It's been a year now.............

........since I made the decision to take a major change of direction musically and learn to play the piano. Never too late as they say! It is not a decision I have regretted for the piano has now become an important part of my daily life. I am pleased with what I have achieved and learnt in this first year and look forward to what I may have accomplished at the end of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th........etc!! Here is a recording I made yesterday of a standard blues piano impro in the key of C using a split keyboard to handle the bass with an onboard drum backing. Apologies for the slightly ropy quality.

'Play as if you could not speak!'

Comping?

I felt I needed to know more about playing the piano as an accompaniment to a voice or instrument rather than playing the melody also. Funnily enough there isn't terribly much out there on the internet but eventually I came across Bill Hilton. He has clearly also recognised the lack of material available and has created an array of really useful video lessons available on YouTube that provided me with exactly the information I was after.

Here are 2 on Jazz piano comping.

Here are two on Pop piano comping

He has also produced a very aptly named book 'How to really play the piano'