Is this a joke site or a site for musicians who are serious about playing music? Let's see, I took the time to write about my efforts to learn to play music like Jerry Lee. If you're wondering, I'm no rank beginner. And I didn't throw a posting up here just to practice my posting skills. I've been wanting to "study" his licks for a while now! So I'm real excited about getting 21 replies to my message. Until I reviewed them! Respondees talking about pizzieria's, some telling me to pound on the piano, a comment about a 13 year old cousin, a pact with the devil, use your foot on the keyboard, kick the bench around, warnings against playing Jerry Lee on an average keyboard, advertisement's for Papa John's, Domino's and Pizza Hut, pizza perks, and finally a job description about someone's position at a "well-known pizza chain."

Somehow I can't see the correlation between any of the above and learning to play Jerry Lee Lewis riffs. Can you? If you need to talk personal talk about your lives and trade barbs, please do it on someone else's posting. I'd be lucky now if anyone read my ad and realized I was sincere about my request and I'm not on this board to talk about pizza.

But......thank you to those who posted the following....
http://www.homespuntapes.com/catagory/default.asp?catID=21&ctype=i
http://www.jerryleelewis.com/

Isn't that a form of what they call "stride piano"?
I would do an internet search on "stride" piano all the major publishers have books about it some have videos also. (it's NOT stride piano, but that was a good guess)

Go to www.musicrobot.com and download Jerry Lee's "Great Balls of Fire." Load that into your sequencer and print out the piano channel. The midi is pretty close and the print out should give you some indication of what's happening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5C7OGNCC3g

That kind of pedantry will garner you NO responses in the future if you are not careful...

This is a public forum, NOT some kind of answering service for someone too lazy to perform their own Google searches. If we meander off topic after having posted some useful information, that is our right. If you want researchers to go out and do what you are too lazy to do yourself, go out and hire them...

Oh, and BTW, you are welcome for the boogie-woogie reference, unacknowledged though it was...

Hi Mark,

Just take it with a grain of salt. By the way, Homespuntapes should have what you're looking for in one of their piano courses. I'd suggest David Cohen Teaches Rock 'n' Roll Piano
A Hands-on Beginner's Course in Traditional Rock Styles and Learning Rock n Roll Piano
Taught By Bob Hoban (Learn the rollicking '50s and '60s rock and roll piano styles made popular by Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino!)

Good luck!

Taike

Diki.....

I'd rather get NO responses than ones referring to pizza. Wouldn't you? This site was meant for musicians to relay musician-type messages to each other, and I'm assuming you're a professional musician. Yes, it's a "public forum"....but a public forum for music topics, or didn't you notice that? I would suggest those who want to clog up the boards with personal conversation start their own topics and don't interfere with us players who are focused on music issues.

As for your comment:

"NOT some kind of answering service for someone too lazy to perform their own Google searches. If we meander off topic after having posted some useful information, that is our right. If you want researchers to go out and do what you are too lazy to do yourself, go out and hire them..."

If you want to "meander off topic," that is your choice but it is NOT your right! And it is especially NOT your right to intrude on someone else's posting.

"perform their own Google searches?" I've been Google-ing Jerry Lee Lewis for months now. I've been telephoning music stores, distributors and publishing companies. I've been asking other musicians. I've been making inquiries wherever I could. I've been working off the few decent MIDI files I could find. Do you think I just upped and decided to let you members do my leg work? Learn the facts before you start making "lazy" comments.

Taike....I suppose if it wasn't so important (and frustrating) to me, I would have taken it "with a grain of salt." What happened here was....I've been trying to find Jerry Lee transcriptions for a few years now as I want to incorporate it in my performances. I finally read on a web site last week that for some odd reason, his music does NOT get posted anywhere. Only lead sheets. His actual playing is not available in any way shape or form.....probably because it's almost impossible to transcribe coherently what he does. With that in mind, I posted here as one of my few options left. I was over the moon when I first saw so many replies. You know the rest.

