this excerpt from the public television program the piano guy
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Now I'm sure I will be testing your strenuous piano skills with the tune
Hang On Sloopy right it's a tough song
It's really difficult to play with the one chord
I'm in the key of F okay
It's got the 4 chord, B-flat and the 5 chord which is C
So it is a 3 chord tune. then it goes back to the 4 then one.
Let's say a couple of quick words about that in case anyone's never seen the
show before we got someone new, Then we talk about 1, 4,5
We are actually talking about scale steps. I hate to get into heavy scales but the idea being if you're starting on F
1, 2 , 3, 4,
then 5, so 1 is the F, 4 is the Bb and 5 is the C
those are also the same three chords are used in all blues tunes
When we think about 1, 4, 5, it's one of those points
at that it's such a huge part
of western music the 1, 4, 5 in classical and non classical
in Hymm tunes and sacred music. It is such an intregal
part of what we do just shocks everybody I feel like every
time we go through almost every time we talk about that a little bit but I think
that's a good thing for beginners to hear to realize is not just
going off like into the desert, if you learn a few chords,
gets get yourself a good start.
hey, tell me the story about the title of this tune. hang on Sloopy this
song is mostly
associated with the state of Ohio need i say more about that but it
was some there was a woman named Betty sloop and she was from Ohio
and she was a piano player. she was playing a gig down to new orleans
the story was it was a slow day and these two young guys I
think one guy was from Ohio
as well so it still had Ohio ties to it
and she was bummed out one day was a slow day and they said well
hang in there Sloopy. and that was that. Then they said well we'll just
create a song. It became the hook of the tune.
the group from Cincinnati the McCoys had a big hit Rick Derringer was with that
group
He later on was the Edgar Winter group and had hits on his own. so that song has
just become a very popular hit
it all revolves around Ohio ties
a million people have thought the title was
Hang on Snoopy.
hang on Sloopy and it's a three chord song
many rock and roll songs I'll just give you the little ...
1,
4. 5
4, 1. you can listen to other rock songs
of that period Louie Louie's that has the same changes
you got the the verse from summer lovin from Grease.
It's got that thing. it's gotta farmer John
by the Premier's those of you that know rock music from the early sixties.
same kinda deal
The middle of you lost that lovin feeling but slower
You get a lot of mileage out of learning a few of these chords.
get a lot out of it and I'm playing the baseline
then I'm playing the chord with the right hand
so one
down now the other great thing about that unlike some of other things we
work through that is very simple from a
hand coordination standpoint that is not a tough thing anybody can sit down and
do that very quickly
opposed to some of these rougher Latin things we do or some other styles
we work through. Let's work through the melody. The first couple of measures
That's the chorus.
That's a killer.
and here's here's how you play the verse
Sloopy lives in a very
bad part of town
and everybody here tries to put my Sloopy
down. so now are you just going to
Let's talk about
Are you going to play a single note melody line
with just the chords or you said no you need to play the bass note with your left
hand and a chord in your right
how do you start are you start melding
those two things. I'll meld the two together by putting
some chords in the bass line with my left hand
So I'll play ...
That's a healthy thing to try
very blatantly right now let's do it first I'll walk you down the path
Start out
if you could a single root position chords with just a one note melody line
same measure or two of it. Try just full chords in your left hand.
Like you are reading a lead sheet
That's our basic starting point.
always a chord in the left hand and the melody line in the right
Now I want to add some bass
some rhythmic values so maybe instead of
full chords in the left hand I'll probably just go
okay like a rock and roll guitar rock n roll with the power chords
they keep playing
power chords
so any of those notes that you're playing It's no big secret you are just pulling chord
tones out of those three chords
no definite major/minor just
the root the fifth and with the melody line
you will have some extra
fingers and play a chord or something like
something to that effect I know it's funny to think thorough it that way
sometimes when I get a good player like you on the show and you think I'll never
thought about what I'm doing I just kind it go that way
but that is a healthy stepladder approach to say
if you have never played before you have to learn the chords and the melody line
well how do I start
Well you are probably going to want some bass rhythms and well you probably want ...
well I've got a lot of
fingers left over now so let's start some of that in and soon you are
you are kind of playing an
arrangement the more you keep playing the more you
keep fiddling around with the piano and
it's very good therapy but you also are developing
other ways of accomplishing a song
when I was starting up playing the piano I would sit at the
piano at
well it's just me i don't have
drums and bass and guitar or string orchestra
backing me up it's just the piano so how can I make to all fit?
and sound like a full
one piece band and that's the challenge as a single piano player
sometimes it's much easier to play with a group because you are not responsible for all that
but the fun part is you have 10 fingers and you have 88-keys you have
so many more possibilities I mean it's probably harder for a guitar player
to do that sort of thing. you hear guitar players that are playing
everything
They are playing the accompaniment and the bass part and the melody
I'm just in awe when I hear that Like on a Chad Atkins album
He does it all.
You think there are two people playing no it's just one person. He's playing live.
that's the way it is on piano
you have to accompany yourself you're playing that
you're always leaving the melody on top
The melody is always the highest note.
Let's hear you play this tune.
I'll play it instrumentally then sing a little bit.
single note melody,
baseline
Filling in with some chords
sometimes I like to really pronounce the melody by playing octaves
like ...
more pronounced
Check out the left hand
I'm pounding it out.
3 chords. That's Rock in Roll!
Thanks. my pleasure appreciate it. This excerpt is from the public television program
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