This month I've created a challenging exercise inspired by the piano solo in Paul Brandt's "The Highway Patrol", which contains a tricky, rhythmic, ascending 2-handed run.

Using only the first six notes of that run (based on a D9 chord), I expanded them sequentially not only upward but also descending. Two versions of the exercise are included, an 18-bar phrase plus a shorter 9-bar variant.

This exercise will help improve your technique in several areas: Left-Right coordination, rhythmic syncopation, articulation, and "close-quarter" hand positions.

Because the underlying harmony for this exercise is a ninth chord - a D9 - and both hands are alternating in a Right-Left-Left pattern, it's called "Alternating 9ths".

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 66 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Exercise in Alternating 9ths - Left-Right coordination, rhythmic syncopation & "close-quarter" hand positions

To listen, just click: Exercise in Alternating 9ths

Happy August 2019!

Here is my August 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Born in 1949 in Queens, New York City, Roy Bittan said that music first entered his life when, as a child, he saw an accordion player, Dick Contino, on the Ed Sullivan Show.

"I said, 'I want to play that.' He was pre-Elvis; from like 1949 to 1952, he was one of the biggest entertainers in the U.S. - very Italian-looking guy, muscular. Women in those days would throw their hotel room keys at him. I was too little to understand that part, but I loved the instrument, so I wanted to take accordion lessons, and my parents indulged me. I studied the accordion.

"The two sides of the accordion are broken up, the right hand being the melody and the left hand being sort of chordal. I suppose you could say the same thing about the piano, but it's not really the same on the piano, because when you play the accordion, you tend to play melody with a harmony of thirds and maybe sixths, and it's a very, very melodically evocative instrument. The accordion also has a sense of pathos, as well as a sense of joy. I mean, it's a woodwind. It's wind blowing over a reed. And it can be very expressive when played properly. So I think the training I had on the accordion gave my playing an expressiveness.

"Also, when I studied the accordion, I had a teacher who gave me the pop songs of the week to write out a chord chart, which is basically the melody of the song and then a symbol above it of what the chord is underneath it. You have to figure out how to play the song. So, that sort of extemporaneous, spontaneous training of taking a melody and then embellishing the accompaniment gave me a leg up on those who took piano lessons and maybe just studied classical music. I was trained early on in expressing myself and getting the most out of a particular piece of music." Roy first met Bruce Springsteen in 1974 at Max's Kansas City, a nightclub in NYC where Springsteen and his E Street Band were sharing the bill with Bittan's band. "So for a few nights, our bands would trade sets, and we would pass in the hall. I would go, 'Ah, man, you're so great,' and he would go, 'Hey you played really great.' We would pat each other on the back: 'Hey, have a good set.' There was no question in my mind that he was going to break through."

Bittan's first album with Springsteen's E Street Band was Born To Run. "We spent a good bit of time working on the arrangements. We would labor over, 'Well, what do we do with the ending of 'Thunder Road'?' And 'Jungleland', my God, it was like, 'How do I connect all this stuff?' My classical training helped me connect all the sections and sort of make them flow together. Then we had to play it like it was a real piece of music. Bruce didn't want to just splice the song together; we would perform it from beginning to end and try to get one great take - not easy to do. So there was a lot of rehearsal involved, a lot of construction. The songs needed tight structure, and I think I was able to distill them and work up piano parts to highlight what he was doing. Using so much piano on the album gave it a certain gravitas rather than just maybe doing it all with guitars."

When told that Keith Richards had said that his last request would be to play "Jumpin' Jack Flash" one final time, and asked what song would that be for him, Bittan replied, "That would be the longest song we ever recorded, which is 'Jungleland'."

Here are my Roy Bittan transcriptions::

Bruce Springsteen - "Jungleland" - Piano Interlude - Roy Bittan, piano
Bruce Springsteen - "Because the Night" - Roy Bittan, piano
Bruce Springsteen - "Born To Run" (Live in NYC) - Roy Bittan, piano
Bob Seger - Roll Me Away - Roy Bittan, piano

Here are my other transcriptions of E Street Band members:

Bruce Springsteen - "Born To Run" (album) - David Sancious, piano
Bruce Springsteen - "Hungry Heart" - B-3 Solo - Danny Federici, organ
Pat Benatar - "Looking for a Stranger" - Charles Giordano, organ

"Swamp Rock" is an atmospheric piano style with roots in the Louisiana bayous, but an Oklahoman, Leon Russell, played it as well as anybody. This exercise helps clarify some of the basic elements that give it its colorful 'sound':

1) 4ths - good for fills over the I chord
2) 6ths - good for fills over the IV chord
3) Tritones - right-hand voicing for dominant 7th chords

This is an 8-bar phrase that introduces the player to these three important elements of the "Swamp Rock" style. The Performance Notes explain the music theory underlying this style.

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 65 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Exercise in 'Swamp Rock' - 4ths, 6ths & Tritones - The basic elements of the 'Swamp Rock' style of Leon Russell and Dr. John

To listen, just click: Elmo Peeler - Exercise in Swamp Rock - 4ths, 6ths & Tritones (grand piano)
To listen, just click: Elmo Peeler - Exercise in Swamp Rock - 4ths, 6ths & Tritones (honky-tonk piano)

Since Leon Russell was the master and leading exponent of 'Swamp Rock', here are my actual Leon Russell transcriptions (not exercises but pieces that are great to learn from):

Bobby 'Boris' Pickett - "Monster Mash" - Leon Russell, piano
Delaney & Bonnie - "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)" - Leon Russell, piano
Delaney & Bonnie - "Faded Love" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "Delta Lady" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "The Letter" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "A Song for You" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "I Put a Spell on You" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "Roll Away the Stone" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "She Belongs to Me" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "Tryin' To Stay 'Live" - Leon Russell, piano

Happy July 2019!

Here is my July 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Born in 1946 in Houston, Texas, Billy Preston moved to Los Angeles as a child with his mother, a stage actress - for whom twenty years later he would write "You Are So Beautiful". A child prodigy with perfect pitch, Billy started playing piano while sitting on his mother's lap and was entirely self-taught.

Although he'd never had a music lesson, by age ten Billy was playing organ onstage, backing gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland and Andrae Crouch.

At 11 Preston appeared on an episode of Nat King Cole's TV show singing the Fats Domino hit "Blueberry Hill" with Cole. He also appeared in St. Louis Blues, a 1958 movie about W. C. Handy starring Nat 'King' Cole, Eartha Kitt and Cab Calloway; Preston played Handy at a younger age.