Anyhow, thanks for the new leads. I did a Google on those books and found them on Amazon. From there I found this book by Johnnie Johnson who did the fine runs in the Chuck Berry hits. There's a "samples" download also.

I'm a fine keyboard player and have no problem with the blues, but when it comes to Jerry Lee, I just can't seem to grasp what that man is doing! Back to the JLL MIDI files!

I've just got a feeling that Jerry Lee Lewis' playing style is one of those that falls into the category of "you either got it or you ain't", if you get my drift. That's not terribly helpful, I know, but I think that's where it's at with that style. And even if it were written note for note, there's so much inherent 'feel', 'fire', 'soul', 'balls', call it what you will, in the playing, anyone would be hard pressed to emulate it with any believeability.

I'm with the "pinch of salt" crowd on this one.

I'm also with the "either you can do it or you can't" crowd as well.

In theory transcriptions can capture the music but I don't usually find them very accurate. They will not capture the performance and its the way Jerry Lee Lewis does it that makes it him. I'd watch as many live videos as possible and pick up the tricks that way.

I don't know why this wasn't my first response but I agree with the poster that says download or buy a midi file of a JLL song like GBOF. Then you can use almost any sequencer to either print or view on screen the transcription of what the player is playing. Pick a part you want from any song and view it, slow it down, isolate it, transpose it, anything you want. I have done this several times myself.

The only thing is the part maybe split over several tracks, but I just keep muting tracks until the only parts I hear are what I want to learn.

I hope my stride piano comment didn't lead you off track I was thinking boogie woogie and I even used some basic ragtime exercises for the repetitive left hand bass parts. Of course as you know he was also influenced by Western swing, boogie-woogie, uptempo R&B and Delta blues, according to his page at the hall of fame .

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 07-04-2007).]

Just buy every JLL CD you can get your hands on, and listen to NOTHING else for about a month. Day and night, all Jerry Lee, all the time!

If you don't 'get it' by then, you never will... If you have to rely on transcriptions as a substitute for listening and working things out yourself, this one may be beyond you.

Steep yourself in the source, and what he does should come naturally.

Mark - had you posted this quote first, I think the responses would have been more on-topic and to your liking.

One thing a new member needs to learn about the SZ is that this is a very knowledgeable but, at times, irreverent group. Many of us like to CHAT here in addition to discussing music issues. Though I live in Michigan I can communicate with "friends" I've made here from Pennsylvania, California, Florida and around the world.

I'm afraid you walked into the ZONE not knowing just what to expect. Lighten up, and I'm sure your future posts will go well. One last thought - some of those useless posts you refer to are actually great references to Jerry and his style. AND, I also agree that watching and listening to JLL music is the best way to imitate it. Now if you're not a visual or auditory learner, that could be a problem.

Peace on the SZ,
Cass

ps - glad you liked my musicrobot reference.

[This message has been edited by cassp (edited 07-04-2007).]

Thinking back about "had you posted this quote first, I think the responses would have been more on-topic and to your liking," I would guess that I looked like a weekend warrior who got up one morning and decided he wanted to be Jerry Lee Lewis Part II. Actually, I've been wanting to be a Jerry Lee "sound-alike" since I first heard Whole Lot of Shakin' Going on back in the 50's. What prompted my posting was this fellow's web site:
http://www.jerryleelewis.co.uk/

I'm not trying to knock his playing, but I really don't think he's doing anything extraordinary. Then I'm thinking about Dueling Piano's, two guys who play in the south Jersey/Phillie area and draw hundreds of oldies-lovers to their shows doing this kind of stuff.

Renig.....yes, that WAS terribly helpful...."you either got it or you ain't." I forgot that the beauty of his music comes from his energy and his personality. And his licks ARE too eclectic to put in print. I'll also bet were they to be printed you would find simple runs. Still, to his credit I have seen samples of it in Keyboard magazine over the years. Some of his fingering and riffs are incredible. I just recently found out that in many of these short 1-2 measure riffs he uses both hands on the treble side.

