Fast Piano Lessons Blog

Who Is Jerry Lee Lewis?

Jerry Lee Lewis started his career out on Sam Phillips famous record label, Sun Records in 1956. He began as a solo artist and playing sessions with other artists on his label like Johnny Cash and Elvis. He had many successful songs, but “Great Balls of Fire” and “A Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On” were his two biggest hits.

How to Play Piano with Style:

The reason I’m sharing this video with you is not because of the specific chords or notes he was playing, but because Jerry Lee Lewis was a wild performer! While most traditional piano players sit down and are calm and worried about having proper posture while performing, Jerry had a lot of showy moves on the piano that made it really exciting to watch.

He would kick the piano bench over to stand up and at times he would even stand on the piano! While he was sitting down, he would shake his legs as if he were dancing. He also played A TON of big glissandos (slides) up and down the piano.

Lighting the Piano on Fire!

One of my favorites is that he would light the piano on fire, pouring kerosene on the top of the piano and creating fireballs during the song Great Balls of Fire.

These are all tricks that are pretty common now among contemporary piano rock artists like Billy Joel and Elton John thanks to Jerry Lee Lewis.

Guitar Vs Piano Rock Stars:

Until I watched videos of him, I had always considered piano to be less exciting than guitar and not a good lead instrument for a rock band. Guitarists are always entertaining to watch because its so easy for them to play standing up. This is a lot more visually entertaining than watching a classical pianist who except for his hands, sits still most of the time. (I’ve fallen asleep through more than one piano concert). Jerry Lee Lewis however made the piano really fun to watch and helped make it a lead instrument as exciting as guitar.

Jerry Lee Lewis is a great piano player to learn from because he has so much energy. In this piano lesson we’re going to cover his song, “Great Balls of Fire.” Its a fast song that we can use the basslines we have been working on in. In the video lesson, I’ve broken down the basic but fast pattern (at :28) that gets used on the C F and G chords in this song.

VIDEO NOTES:
As the annotations in the video say: watch my pinky in the left hand for clues about what chord i’m playing. In this song as in most songs, the root of the chord gets played on beat one of the pattern.

In the beginning of the song (:18 through :28) notice I’m playing octaves in both hands. (Octaves are the same note, but 8 notes apart). In fast rock and roll, we are focused more on playing really fast and loud rhythms, so we give up big lush chords in exchange for a few reasons. One of the main reasons is that it would be cumbersome and inaccurate.

Ending:
Don’t worry about trying to copy the ending I played in this video. We will talk about endings in future blog posts. I got a little too excited during my solo and didn’t really plan ahead for the right ending. So I quickly tagged on a much better ending lick. On the plus side, you get to see two different possible endings to the song!
If you would like to learn more standard endings for the Blues, Rock, Jazz etc. Please post a request as a comment!

Authentic Bass Lines:
The bass lines we have been talking about in previous blog posts will work for this song, but someone noted that they are not completely authentic and Jerry Lee Lewis would use more of a boogie woogie pattern.
I would say that the focus is really on what your singing and right hand is doing, so your left hand doesn’t get enough attention for it to really matter what specific notes it plays. As long as the left hand rhythm is steady, the exact bass line doesn’t matter a whole lot.

Here is a country piano lick that would work for any part of werewolves of london or sweet home alabama. I like to use it in Jazz songs as well. For now, try and use it on ANY SONG that you’re playing with a major triad! In the video, In the video I show you how to play it on D major, C major and G major, but it will work on any major triad! Challenge yourself by trying to figure out the same notes on an F and A chord!

The pattern for this lick is: FLAT3, 3 8. These numbers are relative to any major scale. For example, lets use the C major scale (C D E F G A B).
The 8 means you count up 8 notes in the C major scale. The 3 means go up three notes (to E), and the Flat3 means count up three notes in the C major scale (to E) but then lower or flat whatever that note is a half step (Eflat).

To take this to other keys, you really should know the major scale for the key you want to play it in so that you can use FLAT3, 3, 8 to find the notes.

IF you don’t know the major scale, the trick is to find the third of the chord or triad. Lets start off with a triad like C which has the notes C, E, G. The E is the major third because its three notes up the C major scale from C (3). Count down one half step from E the major third and that is your minor third (Flat3). And then to find 8 is easy, its just the root of the chord (C) but 8 notes up.

In this lesson we’ll continue covering patterns for swinging rock piano! These are bass line patterns for your left hand. They really help push the song along and give it energy. These are meant to be played fairly quickly. They can also be fairly redundant because most of the attention is going to be on your right hand. Your left hand just plays a supporting role to drive the music, while your right hand gets the spotlight.

I came up with these notes because they’re notes from the chord. If the chord was C, we could play each of the notes in the C chord, one at a time: C E G. If we do all three at the same time too low on the piano it sounds muddy and has no energy.

Even though some of these are simpler, when I’m trying play and sing at the same time, I’ll use these simple patterns the most! There is just TOO MUCH to focus on in piano to do it all well!

Click on any of the examples to make them bigger!

Example 1: The first bass line you should start with. It outlines the same notes that are in a C chord: C, E, G.

Example 2: has a new note at the end: “A” (C, E, G, A). Fingering: Place your left hand pinky on the C and the thumb on the A

Example 3: is a little different than ex. 2. The notes are C, E, G and A, G. The last two are 8th notes, going twice as fast!

Here are the really flashy piano bass lines that will give the youngsters the challenge they’ve been looking for! These will work on a lot of swinging rock songs like “Great Balls of Fire” - Jerry Lee Lewis, “Jail House Rock” - Elvis, “Old time Rock & Roll” - Bob Seger and especially any swing dancing tune by bands like Brian Setzer Orchestra or the Cherry Poppin Daddies! The piano can really be a high energy exciting instrument with these patterns! Just watch any Jerry Lee Lewis video!

POST A VICTORY COMMENT IF YOU WERE ABLE TO DO PIANO EXAMPLE #5!!

Sheet Music Examples: Click on any of the examples to make them bigger!
Example 4: This example outlines a C7 chord, notice the Bb. The notes are C, E, G, A, Bb, A, G, E. Fingering: Left hand: Pinky plays C, Index plays G, Thumb plays A, Index crosses over to play Bb.

Example 5: This example sounds really fancy and is a little bit tricky to pull off. Its just like example 4 but now we’ve added a C in between each note. The notes are C, C, E, C, G, C, A, C, Bb, C, A, C, G, C, E, C.