In 1962, Preston joined Little Richard's band as an organist, and it was while performing in Hamburg that he met the Beatles. In 1963, he played the organ on Sam Cooke's Night Beat album and released his own debut album, 16 Yr Old Soul, for Cooke's SAR label. In 1965, he released the album The Most Exciting Organ Ever and performed on the rock and roll show Shindig! In 1967, he joined Ray Charles' band.

Following this exposure, several musicians began asking Preston to contribute to their sessions, including the Beatles, seven years after meeting him while playing with Little Richard.

He played on several of their songs, including "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down", "Something", "Let It Be" (the organ part), and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".

During the "Get Back" sessions Lennon suggested that Preston join the Beatles, even using the term "Fifth Beatle", but the idea was dismissed by the others.

Billy Preston was the only artist to receive joint credit on a Beatles single. Preston also accompanied the band on electric piano for its rooftop concert, the group's final public appearance.

From 1970, Preston played keyboards (including piano, organ, clavinet and various synthesizers) for the Rolling Stones, sometimes alongside pianists Nicky Hopkins and Ian Stewart, on their albums Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St. (which includes "Shine a Light"), Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock 'n Roll and Black and Blue.

As the band's primary touring keyboardist from 1973 to 1977, he also performed as a support act with his own band (including Mick Taylor on guitar) on their 1973 European tour.

In 1974, along with Bruce Fisher, one of his regular songwriting collaborators in the 1970s, he composed one of Joe Cocker's biggest hits, "You Are So Beautiful". On October 11, 1975, he was the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live's premiere episode.

Although the Stones and Preston parted company in 1977, mainly due to a disagreement over money, Billy continued to play on solo records by Stones members like Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit, and made appearances on the band's Tattoo You and Bridges to Babylon albums.

Although credited to usual Stones writers Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Shine a Light" was largely a Mick Jagger-Leon Russell composition. Mick began writing the song in early 1968 when the Stones still had guitarist Brian Jones as a member. The song was originally titled "Get a Line on You" and dealt with Jones's ever-worsening addiction to drugs and his detachment from the rest of the band.

A version of the song, under the title "(Can't Seem To) Get a Line on You," was made by Leon Russell at Olympic Studios in October 1969 with assistance from Jagger (lead vocals), Charlie Watts (drums), Leon Russell (piano), and probably also Bill Wyman (bass) and Mick Taylor (guitar). The recording was made during the recording sessions for the 1970 album Leon Russell, where both Watts and Wyman contributed drums and bass to some of the tracks. However, Leon's version of the song was shelved until 1993, when it was finally released as a bonus track on the 24K gold re-release of Leon Russell by DCC Compact Classics.

After Jones' death in 1969, the song resurfaced. Following revisions by Jagger, it was recorded again in July 1970 as "Shine a Light." A third recording at London's Olympic Sound Studios in December 1971 resulted in the final version of the song released on Exile on Main St.

Here are my Billy Preston transcriptions::

The Rolling Stones - "Shine a Light" - Complete Piano Part - Billy Preston, piano
The Beatles - "Don't Let Me Down" - Complete Electric Piano Part - Billy Preston, Fender-Rhodes elec. piano
Billy Preston - "Will It Go 'Round in Circles" - Opening Piano Riff

Here are my other Rolling Stone transcriptions:

The Rolling Stones - "2120 South Michigan Avenue" - Ian Stewart, B-3 organ
The Rolling Stones - "Around and Around" - 36-bar Piano Solo - Ian Stewart, piano
The Rolling Stones - "Cool, Calm and Collected" - Intro & 1st 2 Verses - Jack Nitzsche, piano
The Rolling Stones - "Key to the Highway" - Ian Stewart, piano
The Rolling Stones - "Loving Cup" - Nicky Hopkins, piano
The Rolling Stones - "She's a Rainbow" - Piano Intro, Nicky Hopkins, piano

Here are my Leon Russell transcriptions:

Bobby 'Boris' Pickett - "Monster Mash" - Leon Russell, piano
Delaney & Bonnie - "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)" - Leon Russell, piano
Delaney & Bonnie - "Faded Love" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "Delta Lady" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "The Letter" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "A Song for You" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "I Put a Spell on You" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "Roll Away the Stone" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "She Belongs to Me" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "Tryin' To Stay 'Live" - Leon Russell, piano

David Evans, born in 1961, better known by his stage name the Edge (or just Edge) is the lead guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist of U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 14 studio albums with the band as well as one solo record.

On U2's first #1 hit in the U.S., "With or Without You", Edge played the Infinite Guitar, a modified Stratocaster that allowed notes to sustain infinitely.

Michael Brook invented the Infinite Guitar by modifying his own Fender Stratocaster. He says he simply "put one pickup on top of another." The bridge pickup amplifies the sound of the strings, the newly added pickup reflects the sound and sends it back to the original pickups, creating a loop that can sustain the note indefinitely.

In 1987 while he was producing U2's The Joshua Tree album, Daniel Lanois told The Edge about Brook's invention. Intrigued, Edge paid Brook a visit, heard possibilities in the new Infinite Guitar, and asked if Brook could make him one. Brook initially demurred, telling Edge he's not a manufacturer, but eventually offered to modify the Irish guitarist's 1965 Strat. (Daniel Lanois, who employed Brook as an engineer at his Grant Street studio, owns the only other Infinite Guitar ever made.)

Choosing to use a clean Strat sound, the Edge recorded two tracks, both of which were used in the final mix by producer Lanois. Because of their sustain, they sound similar to a synthesizer, but being played on a Strat, the sound can be quite expressive, using harmonics and the guitar's volume knob for crescendos/decrescendos. The Edge uses both techniques in "With or Without You".

My new U2 transcription:

U2 - "With or Without You" - Both Infinite Guitar tracks - the Edge, guitarist

Here are my other Synthesizer transcriptions:

The Cars - Bye Bye Love - Synth Solo - Greg Hawkes, synth
Emerson, Lake & Powell - Lay Down Your Guns - Piano Part + Synth Solo - Keith Emerson, synth
Led Zeppelin - All My Love - Synth Parts - John Paul Jones, synth
Styx - Fooling Yourself (Synth Solo No.1) - Dennis DeYoung, synth
Styx - Fooling Yourself (Synth Solo No.2) - Dennis DeYoung, synth
Toto (& Weezer) - Africa - Synth Solo - David Paich, synth
Toto (& Weezer) - Rosanna - Synth Solo

Contrary motion - and its harmonization - has intrigued musicians since the time of Bach, whose Soprano and Bass lines often moved in opposite directions.

