A Cluttered Mind = a cluttered desk?

The last couple of weeks have been pretty intense. After ten years of working really hard on a project that I hope to share with you soon, there were some epic failures followed by epic successes in the testing stages. I won’t be quite as prolific on the blog posts for a couple of weeks as we finish working things out.

cluttered mind

Many of you know that I’ve been writing music to help kids and adults learn to play music. However, I have never really communicated the scope of the project and how it reaches beyond more music books and learning methods. I’ll try and share some updates once I have something more tangible – which should be in the next couple of weeks.

Since several of you have been emailing questions about the project, I’ll try and give updates here when I have time. Once we test and proof everything, I’ll post a comprehensive guide to everything the project involves as it stands and looking forward.

In the meantime, enjoy this photo of the clutter on the main workstation.

The Piano Drum Video, Audio and Sheet Music

This piece has been played by elementary students as a project piece or by advanced students as a reading piece. It’s intent is to help with 1/16th note subdivisions and counting. It combines popular drum patterns used in a lot of electronic music and breakbeat tracks.

Here is the mp3 version:

Here is the free sheet music to the score and parts:
The Piano Drum Score
The Piano Drum I
The Piano Drum II
The Piano Drum III
The Piano Drum IV

The Piano Drum

Beginning Jazz Piano Lesson – Swing Scales

Swing Scales

This video lesson covers how I begin with every jazz piano student. Swing scales are great because they enable students to focus on their groove and time-feel from the start. Rather than load students up with harmony and theory information, prioritizing the groove should sustain itself through the whole process of learning to play jazz and modern music. Here’s how we start:

Tadpole Race – Sheet Music and Recording Here's the music from a jazz tune I wrote called "Tadpole Race"

This is from the live jazz recording I released called The Fantastic Adventures of an Amphibian Named Jamal. It’s called “Tadpole Race”.

This one has many variations over the years. So the lead sheet may not match this recording exactly.

Download the free PDF sheet music here: Tadpole Race

Tadpole Race

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