I just finished working on this commercial where i wrote and recorded and performed all the music for a salon in seattle called habitude. Composing and recording is a lot of fun!
Technology is getting so good that one person (a piano player) can record all the instruments and have it come out sounding like a live band played together!
I’ve been experimenting lately with doing live interactive piano lessons on ustream.tv. You’ll frequently find me streaming a live show on this page: www.ustream.tv/channel/fast-piano-lessons-com—songs-questions
Its taken a while to work out most of the technical bugs and things like distortion or video not syncing to audio… but after much trial and error, things are starting to get interesting! You can use ustream.tv’s chat window to ask me questions or use twitter and just type @chrismarx85 before your tweet so that I’ll see your questions right away and then through the video I can respond by playing some of that good piano music.
Most of the lessons will either be in the late evening or 1pm pst.
This is a wonderful work of animation and poetry! I love all the internal rhyme and wordplay. Plus its about cats and pianos!!! What better subject matter? Its about 7minutes long.
Enjoy!!! But don’t get any ideas about making a cat piano at home…
I’ll begin posting more lessons soon! I’ve been really focused lately on practicing and recovering from fun ulcerative colitis/crohn’s issues.
Stay tuned!!!
Mercy Mercy Mercy was written by Joe Zawinul… also Berklee College of Music grad!
Mercy Mercy Mercy Music Handout
There are two arrangements of Mercy Mercy Mercy in this video.
The first half is the easier one, its all written down in the handout.
The second half of the video is trickier. I’m using a bass line in the left hand and chords and melody combined in the right hand.
In the example below, there are a few different voicings, play through them to hear how they sound!
Example 1 is the basic root position voicing for Eb and Bb.
Example 2 has the root of the chord in the left hand, and the 7th, 3rd & 5th of the Bb7 chord. It then moves to the 3rd, 7th & 9th of the Eb9 chord. Each finger moves only a half step which creates a very smooth sound!
Example 3 is the same as example 2 but reversed.
The trick to combining the chords and melody in the right hand is to always make the melody note the highest note. Keeping the melody on top helps it ring out. If its in the middle of the chord, it gets hidden and masked.
Don’t forget the flats by the way!
Because of the key signature at the beginning,
All the B’s and E’s are flatted in the music below.
This is taken from the middle section of the handout. Play through it to get a feel for how it sounds. You can print it off by clicking on it.
In the example above, the left hand is acting like a bass player playing the roots of the chord in 8th notes.
The right hand is playing the famous blues lick. Its all based around a Bb7 chord. Start off with the Bb major triad then move your top two fingers up the Bb7 scale.
Below is the Bb dominant scale. This is the scale to play on Bb7 chords. Its exactly like the Bb major scale, but "A" the 7th note has been lowered to "Ab". (Notice it says "Flat 7th Note").
Also try using the Bb Blues scale. Bb Blues scale would sound good over the entire song!
This lesson is a quickie!!!
This will help you become one of the fastest piano players in the west!!! …or the east if thats where you live. If you live in the south, sorry you’re out of luck. 
You don’t have to be able to play all those chords in 30 seconds, but it does help when you try an learn a new song. When learning a new song, you don’t get stuck on how to play the chord among the 50 million other things you have to learn, your only worry is what chord comes next. So just time yourself and make sure that you can find each chord in both hands fairly quickly!
I remember that it took me quite a few weeks to practice this and see a lot of improvement. Some of my piano students who practiced a little bit everyday have accomplished this goal to be able to play all their major triads in under 30 seconds in one week though!
They usually play them in this order because its fast: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Ab, Bb, Db, Eb, F#. That’s useful, but eventually you’ll want to challenge yourself so you keep improving your reaction time and you’re not just practicing a routine. The circle of 5ths shown below is another pattern that you can play your chords in!
The image below is the famous circle of fifths. It is a great way to make sure you get through all 12 keys when you’re practicing. Its called the circle of fifths because each chord is a 5th apart. Its a good challenge to find chords that leap so far apart.