And 300 years later contrary motion is still alive and well, especially in Blues and C&W turn-arounds, and in Gospel and Rock. The chorus in the Doobie Brothers' "Takin' It to the Streets" is just one example of contrary motion between the melody and the bass guitar - the melody descends while the bass ascends. (BTW, this exercise is not based on "Takin' It to the Streets".)

Sometimes contrary motion can be a little challenging to harmonize, i.e., to find a chord that won't clash with the lines heading in opposite directions.

This exercise gives an example of a melody line that descends an octave while the bass line ascends an octave. Three different ways of playing the same chord progression are included.

There are a lot of different methods to achieve contrary motion, and this is only one chord progression. But if you like the sound of contrary motion and haven't been clear on what chords to use, this should help.

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 64 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Exercise in Contrary Motion - Gospel/Rock - How To Harmonize a Gospel/Rock Phrase with One Hand Descending while the Other Ascends, and vice-versa

To listen, just click: Exercise in Contrary Motion

Happy June 2019!

Here is my June 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Nicky Hopkins - Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones called him 'the greatest rock 'n' roll piano player in the world', and the Kinks dedicated a song to him, "Session Man" on their 1966 Face to Face album.

He played piano with The Beatles ("Revolution") and John Lennon ("Imagine"), and for the Who, the Kinks, Jeff Beck, Jerry Garcia, Cat Stevens, Jefferson Airplane, the Steve Miller Band, Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton, Art Garfunkel, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and many others.

Born in England in 1944, a year younger than George Harrison, Nicky began playing at age three, and started lessons at six. By the time he was eleven his solo performances were singled out in the local paper: "Eleven-year-old Nicholas Hopkins played his own composition, "Processional March"... The audience so applauded that Nicholas played the march again."

He learned to sight-read and progressed rapidly through the classical repertoire,and from age 12 to 16 he studied every Saturday morning at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was almost certainly a contemporary of eleven-year-old Reginald Dwight (Elton John) - both scholarship winners.

Also at age twelve, he later recalled, "It was the first time I remember being able to listen and then sit down at the piano and playing it. That's when I first started to understand music, beyond just having the ability to read it. Rock allowed me to experiment with new styles, but I never lost that classical element in my music. I was twelve when I first heard Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and those records made a fantastic impression on me."

However, Nicky rebelled against authority and by his own admission was only good at music and English, so he dropped out of school at sixteen to join his first band, Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages. Later in his teen years his always-frail health - Crohn's disease - necessitated a series of operations that made him bed-ridden for nineteen months, from May 1963 to December 1964.

Upon recovery, rather than joining bands, he concentrated on session work and became one of London's most in-demand session pianists, working extensively with leading UK producers Shel Talmy (the Who and the Kinks) and Andrew Loog Oldham (the Rolling Stones).

At 23 he joined the Jeff Beck Group with vocalist Rod Stewart, and at 25 recorded his own instrumental, the elegant "Girl from Mill Valley". Listen to it here on YouTube.

Since most of his recordings were accompanying tracks with the piano often buried in the mix under vocals, "Girl from Mill Valley", his own instrumental with up-front piano throughout, is an excellent study in gospel-rock generally, and Nicky Hopkins' style specifically.

The 'Girl' was the then-separated wife of a Quicksilver Messenger Service band-mate - one of shy Nicky's few romantic interests. Introduced by a mutual friend in California, he invited her to return to England with him, which she did, and met his parents. However, she kept it a platonic friendship and after ten days returned to Mill Valley. Nicky once said the song was "about nobody".

Nicky's piano sound was characterized by a certain bright percussiveness, always with clean, precisely-executed rhythms that could propel a rhythm track like drum fills. He had a great sense of classical-influenced melody, balance and proportion, and was equally at home in ballads ("You Are So Beautiful") and up-tempo rockers ("Revolution").

About "You Are So Beautiful" Joe Cocker says, "I'd been living in London and was a bit disillusioned with the whole business when Jim (Price) came in and played me that song, 'You Are So Beautiful,' which got me back in the studio; it was originally a gospel tune, but Jim kept saying, 'When I get Nicky Hopkins on this track, you'll understand what we're talking about' and of course, when he finally played it to me that way, I couldn't believe this piano part; that's when I did the vocal that stayed on the record. I sang it to wrap around that piano line. It would not have been that song without that piano part. Nicky's thing and the vocal just kissed each other; it was special. I was a latecomer on the scene and I kind of knew Nicky, but it wasn't like we did that session together. I'd still never met him at that stage."

And Nicky, who'd recorded the piano track without Cocker even present, consistently picked "You Are So Beautiful" as one of his own all-time favorite performances.

Other great Nicky Hopkins recordings include his tracks with the Rolling Stones, including "Loving Cup".

In a 2003 interview, Mick Jagger explained: "On the Forty Licks tour, when we were preparing the set list for a show in Yokohama, Chuck Leavell suggested we play 'Loving Cup', the ballad from Exile on Main St. I didn't want to play the tune and I said, Chuck, this is going to die a death in Yokohama. I can't even remember the bloody song, and no one likes it. I've done it loads of times in America, it doesn't go down that well, it's a very difficult song to sing, and I'm fed up with it! Chuck went, Stick in the mud! so I gave in and put it in the set-list. Lo and behold, we went out, started the song and they all began applauding... Which just proves how, over time, some of these songs acquire a certain existence, or value, that they never had when they first came out. People will say, What a wonderful song that was, when it was virtually ignored at the time it was released."

Here are my Nicky Hopkins transcriptions:

The Rolling Stones - "Loving Cup" - Nicky Hopkins, piano
Joe Cocker - "You Are So Beautiful" - Complete Piano Part - Nicky Hopkins, piano
The Jeff Beck Group - "Girl from Mill Valley" - Complete Piano Part - Nicky Hopkins, piano
John Lennon - "Imagine" - Complete Piano Part - Nicky Hopkins, piano
The Rolling Stones - "She's a Rainbow" - Piano Intro - Nicky Hopkins, piano

Here are my other Joe Cocker transcriptions:

Joe Cocker - "Delta Lady" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" - Tommy Eyre, organ
Joe Cocker - "Feelin' Alright" (Live) - Chris Stainton, piano
Joe Cocker - "Feelin' Alright" (Studio) - Artie Butler, piano
Joe Cocker - "That's Your Business Now" - Chris Stainton, piano
Joe Cocker - "The Letter" - Leon Russell, piano

In rock-and-roll piano-playing Left Hand/Right Hand coordination is very important. Often the Left Hand will keep a heartbeat rhythmic pattern going while the Right Hand plays syncopated, i.e., 'pushed', chords.

Often it's not clear to rock/pop pianists what the Left Hand should be doing, which is usually to add forward momentum. And even when one knows what the Left Hand should be doing, sometimes it can be a little tricky when the Right Hand is playing something quite different.

