OT: Sometimes joy comes when you least expect it.

[EscapeRocks]

I'm at Guitar Center this morning getting some cable and other ancillary supplies.

 

There was a young boy, turned out to be 9, who was sitting at one of the digital pianos, playing some scales, and other things typical of a young piano student. He sounded pretty good, and that was nice to hear.

 

I'm over in the other section checking out an SV-1, when I hear the boy trying to plink out the intro to Don't Stop Believing, a song I've of course played a bazillion times.

 

As is usual, but no problem, he's having a little trouble, and I can tell he learned it a bit from the sheet music, which is wrong, by the way.

 

I take the opportunity, as a former elementary teacher to go over and give the boy "props" for his classical playing and his attempt at DSB. We talk a little bit, and it comes around to my trib act. He says he's having a hard time figuring out DSB.

I ask him if he'd like me to show him. He says, "yes, please!"

 

So I do. The octave stretch is still a bit tough for him with his small hands, but he's getting the basics down.

 

I play the bass notes for him while he plays the main part. At this point I notice his parents were watching as a huge smile lit up the kid's face as he finally "got it."

 

To me, as a life long kid's advocate, teacher, etc...that was great.

Seeing the joy as he figured out a song he's been wanting to learn for a long time was more than worth my few minutes with him.

 

As an aside, it turns out this 9 year old is a Journey fan, since his parents listen to it, and has the boy told me, there's so much cool piano in it

 

I wrote down the bass notes for him to take home to learn after I showed him the run a couple times.

 

He thanked me, and his parents thanked me and we chatted a bit, then I went on about my business.

 

I was very pleased to see a youngster going about learning an instrument in what I call the right way: lessons, practice, the basics of theory, and so on.

 

I hope that in some small way, my brief interaction has a positive effect, and keeps him going.

 

 

[mcgoo]

Awesome story. I wouldn't be surprised if that kid remembers this chance meeting the rest of his life. Nice job seizing the moment to make a difference!

[MuzikTeechur]

Now, those parents are home, hearing the intro to "Don't Stop Believin'" for the 2,000th time, trying to coax junior away from the piano with cookies and video games...

[RedKey]

Well done. I've witnessed the photography community recently explode with the sharing of tips, tricks, how to get "that" shot, complete dissections, etc. Obviously the web has helped.

I wish there was more of that in the keyboard community. A lot more. Sheet music is often way off and the tips and tricks shown are so few and far between.....

 

WELL DONE!

[EscapeRocks]

Now, those parents are home, hearing the intro to "Don't Stop Believin'" for the 2,000th time, trying to coax junior away from the piano with cookies and video games...

 

LOL

 

At my age now I am continually amazed at the patience my parents must have had as they heard me trying to learn "Beth" by KISS, Bohemian Rhapsody, and so on so many years ago.

 

I guess part of my reason for interacting when I can with kids learning an instrument is due to my piano teacher.

 

I had the same teacher from 6 till I was 14 in Chicago.

 

She was awesome. As long as I was doing my scales, my Hannon, and my classical, or ragtime practice, I could bring in any sheet music I wanted to learn. SO there I was in the mid to late 70's learning Chopin next to Queen, and Led Zep, etc.

 

She, along with my parents, is probably why I still play today some 40 years later. She made piano fun, and not a chore.

 

I guess I want kids today to see music that way. That yes, you have to practice, but it can be fun and give you a lifetime of joy no matter where your music takes you.

 

 

[EscapeRocks]

Well done. I've witnessed the photography community recently explode with the sharing of tips, tricks, how to get "that" shot, complete dissections, etc. Obviously the web has helped.

I wish there was more of that in the keyboard community. A lot more. Sheet music is often way off and the tips and tricks shown are so few and far between.....

 

WELL DONE!

 

Thanks RedKey!

 

I think sometimes all of us who have been musicians for a long time forget how we got here. While not all of us, I know that for many of us, including me, may have had one person show us something in our youth that stuck with us.

 

It's my hope to pass this along to the next generation of upcoming musicians.

 

It may sound cheesy to some, but for those who have worked with kids, or been teachers, the very best part of my day...heck, this week... was seeing this kid light up when he finally "got" how to play the song after some odd looking adult musician took the time to help him.

 

As you said about the photographic world, this can be all it takes to spark a lifetime in some aspect of the arts.

