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Welcome Joe Alterman – Jazz, Rock, Blues, Pop and Hip Hop Piano Instructor

IROCKU is  pleased to welcome Joe Alterman to the IROCKU team. Joe  graduated from NYU with a BA and Masters in Jazz Piano. He has since performed at many world renowned venues including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Birdland and Blue Note alongside jazz greats Houston Person, Les McCann, Dick Gregory, Ramsey Lewis, among others. Downbeat describes Joe's sound as “rooted in the blues, and with a touch reminiscent of the great pianists of the 1950s—Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans.” It is clear Joe hits all of the necessary points for Jazz critics and fans alike. Here's what some of the great jazz, rock and blues pianists have to say about Joe: "Joe Alterman is a breath of fresh air on the music scene. I love hearing him play! It’s happy music with tasty meat on the …

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What do the bands Parliament Funkadelic and Lynyrd Skynyrd have in common?

These two bands couldn’t be farther apart musically. P-Funk, famously known for being a  musical hybrid of funk and psychedelic rock, and Lynyrd Skynyrd is the quintessential Southern rock band. Both bands, though, have a heritage of embracing rock’s top keyboard players. P-Funk’s founding keyboardist Bernie Worrell, was a prodigy and keyboard pioneer, pushing the boundaries of digital and synthesized sound.  Billy Powell, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s roadie turned keyboardist, laid down some of rocks most recognizable piano leads with “Call Me the Breeze”, “Freebird”, and “Tuesdays Gone”. Crazy as it may seem, both bands have keyboard player Peter Keys in common. In 1996 Peter replaced Bernie Worrell in the P-Funk lineup. In 2009 he was selected to be Billy Powell's replacement in the Lynyrd …

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IROCKU Piano Tip – Little Richard’s Rock Piano Techniques

In Don McLean’s song, “American Pie”, the lyric “when the music died” refers to the plane crash that killed early rockers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Well we feel the music died again today, with the death of rock pioneer, Little Richard. Not only did Little Richard bring us straight up, four-to-the-floor rock and roll, as a poor black gay kid from Macon, Ga he broke every possible social and ethnic barrier you could imagine along the way.  This IROCKU Tip celebrate’s Little Richard’s keyboard style with a twelve-bar blues progression using his straight eighth-note left hand pattern and explosive right hand rhythms. We begin the lesson with an overview of the 12 bar blues progression (in C) that was the foundation of so many Little Richard songs, such as "Lucille". We then introduce …

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PJ Fossum- Jazz, blues, rock, R&B, and indie rock pianist & instructor

IROCKU is delighted to welcome PJ Fossum to our team of writers and instructors.Paul Jacob (PJ) Fossum is a New York-based pianist, keyboardist and synthesist. While his music is focused often in a jazz and improvised music context, his influences encompass a wide scope from bebop to classical to indie rock to electronica. He performs in New York City with synth band BXTR as well as his jazz quintet.Growing up in Canada, PJ started piano when he three years old. He studied classical music for 15 years, he decided to redirect and shift focus in his musical pursuits. In his early 20s he immersed himself in a formal jazz education, while the path of his informal education was significantly more diverse, side-manning in projects of Jazz, Neo-Classical, Blues, Neo-Soul, R&B and Indie Rock. …

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