This exercise is in three parts, all three with exactly the same Right Hand part, a simple pattern with rhythmic 'pushes'. The first part shows the wrong way to play a Left Hand part, with the Left Hand copying the Right Hand pushes.

The second and third parts show how to add a simple 2-strike and 3-strike Left Hand 'heartbeat' pattern that complements the Right Hand part rather than copying it, rhythmically.

If you'd like to gain greater independence and coordination of the hands, this exercise should help.

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 63 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Left Hand/Right Hand Coordination Exercise - Pushes vs Heartbeats - A 16-bar phrase with three Left Hand parts, one bad and two good.

Happy May 2019!

Here is my May 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Gospel piano music isn't inspirational just because of its association with the church, but also because in the best hands, it just plain rocks.

If you could ask Leon Russell what he thought about gospel piano, he'd probably point out that almost every recording he ever made contained gospel elements, from the notes and chord voicings to the rhythms.

As would the late great Richard Tee, whose gospel rhythms and licks infused his amazing style.

The difference in their styles was that Leon grew up listening to the gospel pianos in the churches in Oklahoma, whereas Richard Tee grew up listening to the church pianists in Brooklyn and Harlem.

Around 1969 gospel piano began having a big influence on mainstream rock piano as Joe Cocker burst onto the scene and both of his main pianists, Chris Stainton and Leon, embraced gospel piano, using it on most of their recordings with Cocker.

Nicky Hopkins' gospel-based style started influencing the Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, and many others. And Billy Preston, gospel B-3 genius, was called the 5th Beatle.

Southern (& Northern) gospel-influenced rock-and-roll (& Top 40) started coming from London studios - and NYC, Chicago, Memphis, Muscle Shoals and Los Angeles studios. If you were a session player, you could count on the producer asking you to "take it to church".

Many of us have grown up listening to the gospel-infused riffs coming from the radio hits of the day, while hearing first-hand the gospel piano giving buoyancy and momentum to the hymns in church every Sunday.

This month we add some of the older-style Southern gospel to a more contemporary gospel track, in a brand-new arrangement of "Victory in Jesus".

My new gospel transcription/arrangement:

"Victory in Jesus" - Transcribed/Arranged by Elmo Peeler -

My other gospel-influenced transcriptions:

Joe Cocker - "You Are So Beautiful" - Nicky Hopkins,piano
Jeff Beck Group - "Girl from Mill Valley" - Nicky Hopkins, piano
Ray Charles - "Sweet Sixteen Bars"
Ethel Caffie-Austin - "Amazing Grace"
The Beatles - "Let It Be" - Paul McCartney, piano
Lari White - "Lead Me Not" - Bill Payne, piano
Bill Payne - "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"
Leon Russell - "She Belongs to Me"
Leon Russell - "Tryin' To Stay 'Live" (Intro)
Joe Cocker - "Delta Lady" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "The Letter" - Leon Russell, piano
Delaney & Bonnie - "Don't Deceive Me" - Leon Russell, piano
Delaney & Bonnie - "Faded Love" - Leon Russell, piano
Don Henley - "You Don't Miss Your Water" (Live) - Jai Winding, piano
Plum Nellie - "A Love Like Yours" - Joe Glossop, piano
Plum Nellie - "That Lucky Old Sun" - Joe Glossop, piano
Billy Preston - "Will It Go Round in Circles" - Opening Piano Riff
Richard Tee - "Happy Birthday" #1
Richard Tee - "Happy Birthday" #2
Aretha Franklin - "Don't Play That Song" (Intro)
The Band - "The Weight" - Garth Hudson, piano
Eagles - "Please Come Home for Christmas" - Glenn Frey, piano
Elvis Presley - "I Really Don't Want To Know" - Floyd Cramer & Tony Brown, piano
Jackson Browne - "Rock Me on the Water" - Craig Doerge, piano
Jerry Lee Lewis - "When the Saints Go Marching In"

One of the most fun pianistic licks is the 'flip', where the riff ascends, then reverses direction and descends lower than the beginning note.

Probably originating in New Orleans, certainly often used by Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint and Dr. John, flips are now found in all types of pop music, from Rock to Blues to Country.

Although fun to play, and important to have in one's bag of tricks, flips can be a little tricky to figure out at first. This exercise helps clarify the various elements and execution of a typical flip.

Fingering is included, along with Performance Notes.

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 62 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Elmo Peeler - Exercise in Flips

Happy April 2019!

Here is my April 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Born in Scotland in 1938 and raised in London, Ian Stewart started playing piano when he was six. Stewart, who loved R&B, boogie-woogie, blues and big-band jazz, was the first to respond to Brian Jones' ad in Jazz News in May 1962 seeking musicians to form an R&B group.

Also that May, Keith Richards met Stewart for the first time, as recalled in his auto-bio:

"I can hear this boogie-woogie piano, this unbelievable Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons stuff. I'm suddenly transported in a way. I feel like a musician and I haven't even got there! I could have been in the middle of Chicago, in the middle of Mississippi. I've got to go up there and meet this man who's playing this, and I've got to play with him. And if I don't measure up, it's over. That was really my feeling as I walked up those stairs, creak creak creak. In a way I walk up those stairs and come down a different person.

"Ian Stewart was the only one in the room, with this horsehair sofa that was split, horsehairs hanging out. He's got on a pair of Tyrolean leather shorts. He's playing an upright piano and he's got his back to me because he's looking out of the window where he's got his bike chained to a meter, making sure it's not nicked. At the same time he's watching all the strippers going from one club to another with their little round hatboxes and wigs on. "Phoar, look at that." All the while this Leroy Carr stuff is rumbling off his fingers. And I walk in with this brown plastic guitar case. And just stand there. It was like meeting the headmaster."

In another interview Richards described meeting Stewart: "He used to play boogie-woogie piano in jazz clubs, apart from his regular job. He blew my head off too, when he started to play. I never heard a white piano player play like that before."

Mick Jagger joined in June, and the group played their first gig under the name "the Rollin' Stones" in July 1962.

During this period, Stewart had a job at Imperial Chemical Industries. None of the other band members had a telephone; Stewart said, "My desk at ICI was the headquarters of the Stones organization. My number was advertised in Jazz News and I handled the Stones' bookings at work." He also bought a van to transport the group and their equipment to their gigs.

In May 1963, the band's manager decreed that Stewart should no longer be onstage, that six members were too many for a popular group, and that the older, burly, square-jawed Stewart did not fit the image. He said Stewart could stay as road manager, however, and play piano on recordings, which Stewart accepted. Richards said: "Stu might have realized that in the way it was going to have to be marketed, he would be out of sync, but that he could still be a vital part. I'd probably have said, 'Well, fuck you', but he said 'OK, I'll just drive you around.' That takes a big heart, butStu had one of the largest hearts around."

