AQUA

New Site Look and Mobile Support

Jonathon Wilson — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:31:37 +0000

I’m pleased to announce a new look to the site as well as mobile support. You can now browse aqua-web from your phones. (I’m actually writing this post from my Android.)

New stuff coming soon. I’ve been excited to see a number of people pull off decent performances of the funk grooves and post videos of them to YouTube. Very cool to see. I’m looking forward to more! If you can play the funk grooves I’d encourage you to get a video and post it as a ‘video response.’

Stay tuned.

Things are about to get crazy!

Jonathon Wilson — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:12:06 +0000

Wow! It’s been a long time!

No, wait. It’s been a ridiculously long time!

However, I’m now devoting a significant amount of my free time to getting a ton of new stuff ready, so hang in there. Exciting things are coming soon! We decided not to move, so at the moment, we’re still settled in good old Austin, Texas, and I’m making the time to put together some fresh stuff.

Here’s a quick little jam I threw together the other night to tide you over…

Stay tuned!

Cross-country move in progress – Slow Updates

Jonathon Wilson — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:25:58 +0000

Not much to report, but I did want to make mention that my family is in the middle of preparing for a cross-country move, so it’s been too busy for much in the way of new piano videos! Sorry for the slowness, but once we’re all settled in our new digs, the funk will resume. Hopefully this will be in the June time frame.

How to Play a Funk Groove 2 (Funk Groove in G) Early Rough Draft

Jonathon Wilson — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:38:01 +0000

I’ve been trying to get to this for a while, but it was never quiet enough in the house, or there was too much going on. I finally got a quick recording of this chart along with the backing track so you can get a feel for how it sounds with all the parts. I’m working on a set of free lessons that will break this (and the first funk groove in C, and the funk groove in F) down into pieces with tips on how to get the feel right, some practice techniques for getting the more technically challenging parts under your fingers, and some of the voicing and theory that makes it all work.

I’m eager for early feedback on how these lessons would benefit you the most, so don’t hesitate to either comment or contact me directly with any suggestions or requests for these upcoming series.

Sheet Music (PDF)

Backing 100 bpm

Backing 90 bpm

Backing 80 bpm

Backing 70 bpm

Check back (or subscribe to my youtube channel) for these upcoming series!

Lullaby for My Wife, No. 4

Jonathon Wilson — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:57:55 +0000

It has become a tradition for me to write a lullaby for my wife for Christmas. I keep hoping that one of these years, I’ll write something that comes close to conveying how important she is to me, but I always fail miserably. This year is no exception, but I do like the way this piece turned out. It also happens to be a lot of fun to play, with the way the middle voice rolls off the fingers passing back and forth from hand to hand. Here are some files for downloading, and a video of me playing it on my trusty Yamaha.

Piano Funk Groove in F

Jonathon Wilson — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:48:10 +0000

Here’s another little piano funk groove for you. This one falls squarely in the “funk” category (not as jazzy as the last one). I’ve put together some sheet music which is reasonably true to what I played. I made a few intentional alterations where I feel like I should have played something slightly different. You can also get an MP3 of the audio, as well as three different speeds of the backing drums and bass to practice with.

Christmas Time is Here

Jonathon Wilson — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:08:30 +0000

That time is here again. The first part of December is always my favorite, because I haven’t been overwhelmed with too much of a good thing. The season is new and its the best time to enjoy my all-time favorite Christmas song — "Christmas Time is Here" from A Charlie Brown Christmas (written by Vince Guaraldi). Simple and reflective is how I like this tune, and how I’ve chosen to play it. If you feel so inclined, head over to YouTube, and offer up a rating and a comment. It helps bring it up for other people’s searches.

Video Responses & Dirk Bertels’ Piano Groove Tutor

Jonathon Wilson — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:29:28 +0000

Ok, lots of happenings in the FunkGroovoSphere these days. Two separate people (that I know of) have managed to pull off decent videos of themselves playing the first funk groove:

aerospacepat pulls off a pretty good attempt, and holds the honor of being first to post a response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aujX6X7Hoto
alexserbia89 grooves it with the drums on his keyboard. He even got some of the parts that weren’t transcribed… Nice chops, Alex!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sufZ_EMpU

Excellent stuff! If you’re working on any of the stuff in my videos, shoot some video and post them as video responses! First, I love to see other people get these down. Second, I’ll be happy to offer tips/suggestions — if you want ‘em

In addition, friend and reader, Dirk Bertels has honored me with putting some snippets from the first funk groove in as one of the built-in demos for his cool Piano Groove Tutor.

