How To Make Your Chords Flow

After I had been in the rehearsal room with my very first band for about 3 months, it was time for our first show. I was pretty nervous, yet excited to try out my brand new stage piano. Man that thing sounded amazing. Classic vintage sounds and a much more real-to-life piano sound than my … Read more

LOTW – Rai’s Second Lick

This weeks LOTW is another bluesy lick stolen from the mighty Rai Thistlethwayte. A few weeks ago I posted a lick of Rai taken from his Roland V presentation gig at the Sydney Conservatory. Great responses means great success, so.. here’s another one! Rai will likely be good for more lick-grab-bag fillers in the future. … Read more

Boogie On Reggae Woman (CoutCam – Loop)

For this week’s CoutCam video – an amazing bassline-loop taken from Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman.” This tune might have one of the sickest basslines in history. I didn’t actually play that entire bassline – originally played on an amazing Moog bass-synth – but just extracted the main groove, so that I could turn … Read more

CoutCam – Too Far Away (Loop)

For this week’s CoutCam video – a loop from a tune that I wrote called “Too Far Away.” Taking the chords I shared with you earlier as the Progression Of The Week, here’s my take on adding patterns and groove to that.   The progression is very loopable, just steadily played in a groove like … Read more

LOTW – New Orleans Blues Lick

This week’s lick is a New Orleans Blues style lick. The lick makes nice use of bluesy techniques like thirds-moves, hand rolls and top-root harmonized blue-note phrases. Image in the video splits the lick up in three parts – Thirds walks (G Blues to C) Hand roll (G with blue note, landing on C) Top-root … Read more

LOTW – Rai Thistlethwayte Live Lick 1

This week’s lick is a tiny adaption on one from Rai Thistlethwayte’s live show at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the Roland V Grand Release.   In the original (1:26), Rai plays a “d” (as opposed to an e-flat) on the turn (d-flat, d, d-flat, b-flat), which makes the lick a bit more bluesy … Read more

CoutCam – Jamie Cullum’s All At Sea Vamp

For this week’s CoutCam video – a Vamp taken from Jamie Cullum’s “All At Sea” A very soothing, highly “loopable” vamp taken from Jamie’s Twentysomething album (my favorite). The right hand plays a back-and-forth sixteenth-beats pattern between a “b-flat” & “e-flat” (quarter) and an “a-flat.” The left hand changes chords (which makes the function of … Read more

Chord Progression Of The Week – Molina & Bear Keyscape Jam

We’re staying in the Neo-Soul vibes for this weeks progression, which is taken from an absolutely mind-blowing impromptu improvisation session between the amazing Emily Bear and the (dare I say it) even more amazing Jesus Molina. The jam originated after Jesus finished a session for a promo video for the software instrument Keyscape, when CEO … Read more

LOTW – Man In The Mirror Lick

This week’s lick comes from Michael Jackson’s brilliant “Man In The Mirror.” Lick timestamp taken from the original “Bad” album version Man in the mirror features one of the most astonishing bass-synth parts out there (just my humble opinion). Although the entire bass part is truly astonishing and a gold-mine for subtleties regarding timing and … Read more