Stewart loaded gear into his van, drove the group to gigs, replaced guitar strings and set up Watts' drums the way he himself would play them.

He contributed piano, organ, electric piano and/or percussion to most of the Rolling Stones albums released between 1964 & 1986. Stewart played piano on numbers of his choosing throughout tours from 1969 to 1982. Favoring blues and country rockers, he remained dedicated to boogie-woogie and early R&B. He refused to play in minor keys, saying: "When I'm on stage with the Stones and a minor chord comes along, I lift my hands in protest."

Stewart remained aloof from the band's lifestyle. "I think he looked upon it as a load of silliness," said guitarist Mick Taylor. Stewart played golf, and as road manager showed a preference for hotels with golf courses. Richards recalls: "We'd be playing in some town where there's all these chicks, and they want to get laid and we want to lay them. But Stu would have booked us into some hotel about ten miles out of town. You'd wake up in the morning and there's the (golf) links. We're bored to death looking for some action and Stu's playing golf."

Stewart contributed to Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" from Led Zeppelin IV and "Boogie with Stu" from Physical Graffiti, two numbers in a traditional rock and roll vein, both featuring his boogie-woogie style.

Stewart was involved in the 1985 recording for Dirty Work, but by early December, began having respiratory problems. On December 12, 1985 he went to a clinic to have the problem examined, but he suffered a heart attack and died in the waiting room.

When Dirty Work was released, it included at the very end in tribute to Stewart a hidden, unlisted track, "Key to the Highway", a 33-second piano boogie-woogie instrumental played by Stewart.

When the Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, they requested Stewart's name be included.

Shortly after Stewart's death Mick Jagger said: "He really helped this band swing, on numbers like 'Honky Tonk Women' and loads of others. Stu was the one guy we tried to please. We wanted his approval when we were writing or rehearsing a song. We'd want him to like it."

In his 2010 autobiography Life, Keith Richards says: "Ian Stewart. I'm still working for him. To me The Rolling Stones is his band. Without his knowledge and organization ... we'd be nowhere."

My Ian Stewart transcriptions:

The Rolling Stones - "Around and Around" - 36-bar Piano Solo
Led Zeppelin - "Boogie with Stu" - Ian Stewart, piano
The Rolling Stones - "Key to the Highway" - Ian Stewart, piano
The Rolling Stones - "2120 South Michigan Avenue" - Ian Stewart, organ

My other Rolling Stones transcriptions:

The Rolling Stones - "Cool, Calm and Collected" - Intro & 1st 2 Verses - Jack Nitzsche, piano
The Rolling Stones - "She's a Rainbow" - Piano Intro - Nicky Hopkins, piano

Born in England in 1944, Keith Emerson was encouraged by his father, an amateur pianist, to learn to read music and to play the piano. He referred to his first teachers as the "local little old ladies", from whom he began learning classical music around the age of eight.

Not owning a record player, he listened to the radio, enjoying Floyd Cramer's 1961 "On the Rebound", and boogie-woogie and country-style pianists, including Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, Russ Conway and Winifred Atwell.

Emerson describes himself: "I was a very serious child. I used to walk around with Beethoven sonatas under my arm."

Emerson became interested in the Hammond organ after hearing jazz organist Jack McDuff perform "Rock Candy", and the Hammond became his instrument of choice in the late 1960s. Emerson acquired his first Hammond organ, an L-100 model, at the age of 15 or 16, on the installment plan.

"My father... introduced me to Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Dudley Moore and many others. Mum and Dad didn't smoke or drink. It was a disciplined childhood. When I first went on the road, I wasn't into the rock-n-roll lifestyle. I didn't even like beer. Mum used to polish my L-100 as if it was a piece of furniture."

After leaving school he worked at Lloyds Bank where he played piano in a bar during lunchtimes. Outside work, he played with several different bands.

The flamboyance for which he would later be noted began when a fight broke out during a performance in France by one of his early bands. Instructed by the band to keep playing, he produced some explosion and machine gun sounds with the Hammond organ, which stopped the fight. The other band members told him to repeat the stunt at the next concert.

Emerson said, "I wanted to do for the keyboards what Hendrix, a friend, was doing for the guitar.

"There were lots of funny moments among the broken ribs and blown-off fingernails. When we were touring as Emerson, Lake & Powell [in 1986, with the late Cozy Powell on drums], I was playing this very complex arrangement based on Holst's Mars. One section was hard to remember, so I had a monitor set up above the keyboards with the score. I'm playing away and look up only to see the monitor showing a heavy Swedish porn video..."

It was this band, Emerson, Lake & Powell, that produced one of Emerson's most beautiful melodies and chord progressions, "Lay Down Your Guns".

While transcribing the complete piano part for Keith Emerson's "Lay Down Your Guns" two months ago, I discovered a rare "Instrumental Demo" of LDYG that had been recorded earlier than the album version. It's in a different key, G (instead of E-flat), and contains enough different musical material that it needed to be transcribed, so that musicians could compare the transcription of the early demo with that of the final album version and study Emerson's creative process.

This month I'm happy to offer my new note-for-note transcription of that earlier Instrumental Demo (in G) for "Lay Down Your Guns".

My Keith Emerson transcriptions:

Emerson, Lake & Powell - "Lay Down Your Guns" - Instrumental Demo - Complete Piano Part + Synth Line -
Emerson, Lake & Powell - "Lay Down Your Guns" - Album Version - Complete Piano Part + Synth Solo

Relaxed, evenly-played tremolos are important for all pianists to master. They've been around since before Beethoven, who used them in his Sonatas. They were ubiquitous in silent-movie piano accompaniments. And they are commonly used in blues, C&W, boogie-woogie, and rock-and-roll. Every good rock pianist from Nicky Hopkins to Billy Powell has had them in their bag of tricks.

But they can be a little difficult to execute for many pianists. Often a pianist's forearm and/or wrist will tense and make the tremolo sound forced or uneven - not smooth and fluid.

This exercise eases the pianist into tremolos in 6ths by starting with slow tremolos, and gradually increasing their speed and number of notes per beat.

This contains four sections:

1) 8th notes
2) 8th-note triplets
3) 16th notes
4) 16th-note triplets

A suggested range of practice tempi, in BPM, is provided for each of the four sections. Plus, ten 'Performance Notes' with practice suggestions are included.

If your tremolos are not what you'd like them to be, this exercise should help.

