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Piano Lessons and Sheet Music

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

by The Rolling Stones

Of the countless great songs from the year 1969, only a few of them really summed-up the decade of the 60’s, or the generation, like our selection for this week, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, by The Rolling Stones.

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  1. I can read music ok.

    But I am baffled at how to read the “Groove Chart” here. I see double bass clef, and the “notes” (printed more like lines) I see are exactly the same each measure. (“C+E”, and then “D”). Is there a tutorial video I am missing on how to read this type of thing? I do see the chord changes above (C and F) but I don’t see how what is below in the notes corresponds.

    (Maybe those are not “notes” but just the timing?)

    I do see what Collin is doing with the chords in the corresponding video but I am just wondering how to better “read” the “groove chart” glyphs.

    By the way — I DO love the whole general idea of this thing and wish I had a piano teacher like this 40 years I ago — I might still be playing instead of showing up here at 52 starting at level 2/3!

    Best,

    JDQ in NYC

  2. I’ve printed off the Level 5 sheets, and I have watched the videos.
    I plan to start practicing this week.
    I’m grew up studying classical piano, and I can read music well.
    But improvising is what I really want to get gold at, and playing from groove charts/lead sheets.
    I’m not sure what I am suppose to do in this lesson to learn improvising.
    How do I learn what notes to choose from? I can read the sheet music in these lesson five files, but then I feel stuck and not sure what to do to break free from the sheet music.
    I’m so used to structure, and that has become a sort of “musical prison” for me. I think I expected more in the video lessons that would teach me how to improvise.
    I just need a little guidance or encouragement I think. Lol

    • Awesome question. Improvising takes time and lots of experimentation. Try to spend as much time experimenting and improvising as you do reading music. So if you are reading music for 1/2 hour, experiment and improvise without the sheet music for an equal amount of time. As you work through a half dozen or so of the IROCKU lessons, you will find that your improvisation skills will start falling into place. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. Give it time. The “Chuck Leavell’s Stride Blues” Lesson has some great improvisation techniques. You should give that lesson a try. Also check out the improvisation exercise in our forum. That’s a helpful exercise for developing left-hand/right-hand independence.

      There are a number of skills that you will need in order to improvise.
      First, locking down the rhythm in your left hand. The groove charts will help with that. It’s difficult to improvise if your right and left hands are not completely independent of one another other so work the left hand alone to the point where you can play it without thinking. Second, you need to know where you are in the progression of the song. As you move through the progression, the selection of notes that you play will change. This takes lots of experience and practice to feel what works but as a starting point, whenever the chord changes, begin the corresponding right hand phrase with the root of the chord in your right hand. This helps you get the feel of the progression. Third you need to know what notes to play. This is a lifelong skill but there are starting points. You can always play the notes of the corresponding chord. For example you can arpeggiate them or play them rhythmically as a chord. Or if the song is in a major key you can try playing notes from the pentatonic or major scale of the song’s key. If it is a blues song, then try the blues scale or mixolydian scale. For complex chord progressions it’s often best to improvise using the notes of the chord changes rather than sticking to a single scale throughout the improvisation. Here’s a link to learn the different scales and rhythms.

      Each one of our improvisation exercises focuses on specific improvisation techniques that you can apply to different songs or to different passages in the same song. By working your way through a bunch of our improvisation lessons you will be developing a toolbox of improvisation tools that you will have at your disposal.

  3. In the groove chart, I see there is a tied note in each bar, but it sounds like you are playing without the tie in the right hand, and playing with the tie in the left hand. Am I hearing that correctly?

    • Thanks for the question. Collin is playing the ties in both hands as written in the groove chart. Try slowing down the video by clicking on the ” – ” in the bottom center of the video. Also work each hand separately as you play along with the video. That will help getting the rhythm pattern down. Keep rockin!

    • Thanks for the question.

      You can loop a section of the video by clicking on the “AB Loop” button on the bottom left of the video and then dragging the “A” “B” markers to your desired location.

      You can slow down (or speed up) the video by clicking the “-” (or “+”) button on the bottom of the video player. If you don’t see the “- +” buttons, hover your cursor anywhere over the video and they will become visible.

      • The level 7 previews are a combination of the level 7 lessons, improvs, exercises, groove charts, and the scales and chords. For most of the Previews the performer plays through the Lesson and uses techniques shown in all of the videos mixing them up to his liking. Particularly so during the improvisation. The improvisations on the preview are based on the Improvisation lesson that we provide and the performer introduces additional techniques, patterns, and rhythms found in any of the lesson videos. Don’t worry about playing the notes exactly as they are played in the videos. Get the groove down and supplement it with chord inversions and licks of your own. You’ll find that after working through a half a dozen of our songs (including groove, lesson, exercise, and improv) things will start falling into place and picking up songs and improvisations will become easier for you. If you work your way up to our level 7s and master the content (i.e.songs, improvs, groove, and exercises) you should be capable of learning any rock song or riff. Chuck would prefer to see you come up with your own version of the songs rather than learning ours. Our goal is to provide you with the tools to do that.