Yes, Boogie Woogie is typical JLL stuff and good for getting the left hand going, but Jerry Lee uses technically challenging left hand rock patterns. I've been working on them for months now and still having difficulty with coordination.

Unfortunately, there is also a scarcity of (good!) Jerry Lee MIDI files. I managed to pick 3-4 of them on his site a few years back which are almost exact transcriptions. But that's it...most JLL MIDI files I find to be lame without the energy and zest Renig mentions.

I would also agree with you folks who say listen to the recordings (and the MIDI's) over and over again until you learn his style by osmosis! Let's face it, that's the only way you really learn jazz. I think that's what I'm going to do is work on him exclusively for a few weeks until it starts to sink in.

cassp......I liked the way you summed it all up in your posting! I'll be more understanding of group dynamics in the future.

excerpt from http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/lewis_jerry_lee/bio.jhtml

Sharing piano lessons with his two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Lee Swaggart, a ten-year old Jerry Lee Lewis showed remarkable aptitude toward the instrument. A visit from piano-playing older cousin Carl McVoy unlocked the secrets to the boogie-woogie styles he was hearing on the radio and across the tracks at Haney's Big House, owned by his uncle, Lee Calhoun, and catering to blacks exclusively. Lewis mixed that up with gospel and country and started coming up with his own style. He even mixed genres in the way he syncopated his rhythms on the piano; his left hand generally played a rock-solid boogie pattern while his right played the high keys with much flamboyant filigree and showiness, equal parts gospel fervor and Liberace showmanship. By the time he was 14, by all family accounts, he was as good as he was ever going to get. Lewis was already ready for prime time.

. not a good post

[This message has been edited by miden (edited 07-05-2007).]

Mark I am definitely with you about the lack of seriousness in this forum. (no offense to anyone )

it really should be called "Social Zone" LOL

Nick

PS: welcome to the forum hahaha

Lack of seriousness?
Who is lacking seriousness here??





As you can see, I was DEAD serious talking about his right foot...

Good ol' Jerry Lee, listen to his 'Last Man Standing' album with a cool line up of guest artists. I'd sure like to be able to mimic his laid back playing on the Baldwyn piano, and I think he plays Hammond on a couple of tracks. I think that short of asking for some lessons from him it's try it one song at a time; then maybe go back to his early stuff...as someone else commented, there are a few instructional DVDs out there, but you get someone elses interpretation which distorts your learning....best of playing...jinxby

Taike....thanks for posting that site about JLL. Old Jerry Lee's style has fascinated me since I first heard him. Have just about all of his records, saw the movie Great Balls of Fire about a dozen times, and still I never took the time to read about his life in detail. I've often wondered how he got so good at such a young age? Reminds me of a story I heard years ago....about the world poker champ (age appx 19). They interviewed his girl friend and she commented: "he can't do anything for himself...I have to comb his hair and tie his shoes, but.......he sure can play poker!"

me again: that's all JLL ever did was play the piano and hone his licks. Maybe that's all there is to it once you get the "feel?"

jenkinsb: I saw the "Last Man Standing Show" on Channel 13 a few months back. The man still has it but he's somewhat tempered at this age. But he still he has the respect of some great artists. I've tried everything to learn his music, but I haven't tried just sitting down and playing it every day as a few of you have suggested. So, I'm going to do that and see how far I get with it. I can't say I haven't gotten a new slant on this whole thing from the messages received.

dreamer: those pics say it all...there will never be another Jerry Lee!

[This message has been edited by Mark79100 (edited 07-05-2007).]

[This message has been edited by Mark79100 (edited 07-05-2007).]

My pleasure, Mark.

One of my dad's classmates in Primary School couldn't spell his own name, could barely read and count. Yet he was a musical wiz and became a prominent organist in a wellknown cathedral.

Michelangelo said: I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

Pretty much applies to JLL and other great musicians, don't you think?

Taike

Take a look here, Mark:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/105-4807340-9802851?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jerry+lee+lewis

Taike