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 61 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Elmo Peeler - Tremolo Exercise #1 -

Happy March 2019!

Here is my March 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Jerry Corbetta, a Denver,Colorado native, started as a drummer at the age of 4 before switching over to keyboards by age 7.

As a teenager, he started playing keyboards and joined a few Denver-based bands. The Moonrakers was one of them, and in '67-'68 twenty-year-old Jerry led a locally popular five piece band "The Half Doesn't" that drew crowds in Denver's 3.2% beer bars that served up low-alcohol beer and live music to Colorado's 18-year-olds. During his stint in The Moonrakers, he went back to playing drums. But in late 1968, Corbetta and a guitarist friend, Bob Webber, formed the band Chocolate Hair, with one of his main reasons being his desire to return to playing keyboards.

Liberty Records liked the band's demos and signed them. Just before the album's release, however, the legal department at Liberty suggested the name Chocolate Hair might be taken as having racist overtones. The band members agreed to change their name to Sugarloaf, the name of a mountain outside of Boulder, Colorado, where Bob Webber resided in an A-frame house. "Green-Eyed Lady" was recorded at Original Sound Studios in Hollywood, California, and was a last-minute addition to the album, which was released in the very late spring of 1970.

In a 1985 Rocky Mountain News interview Corbetta said the song was about his girlfriend at the time whose name was Cathy (Peacock), saying, "She has incredible green eyes and people were always saying stuff like, Corbetta's green-eyed lady." They had first met at Metropolitan State College when he was finishing his last quarter in the music department, and moved in together within two months, living in the tourette of an old Victorian home.

To quote Cathy, "Jerry and his writing partner were in the process of composing the music for Green-Eyed Lady when he turned to me one day and told me that he was going to call the song Green-Eyed Lady because he loved looking into my green eyes.

"The band was signed to their record deal with Liberty Records and their manager wanted the band to move to Los Angeles. Jerry asked me to move and I never looked back. Jerry and I stayed together until I no longer could tolerate the groupies, touring, and the rock and roll life. We broke up around 1974, but remained friends until our forties when I lost contact with him... He was a fantastic musician and a wonderful man. I hold dear those memories of Jerry and our brief romance. I thank him for giving me a peek into the psychedelic world of rock and roll of the 1970s and for Green-Eyed Lady. I never tire of hearing it on the radio or in the supermarket as the unmistakable organ riff plays, and a smile slowly appears on my face as memories come flooding back of days long since passed and I see the young man sitting at the piano, softly serenading me with a ballad he just composed for me."

Corbetta said he'd based the music partly on a scale exercise he'd found in a book. Sadly, he passed away in 2016 at age 68. But his "Green-Eyed Lady" will live on.

My new Sugarloaf transcription:

Sugarloaf - "Green-Eyed Lady" (Long Version) - Complete Organ & Clavinet Parts -

Ian McLagan, born in England in 1945, first became interested in rock-&-roll at the age of 10 when he heard "Rock Around the Clock". At his mother's insistence he took piano lessons, and after hearing Booker T. & the M.G.'s "Green Onions" he became interested in the organ. He started playing in bands in the early 1960s, initially using the Hohner Cembalet before switching to the Hammond organ and Wurlitzer electric piano.

In 1965 the Small Faces' manager, Don Arden, hired 'Mac' for the sum of £30 a week ($750 in 2019 dollars), to join the band. Once the 'probation' period ended, hispay was reduced (at his request) to £20 a week ($500), which was what the other band members were getting. They never received more than that because Don Arden collected all the proceeds of their hard work, and it wasn't until 1967 that they started receiving any royalties. McLagan played his debut gig with them at London's Lyceum Theatre in November 1967. In 1969 after Steve Marriott left the group and Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood joined, the band changed its name to Faces.

He went on to become a sideman for the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart (where I met Mac),John Mayer, and many others. But one of his proudest achievements was meeting and marrying Kim Kerrigan, the ex-wife of Keith Moon (drummer for the Who) and a wonderful woman - sensitive, bright & caring - like Mac. They were a perfectly matched, devoted couple.

I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Mac and Kim during Rod Stewart's Unplugged tours of the '90s. He was the organist for the tours and I was the arranger/conductor (and keyboardist) of the 21-piece orchestra. We toured together through Europe, Japan and North America, from Madison Square Garden to Wembley Stadium to even the Palace of Brunei. Before meeting Mac I didn't know what he looked like, but I'd heard his playing over the years and assumed that he must've been a big-boned, brawny Irishman whose piano sound was as big as was. Boy, was I wrong! At 5' 5" and weighing as much as a banty rooster, Ian was as diminutive as his sound was big. And he had a large personality with a wry wit and great sense of humor. Indeed, Mac was always the 'class clown' - a naturally funny person with a warm heart.

Mac played on many sessions for lots of bands, including the Georgia Satellites when they covered Jerry Lee Lewis' classic "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

My Ian McLagan transcriptions:

Georgia Satellites - Whole Lotta Shakin' - Piano Solo & Out Section (transcribed by Elmo Peeler).pdf -
Faces - Stay with Me - Main 2 Electric Piano Riffs (transcribed by Elmo Peeler).pdf

As mentioned in last month's newsletter, we've all seen keyboard players that were exceptionally rhythmic, seeming almost as much a drummer as a keyboardist.

And we've all heard Jon Lord's great rhythmic B-3 playing on Deep Purple's "Hush" and Nicky Hopkins' terrific rhythms propelling many Rolling Stone tracks.

Why is it that some keyboardists can turn their keys into rhythmic drums while many others can not?

It's simple - they understand the rhythms that a drummer plays. It's not mystical. Drummers practice rudiments (paradiddles) like pianists practice scales. And those rudiments are written down and can be learned by keyboard players.

This month's new "Playing Drums on the Piano" exercise takes another common drum paradiddle - LRLLRLRR (last month's was LLRLRRLR) - and applies it to the piano keyboard. Every single measure during the 14-bar pattern uses that particular drum rudiment to help the pianist ultimately become relaxed and comfortable with the Left-Right coordination required for very rhythmic keyboard playing.

The exercise is in three parts:

1) a 14-bar chord progression using basic triads and 7th-chords
2) the same 14-bar chord progression but harmonically richer (with 7th & 9th chords)
3) the same 14-bar chord progression (7th & 9th chords) but with a subtle difference on beat 3

Performance Notes are included. If you'd like to inject more rhythm into your playing, this exercise will help.

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 60 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Elmo Peeler - Paradiddle Exercise #4 - Playing Drums on the Piano -

Happy February 2019!