 

 

As far as the sheet music, that is so true about being so far off.

 

I'm often amazed how far at times.

 

Even with my years of piano playing, there were a couple songs I had a hard time figuring out. I went to the sheet music, and it just didn't jibe with how Journey was playing it. I have often gone to youtube and watched Jon's hands to get an idea of what he's doing, and voila~, I got it down.

 

 

 

[Joe Muscara]

"I remember when I was 9 and met the keyboard player from Journey at a music store and he showed me how to play Don't Stop Believin'!"

 

[Jim Alfredson]

Very cool, man!

 

Reminds me of a story from last spring: I have two young brothers, age 12 and 15, that are both learning piano from a formal teacher but their father is a lover of the Hammond and got them an XK System. They're getting into it, too.

 

Anyway, they have the basics covered from their formal lessons and since I'm self-taught I can't help them with sheet music anyway, so my approach is to try to teach them to use their ears more and figure things out for themselves.

 

So during one lesson, the younger brother is working on DSB for a recital and the sheet music is wrong; I don't know what it says but I can hear it's wrong and so can he. So we listen to the real song together and I coax him into figuring out the right inversion. He gets that down and I ask if there's any other song he wants to learn. He pulls out "Let It Be". Again we listen to that song and I help him figure out the chords. Then I ask, is there anything else? He pulls out "We Didn't Start The Fire".

 

I start laughing.

 

He says, "What?"

 

I say, "Go listen to the song and tell me what it has in common with the other two songs we just went over."

 

He does. He says "I don't know."

 

I say "Watch" and I play DSB. Then I play Let It Be in the same key. And then WDSTF in the same key.

 

He says suddenly "They all use the same chords!!!"

 

Bingo!

 

Which was very timely because we were just talking about not just looking at notes on the page but learning how chords and intervals sound.

 

Fun stuff.

[EscapeRocks]

"I remember when I was 9 and met the keyboard player from Journey at a music store and he showed me how to play Don't Stop Believin'!"

 

 

LOL

 

[EscapeRocks]

B3-er... very cool!!

 

Yeah, the common sheet music has you playing the E chord as such :

 

B E G#, and so on thru the pattern, when in fact it's just an octave pattern: B E B.

 

 

[Tonysounds]

"I remember when I was 9 and met the keyboard player from Journey at a music store and he showed me how to play Don't Stop Believin'!"

 

 

LMAO! Yep, that's how the story will be told 20 years from now!

 

 

[Tonysounds]

I hope that in some small way, my brief interaction has a positive effect, and keeps him going.

 

It will, you made him obviously very happy and propelled him on his way. Moments like this are huge for the recipient and the giver, even if not right away.

[JeffLearman]

Last I tried any, most sheet music for rock & blues was really bad. Best counterexample is Bridge Over Troubled Water, which has a few passing chords I wouldn't have gotten without it.

 

Steely Dan sheet music varies dramatically, from some stuff that looks note-for-note to others where they evidently paid some drone a few peanuts to produce the most boring and least accurate sheets possible while still being in the right key and getting most of the basic chords correct (but not voiced properly and with crucial color missing).

 

And then there are charts that assume you already know the song and can figure out all the color for yourself. Long ago my roommate wanted me to play Pork Pie Hat on Rhodes so he could play the lead on fretless bass. He plopped a chart in front of me, and I played the simplest voicings of the chords as written. Total train wreck, and he quit in disgust (I was happy to learn later it was disgust for the chart, not for me).

 

Still, the melody haunted me though I'd never heard the tune that I knew of. So years later, I pulled out the chart and assumed that the melody and bass were correct, and that the chords were dramatic simplifications. I basically reinvented the tune from that.

 

I later played it for someone who knew the song well, and damned if I didn't get it right except for two corrections -- and one was a wrong bass note (my mistake, but it still worked!) It still amazes me how much the melody dictated the harmony.

 

(He also informed me that the original was a half-step down from the chart, so I relearned it in the correct key.)

 

Of course, I bet the reharm room guys could do some wild and wonderful things to it. That stuff is a bit over my head.

[JeffLearman]

But back to the subject: yeah, that's great! I really enjoy mentoring, but don't get much chance to.

[Joe Muscara]

Continuing the slightly OT vein, the "Note-for-Note Keyboard Transcriptions" series from Hal Leonard supposedly is what it says it is. I haven't checked them for myself, however.