        That said, if you would like to learn a particular song or improv we can set up a private lesson with one of our teachers via the web. Click here to check out our private onlne lessons.

    • Really nice job. It’s great that you are playing with a metronome. Many people have difficulty following the metronome while they play. Your rhythm and beat are right on. To master the song try memorizing it completely. A good way to do this might be to memorize 4 bars a day. Once you have it memorized, throw away the sheet music and start making the song your own by gradually changing up the the left-hand groove and/or the right-hand melody. You can get ideas from the groove charts, exercises, lessons or by from the original Stones recording. Keep rockin!

  8. I’m looking at the sample lesson and I have to admit that it seems a little intimidating. I took a very small amount of piano lessons when I was a kid (Let’s call that 35 years ago) and have very recently begun to actually WANT to play.
    After the lessons, I took up playing the trumpet so I learned to read music on a much simpler level than reading piano music. I never really got into the “musicality” of it, though, so terminology will be somewhat new to me, too. Suffice it to say that I am maybe not quite a novice. Some aspects of all this will come back to me fairly quickly. For these purposes, though, I am just that. A novice.
    What I’m wanting to know is; are there videos lessons at the level 1-6 to walk me through learning entire songs? I don’t even know where to start other than learning scales and theory, which is why I’m online now…to give myself an idea of what I’m in for.

    • Thanks for the question! We have students ranging from total beginners ( level 1) to gigging keyboardists(level 7). Lessons include a rock theory or dexterity exercise(all levels) related to the song, an improvisation exercise(all levels), a solo piano arrangement(all levels) of the song itself, and a groove chart(levels 3 and above) that teaches how to play the song with a rock band. All lessons and exercises include instructional videos as well as the sheet music.

      If you want to brush up on reading notes, or you are just learning how to read notes for the first time, we suggest you try the “Note Learner” under the ‘Tools and Resources’ tab at the top of the website.

      To try out the different lesson levels, you can access the “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” sample lesson and then click on the lesson level above the video on the right side of the screen. Give it a try. Start Rockin!!!!

    • When we designed the IROCKU lessons Chuck stressed the importance of getting people ‘off the page’. Unlike classical players, only 15% of all rockers can read music. He says barely anyone he plays with can read so you are in good company! Rockers piece together songs by listening, and learning the progressions, the grooves, and then filling in with melody and riffs(mostly from scales). The groove charts are intentionally designed to force you off the page and experiment on your own. Don’t worry about playing the notes exactly as they are played in the video. Get the groove down and supplement it with chord inversions and licks of your own.

      Approach learning the groove chart by first learning all of the chords. It’s best to learn to play all the inversions of the chords with each hand. Once you’ve mastered the chords, begin playing the left hand rhythm. Start with the root note of the chord, then octaves, then the root-fifth( ie for C chord play C and G), and then add more notes as you like. Once you are comfortable with the left hand, play the chords in the right hand using the rhythm as written. You can play the chord in any inversion or just one note of the chord and add the melody of the song if you like.

      (Note: If the chord is written C/E you would play the C chord with the right hand over an E in the left hand).

      Matthew ( rocker2) provided a really useful comment on the ”Such a Night” lesson that provides some good ideas on what you can do with the left hand. You might want to check that out.

  12. My first IROCKU lesson- working on level 7 and feeling pretty good. I noticed there are no chords stated on the Lesson. The C and F are of course easy to figure out. But I’m really fascinated about the chord progression from measure 29 – 33. These defy easy categorization, but work together brilliantly. Any comments on this section?

    • Totally awesome question! Thanks. In response to your question we updated all the Lesson PDFS ( level 4-7) with the chords. This should help to understand things better. In measures 29-31 the right hand is moving from F ( the IV chord) to C (the I) chord and back to the F while the left hand is simply walking up the C scale. In measures 32 and 33 both hands are playing Dm ( ii chord) and the G ( the V). What makes things confusing are that the Stones used suspended chords, which are very popular voicings in rock. So in measure 29 for the F chord which is typically F-A-C, they SUSPEND the third, or the A, and use the second note of the scale, which is G, instead. They did something similar in measure 33. They suspended the third(B) and fifth(D) of the G chord and used the two(A) and four(C) instead. They also used the dominant 7th which is the 7th note of the (G) scale but dropped a half step.

      If you check out measures 21 through 27 you’ll find extensive use of the suspended chords. Each measure moves between the major chord and the suspended chord and back. See if you can figure it out. This technique is used all over rock, play around with it.

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