Jimmy Yancy, ‘The Rocks’, transcribed by ‘BlueBlackJazz.com.
A real favourite when I first heard it. I’ve been working on it for around 8 months now. At one point I was really getting there with it, analysing the music, phrasing etc, all those counter melody nuances, video recording myself etc. All that was required was to bring it up to tempo, which was proving impossible.
Then I had the amateur ‘wanna-be performer’ nightmare, monotony set in to the tune, constant repetition just drove me crackers, and I couldn’t wish to hear it again. As well as that, the ‘memory association process’ that can accompany learning a tune, went very bad for me when I had a bit of a breakdown at the piano, where my frustrations just erupted.
I’ve not touched the song for several weeks now, but I did attempt it again yesterday, but now it’s become so negative, and ‘demonically’ haunted, such that the more I try, the greater the mistakes.
I’m not sure what to do now. I’m an older adult amateur, self-taught for about 17 years now, so perhaps the years have caught up with me. I’ve never performed for anyone outside of my living room, but I can put ‘some’ tunes together very well. I do respect that Jimmy Yancy, was a proper sophisticated gentleman who brushed with some regal circles.
Perhaps I should accept that its beyond my level and limits, although much research has said that the faster boogie is difficult for any pianist.
Should I persevere, how can I turn it around again.
Any advice please?
Hi there, fellow self-taught older adult here as well. I would offer these 2 cents:
Keep in mind that you've almost certainly encountered boredom and frustration with songs before. It's part of the learning process; so if you take a step back, you can remind yourself you've seen it before; you'll see it again.
Our goals usually boil down to transmitting what's in our heads out to our instrument/voice. You've built up a ton of great neural networks working on this song for 8 months. Even if you never touch the song again, those pathways will help you with the next song/lick/experience. If you still dig certain parts of the song, you can leverage that knowledge and take the lick "out of context" (Like Arthur talks about here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivj9LNmwNYY). Who knows, maybe it'll pop up as a cool "quote" in another song or solo.
p.s. Thanks for posting. I'd never heard the song before.
Newbie boogie player here, new to the forum! But I may have some workable suggestions. First, don't forget that live performance in front of an audience utilizes a whole bunch of skills that have nothing to do with musicianship, but rather to do with negotiating anxiety and with showmanship. You might be great at playing the piano but not great at showing your work in front of people. Both of those things are things that can be improved. The point is that they are not the same thing. In either category, if we are attempting something that is too difficult for us, the solution, as Arthur outlined, is to find a less difficult iteration and succeed at that first. This might be an oddball suggestion, but I would try rehearsing the LH and RH parts separately while doing something different with your free hand - get the LH down and improvise over it with the right, and get the RH down and try it with a different (simpler?) LH. This could let you build up the muscle memory for those parts without locking it down too rigidly, and hopefully restore a sense of playfulness to the process.
Hi Shawn, thanks for writing. This is an interesting dilemma, and one that I'm sure others have encountered as well. I'd be happy to hear others' thoughts on this as well. I would say first, perform it for other people live. Even a few friends. That should get you back on track.... in many ways actually.
Also, as another word of advice on this: be happy to play it in your own way. However messed up it has become, it's still reminiscent of the original tune. Personally, I play ZERO songs the way that other people do. Hell, I can't even play my own songs the same way twice. Take out the licks that are too difficult and replace them with licks that you CAN play. That's what I was taught to do from an early age, and that's what most of the players of boogie, blues, stride, country, rock... you name it... that's what they do too. Yes, the actual professionals do this. Some people can reproduce carbon copies of what others have played, but nobody wants to really hear this, and it's kind of frowned upon in the blues actually.
As one of my teachers once told me, "If I wanted to hear the way Albert Ammons played it, I would listen to Albert Ammons. I want to hear the way YOU play it."
So, replace the parts that are screwing you up. As you get better over time, you can then replace those parts with more complex parts or parts that sound closer to the way you want them to sound. It's best to just get your song to stand on 2 legs first and be something that you can perform from beginning to end.
Hope this helps. Don't give up!