The bad news — I’ll be traveling for the next two weeks, so I won’t be able to wrap up the other six videos until I get back.

The good news — they’re mostly done, except for final editing, so once I get back, I should be able to wrap them up quickly.

This is just the first of many series which I have queued up, and I’m using this one as a template for those to come. If you have comments, suggestions for improvements, etc. Send them in! I’ll have the chance to make changes in future series, so let your voice be heard!

New Youtube Channel

If you’ve been following my old channel on Youtube, you should know that I’m moving to a new channel, and all new videos will be posted there. If you’d like to keep up easily, subscribe to the new channel.

Talk to you all in a couple of weeks!

Visit the Piano Funk Groove #4 page to download the sheet music and one of the MIDI files right away. As I finish editing and uploading the videos, I’ll be adding them to this same page, so keep an eye on it. I’m planning to have at least two of the videos up in the next couple of days.

You can also reach that page by following the link at the very top of the site.

If you’re a MIDI file user, post some comments as to whether this format will work, or suggestions for changes. I want to provide MIDI files for all of the new groove tutorials — and I’d like to do them in the way which will be most helpful! Some questions to get the discussion started:

• Include the bass/drum backing parts, or would rather just have the piano parts?
• For the piano, does it help for me to split right/left hand into two channels (synthesia can show them in different colors if I do this)

Thanks!

The ball’s starting to roll downhill now. I’ve moved my old aqua-web.com site to its new domain and everything seems to have gone smoothly. Please let me know if you’re having any login problems, etc.

If you’re into social networks, and that’s a more convenient way to keep up, feel free to follow me on Twitter or Facebook. The latest updates are over in the sidebar.

Funk Groove #4 is written, notated, MIDI-fied and the backing tracks are sounding pretty good. I’m shooting and editing now, and hope to have the full series posted before I leave at the end of July. As a teaser, here’s a little audio snippet of the ending.

Funk Groove #4 in Bb (Ending Snippet) by groovewindow

Finally, I’ve been toying with doing a weekly live broadcast on ustream. I’m not exactly sure what the format or content would be yet, but I believe I could pull it off.

What do you think? If you have thoughts, ideas, suggestions for what you’d like to see — post them in the comments. I think it might be a quicker way to get questions and issues you’re dealing with up and out into the airwaves.

www.groovewindow.com

I currently only have a placeholder there, but will be moving this site to that domain this coming weekend. If you have bookmarks to the site, be ready to update them, although I’ll be adding redirects such that you should be automatically redirected to the corresponding page on the new site when you try to visit here. If I do things correctly, nobody should need to create new accounts. Everything should simply move. Here’s hopin’ (crosses fingers).

I just didn’t want you to be surprised by the change :)

I hope to get the switch done this weekend (July 3/4) when I’m not grilling or watching fireworks…

Hey, hey, hey! (spoken in my best “Fat Albert” voice)

I’m so excited about the new funk piano videos I’m working on! I’m to the point where music is written and most of the arrangements are in good shape, so I’m just about to start shooting. It’s been a while and I’ve forgotten how much work goes into getting the full tutorial series together. Writing, arranging, putting together sheet music and MIDI files (yes, the new series’ will have MIDI files so that you can download for practicing), not to mention shooting and editing.

At any rate, I needed a quick break from all that, just to play a little music, so I put together this cover of one of the very first funk piano tunes I learned: “Tune 88″ by Jeff Lorber.

Keep an eye on the site, because there will be a ton of new stuff and some big announcements coming soon. As they say on the hold lines: “your patience is appreciated.”

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.

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!

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!