Edly Paints the Ivories Blue
ABOUT THE BOOK
Edly
Paints the Ivories Blue (book 1), now in its
second edition, teaches piano technique, reading skills, improvisation,
chords, and related theory. It's intended for lovers of blues, jazz,
rock, or any pop styles, as well as "recovering traditionally-trained
players."
Edly
Paints the Ivories Blue is a bright blue
alternative and supplement to traditional black & white
major-scale-based piano instruction books. It's as hip and fun as it is
educational. Bypassing twinkling stars and little lambs, it teaches
piano through blues songs written specifically for this book. 48 pages
softcover, black & white, $12 (one dollar for every bar of a
twelve-bar blues)
AUDIENCE:
• do-it-yourselfers
• private students with teacher
• teenage to adult beginners
• traditionally trained players wanting to move towards pop styles or
improvisation, or to reduce dependence on the written note.
MATERIAL:
• beginning piano instruction using the blues as the teaching material;
keys of C, G, D, A, E, and F.
• reading: notes, rhythms, symbols, etc.
• improvisation
• blues and blues scales, form, melody, and chords
ORIENTATION & TONE:
• alternative primary method, or supplement to a traditional method.
• unusually hip, fun, and engaging for an instruction book
• user-friendly, humorous, heavily illustrated, attractively laid out
• much more explanation than most piano method books
• encourages experimentation, extrapolation, and improvisation
~ TOP OF PAGE ~
WHY THE BLUES?
So glad you asked. In
addition to the blues' own inherent rewards, it's
also a close relative of many types of jazz, rock, and pop, and its
chord progressions are found in many types of music. Learning and
playing the blues is a great
introduction to many styles*.
Second,
improvisation is an integral part of the blues. Any style that fosters
improvisation gets my "good teaching material" vote. Young 'uns
naturally improvise in their musical play, but most traditional music
instruction makes it easy for this instinct to die of attrition. This
approach attempts instead to nurture it.
Third,
repetition is an important part of practicing. Blues is especially full
of repetition and patterns; melodic (the tune), harmonic (the chords),
phrased-based, accompaniment, etc. Put 'em all together, and blues
makes a great vehicle for learning piano.
Fourth,
I've had students who knew they wanted to focus on blues, rock, or jazz
right from the start. This book gives that focus a home.
Fifth and
finally, most people practice more when they enjoy the music. Blues is
fun and likeable, and therefore may get more playing time than
traditional material covering the same techniques. The student
progresses faster and is happy. The teacher's happy. I'm happy.
Everybody's happy. Ahhh, the power of a blue note, a bit of swing, and
the blues.
*... the blues is a great introduction to many styles...
Like any organism, blues has grown and changed with time. The
twelve-bar form based on the I, IV, & V chords has emerged and
assumed reign as the most common standard, though plenty of variations
still exist. Many colors including whites have joined blacks in blues.
Blues itself has produced an 
impressive
family tree, and has had a role in the conception and development of
many styles, including jazz, rock, rhythm 'n' blues, country, pop, etc.
While blues lives on in more traditional contexts, it has also been
stripped and reclothed in outfits ranging from fashionable to foppish,
slick to cerebral. Its influence is not to be underestimated. Why, I've
even heard tell of a tale that told that the great composer J. S. Bach,
while studying at Yale, would leave his wig, wife, and weekend
weehearsal, motor a mod Mercedes many miles, down brown-black beer in
the din of booming blues at the back of a candlelit club and be back in
time to lead the next morning's cantata.
~ TOP OF PAGE ~
REACTIONS TO EDLY PAINTS THE IVORIES BLUE
Extremely entertaining! All I could do today was read your book. I
didn't feed my dogs. I didn't feed my wife. My dogs ate my wife. (That
good of a book.)
~Larry Neuhardt, Elderly Instruments, Lansing, MI
Yesterday for the first time in my life, I played the blues. Not GREAT
blues, but I had the feel of it and am confident that I now will learn
to play the blues AND the piano. You have created a monster!! I learned
more reading twelve pages of your book than I did in five years of
lessons. The best message is, "Play like a child in a sand box...PLAY!"
I am showing it to all my friends and catch myself sounding like an
evangelist, but...I have been SAVED! I understand. I finally get it!
~name withheld, Quebec
Roseman's style is casual and loaded with humor. you will appreciate
his loose-limbed approach to the blues. Even a classically-burdened
player such as myself could make some respectable blues sounds by the
time I reached the end of the book.
~Peggy Latkovich, Dirty Linen Magazine
...a refreshingly humorous antidote to the often drowsy world of music
methodology....
~York County Coast Star
The day your book arrived was the day that
piano playing started being super fun. So thank you for keeping me
intrigued, challenged and for making me sound bluesy and awesome at 6
weeks.
“Five Finger Walk”… got my LH moving out of the
C-Maj-chord-progression-When-the-Saints-Go-Marching-In trap that some
other beginner books throw you in… and hurt my brain in a good way… a
really big breakthrough for this older beginner. Total "I GET IT"
moment.
I enjoyed the book's momentum from the start. The emphasis on
improvisation from the very beginning has kept me sitting at the keys,
for sure. Whenever I hit a raised 4th, my wife turns her head and says
"ooooh, bluesy!" What fun!
~K.K., Hatfield, MA
"I
learned more reading twelve pages of your book than I did in five
years of piano lessons."
-name withheld, Quebec
~ TOP OF PAGE ~