Here is my February 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Michael Martin Murphey was born in Dallas, TX in 1945, and began riding horses on his grandfather's and uncle's ranches at age six. He would sleep on his grandfather's porch under the stars, listening to his cowboy songs and stories, one of which was a Native American legend about a ghost horse rescuing people in the desert.

During these early years, he developed a special love for cowboy songs and stories. He was also an avid reader, especially drawn to the books of Mark Twain and William Faulkner. As a youth, he enjoyed writing poetry and loved listening to his uncle's old 78-RPM records, particularly the music of country and folk artists such as Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.

In junior high school he began performing as an amateur. At the age of seventeen, he took his first "professional" music job, playing western songs around a campfire at a Texas ranch. By the early 1960s, Murphey was playing the clubs in Dallas with his own band.

After graduating from high school, Murphey briefly studied Greek at the University of North Texas, and then moved to California, where at UCLA he studied classical literature, and medieval and Renaissance history and literature, with an emphasis on poetry and creative writing. He remained almost completely self-taught as a musician.

Soon he had made a name for himself in the Los Angeles folk music scene, and by 1964 formed a musical group with an old Texas friend, Michael Nesmith, under the name the Trinity River Boys. Murphey's first big break came through Nesmith, who had become part of the popular television musical group, The Monkees. Nesmith asked Murphey to write them a song for the next Monkees album, and Murphey composed "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round". The album sold over five million copies.

In 1971 Murphey signed with A&M Records and released his first album, of which Rolling Stone magazine said, "On the strength of his first album alone, Michael Murphey is the best new songwriter in the country".

"Wildfire" was written in 1972. I was working on a concept album called The Ballad of Calico for Kenny Rogers with my friend Larry Cansler. I was in my third year of college at UCLA, but I was living in the mountains in California. I would drive down to Larry's apartment in Los Angeles and sleep on his floor, because we would work, sometimes, 22 hours a day on the album. The night "Wildfire" came to me, Larry went to bed, and I went to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. I dreamed the song in its entirety. I woke up and pounded on Larry's door and said, "Can you come down and help me with this song?" His wife got up and made us coffee, and we finished it in two or three hours.

"The song came from deep down in my subconsciousness: My grandfather told me a story when I was a little boy about a legendary ghost horse that the Indians talked about. In 1936, author J. Frank Dobie identified this ghost horse story as the most prominent one in the lore of the Southwest... We recorded the song at Caribou Ranch in Colorado, 10,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains."

The haunting piano Intro and ending Coda were played by Jac Murphy, a talented Dallas jazz pianist whose Intro and Outro were inspired by Scriabin's Prelude in D-flat, Op. 11, No. 15. As Michael himself said, "It's not easy to find a pianist who can play like Jac Murphy! Jac Murphy, who had flying fingers and quick-witted improvisation, was like 'Bill Evans meets Bluegrass'."

If you don't remember "Wildfire", just click here to hear it on YouTube.

My new Michael Martin Murphy transcription:

Michael Martin Murphey - Wildfire - Piano Intro, Coda & Chord Chart

We've all seen keyboard players that were exceptionally rhythmic, seeming almost as much a drummer as a keyboardist.

Many years ago my cousin went to a Cat Stevens' concert and raved afterward about Stevens' pianist, who, she said, "played drums on the piano".

And we've all heard Jon Lord's great rhythmic B-3 playing on Deep Purple's "Hush" and Nicky Hopkins' terrific rhythms propelling many Rolling Stone tracks.

Why is it that some keyboardists can turn their keys into rhythmic drums while many others can not?

It's simple - they understand the rhythms that a drummer plays. It's not mystical. Drummers practice rudiments (paradiddles) like pianists practice scales. And those rudiments are written down and can be learned by keyboard players.

My new "Playing Drums on the Piano" exercise takes a common drum paradiddle (LLRLRRLR) and applies it to the piano keyboard. Every single measure during the 14-bar pattern uses that particular drum rudiment to help the pianist ultimately become relaxed and comfortable with the Left-Right coordination required for very rhythmic keyboard playing.

The exercise is in three parts:

1) a 14-bar chord progression using basic triads and 7th-chords
2) the same 14-bar chord progression but harmonically richer (with 7th & 9th chords)
3) the same 14-bar chord progression (7th & 9th chords) but with a subtle difference on beat 3

Also new this month is an 11-bar exercise to further explore "twanging", the technique that Floyd Cramer introduced to Nashville during the 1950's, and the same technique used by every rock pianist from Nicky Hopkins to Billy Powell to Chuck Leavell to Paul Griffin.

Although the technique is simple, many players need just a little coaching to really understand the possibilities (3rds or 6ths twangs? what type accompaniment in the Left Hand?).

Performance Notes are included with both exercises. If you'd like to inject more rhythm into your playing, and get more comfortable playing 'twangs', these exercises will help.

(BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 58 exercises available.)

My latest exercises:

Elmo Peeler - Paradiddle Exercise #3 - Playing Drums on the Piano -
Elmo Peeler - Twanging Exercise #2 -

Happy New Year - January 2019!

Here is my January 2019 Newsletter - Click to read it.

Born in 1944, Keith Emerson at first lived in a row of terraced houses that shared a single lavatory at the end of the road. Early on, his parents moved to a seaside town in West Suffix to live with his paternal grandmother, where Keith was encouraged by his father, a telephone engineer and amateur pianist, to learn to read music and to play the piano.

He referred to his first teachers as the "local little old ladies", from whom he began learning classical music around the age of eight.

"I played for my auntie's dance classes when I was 13 and 14, everything from tap-dancing to ballet. I learned a lot of styles, but I was painfully shy, hiding away behind the piano, and being driven mad by the sight of all those girls. I used to make loads of Airfix Spitfires (model airplanes) while dreaming of being a star and a hit with the girls."

Not owning a record player, he listened to the radio, enjoying Floyd Cramer's 1961 "On the Rebound", and boogie-woogie and country-style pianists, including Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, Russ Conway and Winifred Atwell.

Emerson describes himself: "I was a very serious child. I used to walk around with Beethoven sonatas under my arm. However, I was very good at avoiding being beaten up by the bullies. That was because I could also play Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard songs. So, they thought I was kind of cool and left me alone."

He used jazz sheet music from Dave Brubeck and George Shearing and learned about jazz piano from books.

Emerson became interested in the Hammond organ after hearing jazz organist Jack McDuff perform "Rock Candy", and the Hammond became his instrument of choice in the late 1960s. Emerson acquired his first Hammond organ, an L-100 model, at the age of 15 or 16, on hire purchase.

