transcribed by Hayen.

I agree, Haydenā€™s style and teachings have helped me to get back to playing after so many years where my career took over (over 10+ years) and now learning again which is tough (especially Jazz chords, 251.s etc and applying them).

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Agreeā€¦time to grasp the basics :joy:. Lately I have been trying to actually LEARN a concept with each project. ( I tend to jump straight to the ballad,). but now I try to start and stay with the rootless voicings and study each one, in four bar phrases. And try to NOT play the melody till I feel that progression We will seeā€¦
I need to accept that this is a lifelong endeavorā€¦ certainly more a journey than a destination. Itā€™s Good for my brain.

Beautifully and tastefully played Lori :clap:

You bring out the colours of the tune wonderfully. I love the melody of ā€œLauraā€ ā€¦ itā€™s so elegant and you pay homage to it, which for me is always key when playing ballads. The melody must be recognise-able in my opinion, at least the first time we play the head.

ps. I downloaded your video and embedded it in your post so it can be watched easily here in the thread.

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@paul1523727 and @LoriNelson - hearing your comments is awesome and makes me so happy to be teaching here at PianoGroove.

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Brilliant thanks for the guidance here Pierre.

Yes simply drop a YouTube URL in the thread and it will automatically embed.

We can also do the same with Vimeo URLs.

Just lovely Lori! You give me inspiration. Thank you so much for sharing. I love the touch and feeling that you gave the song.

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Wow Great and lovely playing @LoriNelson !!!
Bravo !!! I dont feel lonely anymore :slight_smile: and hope other will have this courage .

thanks so much

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Thanks everybody for the nice comments. I had to record it about five times before my nervousness settled down (silly, I know! Iā€™m alone and can delete it :joy:). Anyone else want to present one little simple song that you have learned? Go for it! We are in this learning curve together.

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I just listened again Loriā€¦ your introduction is sublime.

I also love the ā€˜call and responseā€™ thing you have going tooā€¦ at 0:55 ā€¦ you state the melody, and then fill the space with a response. Itā€™s really nice :+1:

Lori and Paul,

I read with interest your comments about jumping to the tunes and sort of skipping over the the theory lessons. My experience with PianoGroove has been the opposite. I fear Iā€™m sometimes spending more time with the theory than the tunes. But that has to do with my own personal history.

I had lessons as a kid that like most I sort of stumbled through. Between 15 and 25, I played pretty regularly and seriously, but never studied muchā€“except for a year in my twenties with a guy that played marimba with Xavier Cugat (use your Wiki :wink:). I played by ear and did most of the charts off the records for the bands I played with (mostly rock/pop/country). No idea about extensions or anything of the sort. Just basic chords and sorting stuff out between ourselves listening to the records.

I never knew what I was doing. So now at my age I have one last go-round, and I want to try to figure it out formally. I tell you, Hayden, your approach is brilliant. With just a month or so of fiddling around with your system, I now know the vocabulary/grammar, the things/questions I need to ask to navigate some of the theory books that I have, like those by Mark Levine, Jerry Coker, Dan Haerle, and Bert Ligon. Sort of daunting, but they are starting to make sense now (well, parts are :smile:) ; it would take another lifetime to work through all thatā€™s out there).

And also Iā€™m so enjoying some of the lovely sounds of the chords in your transcriptions. Sometimes I just play certain chords over and over and listen to the sound. Itā€™s like reading/listening to poetry. I know how to scan poetry; now Iā€™m starting to understand how to scan chords. (Years ago, I had a recording of Dylan Thomas reading his works and would put it on when I was working around the house. Didnā€™t matter the senseā€“just the sounds and rhythm were enough to enjoy.)

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we all have our own tendencies, just make sure it is always fun and fascinating!!

I NOW try to take a little more time as I am learning the tunes to say aloud the intervals in my fingers; some of it sticks in my head and sometimes not, but I tend to just let go and keep tinkering around with songs and re-visiting PianoGroove lessons, I frequently surprise myself with some sense of ear/hand coordination even when I donā€™t fully understand what I am doing from the sense of theory. you are right Scott - its a lifetime endeavor ā€¦ So nice to have this PianoGroove community to support each and challenge each other.

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Awesomeā€¦ Iā€™m glad to hear that Scott.

Even after a lifetime of studying jazz, i think there is always more to explore and discover!

Thatā€™s great. I like to think of chords and voicings in terms of the colour and texture they create.

I agree, I find it such a pleasure to simply indulge in the wonderful sounds of jazzy chords and voicings.

YES YES YES @LoriNelson I agree with @paul1523727 with underestimating yourself but thatā€™s just a meticulous pat of our nature and ultimately what makes us better ourselves!

Your pace I thought was great, it communicated a real nice (but not over the top) level of passion to the piece, keep them coming.

Also - This is a firstā€¦

Top marks for camera shot/angle and audio. You are top of Dr Dans Leaderboard for technical delivery for Pierreā€™s Practice Routine :star:

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:joy:. Thanks Dan, I have to laughā€¦that was an iPad perched on a book and I was worried that my 10ft ceilings and hardwood floors would make my piano ring like an old clunker. :joy:
I want to tell you that I just watched the Facebook link: pianogroove promotional and informative video that you have created, and the quality is astounding.

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Thanks @LoriNelson, glad you like it :grinning: Throughout my video career, you wouldnā€™t believe some of the props Iā€™ve had to improvise withā€¦ folded up card, chairs, boxes, haha, anything to get the right shot :+1:

Thatā€™s brilliant Lori! Serious me gets way too hung up on technicality and I have a hunch that if I lighten up and take a more fun approach like youā€™ve done I could be loving it even more than I already do. And youā€™re so right about how blessed we are to have such a gifted, passionate, and generous master teacher in Hayden.

Your performance of Laura was absolutely beautiful and I applaud your courage for sharingā€¦bravo!

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Thanks Kim, so there you are, itā€™s your turn, you are among friends and fellow self-critical studentsā€¦so just relax and post one small thing you are working on. ( I hated the notion, but breaking that ice has really helped me chill outā€¦ mistakes and all)
I can play Beautiful Love as a ballad, but my next goal is to add left hand voicings and comp and improv on itā€¦ Iā€™ll keep ya posted.

p.s. If you ever take that motorcycle on a road trip to the PNW let me know!