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TED Talks Altanta
Chuck jams a bit on the keys and shares his thoughts on environmental stewardship.
Here’s a young Carole King playing her classic rocker “I Feel the Earth Move”.
Carole King was one of rock piano’s true innovators. She invented many of rock’s cornerstone rhythms and licks. She is a rock piano player in the most purest of forms.
Johnny Johnson discovered Chuck Berry and was his life long friend and keyboardist. It’s widely believed that Johnny wrote many of Chuck Berry’s songs, including “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, and “Maybellene”. His signature licks have made an indelible mark on rock piano forever.
We didn’t know this video existed!!! Here’s a live version of The Black Crowes “She Talks To Angels” with Chuck Leavell on the keyboard. The Black Crowes recorded two versions of this song; one with an acoustic guitar intro and another with a keyboard intro by Chuck.
Rock piano doesn’t get better than this. Jerry Lee Lewis playing “What’d I Say”
Here’s George Harrison playing “Give Me Love” backed by Eric Clapton’s band at the time on the heals of the Clapton “Unplugged” sessions. Chuck is playing on keys. Peace!
Great question!!! You’ve homed in on one of the most challenging parts of playing rock piano. And it’s also what separates the great rock pianists from all rest. Cross-rhythms are usually repeating melody patterns that don’t line up with the bass line, such as a three-note repeating melody pattern over a 4-count bass line. Cross-rhythms are common to classical music ( Chopin, Brahms, Debussy) but rock keyboardists challenge the classical approach to cross-rhythms by not just having a melody pattern that doesn’t line up with the bass line, they also syncopate them. These rockers have the coordination of superb athletes.
One approach to learning cross-rhythms is by tapping them out on your knees. This will help you to focus only on the rhythm before complicating things further by introducing the notes. Begin by tapping the beat on your knee with your left-hand. Don’t tap the actual bass line, just a four-quarter note beat(if the part is in 4/4 time). Tap along with a metronome. Now add the right hand. This will be relatively easy because you will be most often tapping repeating 8th or16th notes over a steady four-note beat. Once you have this mastered, now comes the challenge. Continue tapping with both hands but ACCENT THE FIRST NOTE of each phrase in the right hand. If the melody pattern is a three-note pattern then you will only be accenting the first of the three-notes. After the first pattern you find that the accented note does not line up with the beat. Try keeping the left hand constant while only accenting the beginning notes of each phrase in the right hand.
Next, count aloud “1-ee-and-aa, 2-ee-and-aa, 3-ee-and-aa 4-ee-and-aa” while continuing tapping and accenting. Don’t go any faster than you can while still doing it correctly. The speed will come with repetition. When you can tap the beat in your left-hand while counting aloud and accenting the beginning of each phrase, you can now begin tapping the actual rhythm of the left hand. Don’t try playing this on the piano until you can get everything happening at the same time on your knees; 1) counting aloud, 2) tapping the left hand rhythm, and 3) tapping the right-hand rhythm while accenting the beginning note of each phrase.
Let us know how you do. Take it slowly.
to gspring: we are so happy you found us and that we found you! Pianist and rocker Andrew McMahon is an Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia survivor and he created the The Dear Jack Foundation to help kids diagnosed with cancer. IROCKU donates the proceeds of our lessons for Andrew’s song “Dark Blue” to his foundation. “Dark Blue” is a beautiful piano song and it’s beautiful knowing that by playing it we are helping kids with cancer. God bless..
We have thousands of members over 40 who took up the piano again after probably 1-3 years of lessons as a kid. Here are some of the things we’re hearing from them about learning (or relearning) how to play rock:
1) You must learn to unlearn. Rock rhythms are very difficult. We are all wired with the rhythms we learned at an early age. If you learned classical piano then the rock syncopations won’t come naturally. Listen to them over and over before trying them and then practice them slowly until they become ingrained. Try counting out the right hand ( One-e-and-a-Two-e-and-a-Three-e-and-a-Four-e-and-a) and then the left hand. Without ever touching the piano keys. Then try tapping it out on your knees. When you can count and tap with both hands at the same time you should give it a try on the piano. Still while counting out loud! As you get more familiar with the rock rhythms this becomes easier and easier.