Find the ‘Launch’ button on his page to bring this cool beast up. It provides a musical view of Midi Files which shows some notation, and highlights the playing of that notation on an onscreen keyboard. You can freely change the tempo to anything you’d like, enable/disable the right or left hand, backing rythm and metronome. This could really develop into a great practice tool!

Here’s a quick clip of my simplistic MIDI sound card rendering up this funky little section:

http://www.aqua-web.com/assets/PianoGrooveTutor-Funk1.mp3

Dirk’s other default demos include some very tasty traditional latin piano parts, so be sure to check that out as well.

It’s so very cool to see these things find their way out onto the net!

Until next time,

- Jonathon

Early Beta Release of How to Play a Funk Groove, II

Jonathon Wilson — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:54:01 +0000

(plus downloadable audio from “How to Play a Funk Groove, I”)

I’ve been trying. Really trying.

Honest.

I’ve gotten my second funk groove all written, and I can actually play it(!) but with summer vacations and busy work schedules, I haven’t found the time to get the video for it put together yet. So lets spin this into a positive, shall we? Read on…

The first “How to Play a Funk Groove” was really just a shot in the dark. It was mostly an improv of various funk techniques over a drum groove. I had no idea that so many people would try to learn it, and that the vast majority would want to do it from some sort of music (gasp). I retroactively went back and sketched out most of the techniques I used, but there is quite a bit of variance through the live playing, and the notation is only ‘close’ to what was actually played. I’ve gotten some fantastic feedback from some great people with super sharp ears, pointing out some of the inconsistencies, and offering suggestions for ways that a future series might be improved.

I’ve also had some recent requests for the raw audio from the original ‘final video’ so that people can burn it to a CD, or drop it into their MP3 player for more convenient practicing. No problem — here’s a direct download of the MP3 audio, and here’s an online player:

Sneak Preview of the Sequel…

However, what I’m really hoping to expose is an early ‘beta’ version of “How to Play a Funk Groove, II” — I’ve provided both the audio (piano only for now), and the PDF of the notation. I’ve tried to incorporate many of the suggestions offered. In particular, this piece was notation first. It’s really intended to be a piece that one can learn right off the chart, and when you’ve got it down — it should sound just like what I played.

What I’m hoping for is some early feedback before I go to the trouble to shoot this into a video series. The goal for the video series is to break it down, playing all of the sections from the piece at several slower speeds, with the notation available, offering tips and techniques for mastering the tune.

The intent is to provide backing bass and drums at about five speeds from 50% up to full speed for practicing.

So please! I would love your feedback! Do you like the tune? Any changes? Would you rather I ditch this, and provide a series on how to play polkas on the banjo?

Here’s a direct download of the audio for “How to Play a Funk Groove, II” and an online player:

And here’s the music

Transposed Blues Licks and an H4 Piano Demo

Jonathon Wilson — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:34:32 +0000

Just a minor update while I continue to try and find time to finish up my in-progress piano series, “How to Play a Funk Groove, II.”

A number of people have requested transpositions of the 30 must-have blues licks into other keys. Thanks to software, this is very easy! You can now get PDF files for the 30 blues licks in most of the major keys. I’ve also uploaded the raw Finale file, so if you have that software, you can take them and bend them to your will! See below for links to them all.

But first, my parents gave me a very generous birthday gift (I won’t give too much away, but its nearer to 40 than anything else…). A Zoom H4 Handy Recorder. This cool little beast is an all-digital stereo recorder with built-in microphones and makes some pretty nice recordings. I threw it up on the piano and did a quick improv which covers a little new age to start, heads into some funk with jazzy overtones, and ends up with a little more of a blues feel. You can even hear the dog bark at one point! Pretty ragged as it’s a complete 1-take improv, but it shows off the quality of the recorder — Including the fact that my piano is well overdue for a tuning! Here’s a download, and here’s a player:

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To wrap up, I’m very appreciative of the nice comments you’ve sent in. I’m always on the lookout for ideas on other series. Recent suggestions include more funk, jazz comping and soloing, and even electronica with all-free software (which is how I do it). If you have a vote, or an alternative suggestion, just post a comment or send me a note.