"My father played piano-accordion, piano, guitar and introduced me to Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Dudley Moore and many others. Mum and Dad didn't smoke or drink. It was a disciplined childhood. When I first went on the road with the VIPs and Gary Farr and the T-Bones, I wasn't into the rock-n-roll lifestyle. I didn't even like beer. Mum used to polish my L-100 as if it was piece of furniture."

After leaving school he worked at Lloyds Bank where he played piano in a bar during lunchtimes. Outside work, he played with several different bands.

The flamboyance for which he would later be noted began when a fight broke out during a performance in France by one of his early bands, the VIPs. Instructed by the band to keep playing, he produced some explosion and machine gun sounds with the Hammond organ, which stopped the fight. The other band members told him to repeat the stunt at the next concert.

"I wanted to do for the keyboards what Hendrix, a friend, was doing for the guitar. We talked about forming a band shortly before Jimi died, but it would have been too competitive."

"Jimi played the guitar behind his back or with his teeth. I took to riding the L-100 like a bucking bronco. It weighs 350 lbs [actual weight is 215 lbs]; when it's on top of you, you need the adrenaline rush you get onstage to chuck it around. I'd play Bach's Toccata and Fugue from behind the keyboard. I'd hold down chords with knives during our version of Dave Brubeck's Rondo."

"There were lots of funny moments among the broken ribs and blown-off fingernails. When we were touring as Emerson, Lake & Powell [in 1986, with the late Cozy Powell on drums], I was playing this very complex arrangement based on Holst's Mars. One section was hard to remember, so I had a monitor set up above the keyboards with the score. I'm playing away and look up only to see the monitor showing a heavy Swedish porn video..."

It was this band, Emerson, Lake & Powell, that produced one of Emerson's most beautiful melodies and chord progressions, "Lay Down Your Guns".

My new Emerson, Lake & Powell transcription:

Emerson, Lake & Powell - Lay Down Your Guns - Piano Part + Synth Solo

Arpeggios, along with scales, form the building block of keyboard technique, and we've all spent time practicing the standard 1-3-5 arpeggios.

However, Keith Emerson found more creative ways to arpeggiate a chord. He wasn't the first; Liszt, Liberace and others have found ways to add a little 'zip' to arpeggios.

In Emerson, Lake & Powell's "Lay Day Your Guns" Keith Emerson used three non-standard arpeggiation techniques, all Right-Hand ascending. One of them, a particularly good variant, was used only once, in the 5th Chorus.

I've taken that method of arpeggiating a chord, and put it into every measure of a 10-bar phrase, based on "Lay Down Your Gun". By applying this specific technique to various chords and inversions, one can better understand how Emerson constructed it, and master it through repetition.

If you'd like to improve your technique while mastering a non-standard arpeggiation method - certainly one that Keith Emerson liked and used - this exercise should help. (BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, please check out the other 57 exercises available.)

My latest exercise:

Elmo Peeler - Arpeggio Exercise in the Style of Keith Emerson's 'Lay Down Your Guns' -

Happy December 2018!

Born in Oklahoma as Russell Bridges, young Leon Russell began playing piano at the age of four. He attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the same 1959 class as David Gates ('Bread'). He and Gates played and recorded together as the Fencement.

At 14 Russell was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. "Oklahoma was a dry state and consequently there was no liquor laws, and I was able to take advantage of that by playing in nightclubs at the age of 14. It was real handy."

At 17, in 1958, Russell moved from Tulsa to Los Angeles, where as a first-call studio musician he played on many of the most popular recordings of the 1960s.

When Leon began working with Joe Cocker in 1969, he was already a veteran of the L.A. studio scene, a member of 'The Wrecking Crew', playing on many of Phil Spector's 'wall-of-sound' hits, plus hits by The Byrds, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Bobby 'Boris' Picket, Herb Alpert, Glen Campbell and many others.

In early 1970 Joe Cocker needed to put together a band quickly for a U.S. tour and hired Russell to recruit the musicians. Russell hired members of The Wrecking Crew, the Delaney & Bonnie band, and Cocker's Grease Band, and began rehearsals.

Those rehearsals led to the live Fillmore East concert that was recorded and released as the MadDogs & Englishmen album, along with the 1971 movie, "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" - a documentary of the Joe Cocker tour for which Leon served as Musical Director.

Shortly thereafter, jam sessions with Delaney & Bonnie led to Leon recording "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)" with them - a late-night jam arrangement that's anchored by Leon's wonderful gospel-style piano accompanying Bonnie's plaintive voice.

And it was in August 1970 when Elton John gave his very first Los Angeles performance, with Leon sitting in the first row of the relatively small club, The Troubadour.

Leon described it, "We’d been trying to get Elton for Shelter Records [the US record company started by Russell in 1969], but we were about a week late. I knew about him before he came to America; I had heard him with Long John Baldry. I sat down in the first row at the Troubadour, and he was brilliant.

"Sometime after the first Troubadour show, Elton and Bernie came over to my house. They were both very shy and very English, and Elton told me I looked like a proper rock star. They liked a sign I had above the piano saying “Don’t Shoot The Piano Player.” I think maybe that was where they got the idea for that album title."

Of that meeting, Elton remembers, "It was the most magical of times because here was my idol accepting me. Actually, he could eat me for breakfast [playing piano]. I came from England and being a huge fan of someone like him and to have him accept me and kind of take me under his wing and be really fantastic to me the whole time. It meant the whole world to me that someone could show me that generosity that you admired so much. It helped validate me by saying, "Well if he thinks I’m alright then I must be alright because he’s my hero."”

"I saw him and my knees went zzzippp!. He invited me up to his house and I thought he’s going to invite me up there and tie me to a chair and whip me and say, “This is how to play the piano!” I was really scared. I (had) heard the Delaney and Bonnie album [1969’s Accept No Substitute, which featured Leon Russell on piano] and I just went through the roof. I nearly retired at that point. I figured there wasn’t much point in playing anymore."

Few recordings have captured Leon as well as his studio version of "Roll Away the Stone" from that same momentous year of 1970: the Joe Cocker "Mad Dogs" tour, meeting Elton, and Leon's first solo album (which contained "Roll Away the Stone").

Here are my Leon Russell transcriptions:

Leon Russell - Roll Away the Stone -
Delaney & Bonnie - "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)" - Leon Russell, piano
Leon Russell - "Faded Love" - Complete Piano Part
Leon Russell - "She Belongs to Me" - Complete Piano Part
Leon Russell - "A Song for You"
Leon Russell - "I Put a Spell on You"
Leon Russell - "Tryin' To Stay 'Live"
Bobby 'Boris' Pickett - "Monster Mash" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "Delta Lady" - Leon Russell, piano
Joe Cocker - "The Letter" - Leon Russell, piano