2) Experiment, Experiment. Experiment. For every hour you spend learning and reading spend an hour just exploring and having fun on the keyboard. Chuck warms up every day playing Hanon ( in every key!) and then picks a song and improvises with it and takes it wherever it may go.
3) Play with others. It’s a big hurdle to overcome for many who practice alone but is an important step to really finding yourself on the keyboard. And a ton of fun once you overcome the initial fear.
Please let us know what you have learned about learning rock…
“Moondance” is considered one of the top piano pieces of all time. Jef Labes is an unsung hero of rock piano. He is a true pioneer.
from Yamaha – “many times we find that the reason that people feel their CP4 doesn’t sound as good as Chuck’s is that they are not running the CP4 in stereo and so only hearing a portion of the sound in their monitors. “
While Chuck does play the CP4, the voices have been programmed and customized for him by Yamaha so he mightn’t be able to answer your question. We’ll will forward your question on to our contacts at Yamaha and get back to you when/if we hear from them.
Josh- sounds like an approach that’s working for you. We provide a wide variety of materials ( scales, chords, exercises, improvisations, lessons, groove charts) and levels because all of us have our own unique approach to learning and the variety makes it interesting and allows you to find what works best for you. If you find yourself motivated to spend more time on the keyboard and that you are learning and improving then what you’re doing works. The more time you spend at the piano the better you’ll get.
It’s great that you are working with a metronome. Practice locking in the left hand with the metronome and then gradually add the right hand. Also, spend time experimenting and exploring the piano on your own. Most students find their comfort zone in practicing the written notation but you’ll develop more confidence if you get away from reading notes by exploring riffs and rhythms on your own. The groove charts are designed to provide you with a framework to explore. Chuck begins his practice sessions with exercises and techniques but spends at least, if not much more time, experimenting and improvising. Make it fun for yourself. Keep rockin!
There’s an internet rumor that this is young Little Richard but we don’t believe that to be true. This is young piano prodigy “Sugar Chile’ Robinson.
It really depends on what you want to achieve. Learning the Hanon exercises will help you develop finger speed and technique. Learning them in each key will ingrain the different scales and key signatures so you are comfortable playing in all keys. Take your pick!
Unfortunately we don’t have any short cuts to learning the scales, chords, and arpeggios other than rote practice. The videos under the ‘piano resources’ link show exactly how you should practice them. Always practice scales, chords, and arpeggios with a metronome. Set it to a tempo that you can play without making mistakes and then gradually increase the tempo.
In our music teachers’ forum Chuck spends some time showing the exercises he uses to practice. He also suggests doing the exercises in Hanon. You can check out Chuck’s video here:
http://www.irocku.com/community/topic/nyc-rock-keyboard-workshop-2/#2764
Chuck plays and loves the Yamaha CP4. That’s keyboard he recommends. Most of our younger writers and musicians suggest the Nord Electro 3 or 3HP. This keyboard sounds great and weighs around 15lbs. It is the keyboard of choice for the younger stage and session players. But both of these are high-end electronic keyboards and they are not cheap. If you are looking for an entry level keyboard that has a decent feel and doesn’t cost too much you should go with the Casio CDP-130.
Here’s full Sea Level concert from 1977. Great stuff.
Where are Mick and Keith!!! Chuck Leavell hosted a “White House Correspondents’ Jam” at the 2015 White House Press Correspondents’ Dinner. The lineup of moonlighting media types included Pulitzer Prize-winning CNBC reporter Steve Liesman, David Remnick of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair’s Mark Rozzo, Brian Dumaine of Fortune, and Esquire’s Tom Junod.
Here’s a vintage video of Chuck playing Jessica with Dickey Betts.
Great stuff! Thanks for sharing. Keep ’em coming.
Absolutely. The drum apps are excellent. We’ll try to post a video on how to set different beats with drum kits. Thanks for the suggestion.