 

Here's a link to one of them, there are links to the others in the series on the page for anyone who is interested. I don't know which one has DSB though.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Hits-Note-Note-Transcriptions/dp/1423483081

 

P.S. Seriously ER, that's very cool. It's always great when kids get such a positive experience at that age.

 

P.P.S. B3-er you should show the kid

so he'll "learn" all those other songs too! [i'm not embedding the video because it had its own thread here not long ago.]

[johnchop]

Yeah, the common sheet music has you playing the E chord as such :

 

B E G#, and so on thru the pattern, when in fact it's just an octave pattern: B E B.

 

Laughing to myself, because apparently _I_ learned it wrong (from the sheet music). :-) And yeah, it never sounded quite right...

[Bobadohshe]

Here's a link to one of them, there are links to the others in the series on the page for anyone who is interested. I don't know which one has DSB though.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Hits-Note-Note-Transcriptions/dp/1423483081

 

Those books are all awesome.

 

These days there are no shortage of excellent, quality, accurate transcriptions. Of course taking it down via the ears is a great way to learn too.

 

ER, awesome story. That's why I teach. You should have offered to teach the kid also, maybe with supplemental lessons to the ones he's already taking with a teacher, once a month or every other week or something like that.

[EscapeRocks]

 

Laughing to myself, because apparently _I_ learned it wrong (from the sheet music). :-) And yeah, it never sounded quite right...

 

LOL don't worry. In 1981 when the song debuted, I got the sheet music and learned it wrong myself.

 

Hell, even the official "Journey Complete" song book has it wrong. In a way that's funny to me as most of the transcriptions in the book are dead on correct for even some of the more complicated (to hear) parts.

[EscapeRocks]

ER, awesome story. That's why I teach. You should have offered to teach the kid also, maybe with supplemental lessons to the ones he's already taking with a teacher, once a month or every other week or something like that.

 

I have often thought about doing that if I can get my schedule to where I can make a definite commitment. I would love to take on a couple/few kids at a young age who may have expressed an interest in music and give them a solid beginning with my approach to teaching, which as I said above is instilling a joy of learning.

 

 

Funny thing: when when of those "Rock Schools" opened up near here, I applied. They said I was over qualified. ???????

[EscapeRocks]

Continuing the slightly OT vein, the "Note-for-Note Keyboard Transcriptions" series from Hal Leonard supposedly is what it says it is. I haven't checked them for myself, however.

 

Here's a link to one of them, there are links to the others in the series on the page for anyone who is interested. I don't know which one has DSB though.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Hits-Note-Note-Transcriptions/dp/1423483081

 

P.S. Seriously ER, that's very cool. It's always great when kids get such a positive experience at that age.

 

P.P.S. B3-er you should show the kid

so he'll "learn" all those other songs too! [i'm not embedding the video because it had its own thread here not long ago.]

 

 

Thanks Joe!

 

LOL that video was what I first thought of when reading B3-er's post

[Tonysounds]

Funny thing: when when of those "Rock Schools" opened up near here, I applied. They said I was over qualified. ???????

 

Yeah I was interviewed as the MD for the Paul Green School they were opening up in Chicago. Told me the same thing: I was overqualified. I think what they meant was they wanted to pay me $23,000.00 per year. I was interviewed by some woman about 24 years old who wouldnt know an eighth note from an eight ball.

[EscapeRocks]

Funny thing: when when of those "Rock Schools" opened up near here, I applied. They said I was over qualified. ???????

 

Yeah I was interviewed as the MD for the Paul Green School they were opening up in Chicago. Told me the same thing: I was overqualified. I think what they meant was they wanted to pay me $23,000.00 per year. I was interviewed by some woman about 24 years old who wouldnt know an eighth note from an eight ball.

 

That sounds exactly like my situation a couple years ago here in the Dallas area. I think I qualified in every aspect except I wasn't a 22 year old struggling local gigging musician.

[Eric Iverson]

Based on the above, I assume that these "rock schools" are mainly for young kids.

When I was a teenager, "rock school" meant watching older guitar players and trying to steal licks. You could get guitar lessons at music stores, but that was mostly the Alfred method book where you'd learn to read great tunes like "Go Tell Aunt Rhody", which is wonderful if you want to sing about dead geese. LOL