"Waltz for Debby", music by Bill Evans,Transcription Analysis including chord progression, chord voicings, drop 2 voicings. Score available at website: www.kenthewitt.com/ Please check out my book at my website.
Loved this since I was a young teen. The first jazz piano tune I tried to play. That was 40 years ago. I still love it and Bill Evans will always be my favourite . Your analysis was a joy to listen to and to watch. Beautiful. Thank you . Gerry.
Gerry, now we have that in common...I can't imagine my life and world without Bill Evans. He changed everything for me. I did meet him a couple times and actually was the opening band for one of his last performances in Hartford, CT. My first time seeing him perform live at the Village Vanguard is embedded in my memory stream forever and crystal clear.... my most profound and beautiful musical memory. Thanks!
@@KentHewittpiano88 hello Kent ....what is the name of this scale E F# G A Bb Db D which sounds very good over E minor 2 5 1 (F#m7--B7--Em) ? I need the name so i can learn it in other keys thanks.
Thank you for this video. I started listening to and playing jazz three or so years ago, when I was just twelve and vidoes like this form the basis of my musical education. Again, thank you for sharing, and please continue 🙂
i come from classical music, i always wanted to learn jazz but never knew where to start. This looks like the perfect starting point to me :) thanks for making that
Thank you! That gives me an affirmation.... because if you have any inclination to want to improvise, I can be of help. Also you will gain great pleasure from the process and expand all your musical horizons. (sounds like a sales pitch...ha!) Actually this IS a sales pitch, because I believe you could learn about jazz piano from my book, as well as my 125 free videos and scores. Check here: www.kenthewitt.com/id31.html and Here: ru-vid.com/show-UCdmjw5sm9Kn83TB_rA_QBCwplaylists
Kent I’ve been watching your videos for years and you make the stuff sound and seem easy! You helped break down a lot of learning barriers for me! Beautiful beautiful work every time.
pulled this one up in the real book today and thought, damn I hope kent has an explainer for this one! sure enough it all makes sense now. your videos have always been helpful, but I'm at a point now where they're carrying me to the next level and helping me hear the movement of the changes. thanks for all your hard work to spread the joy of music.
Samuel...yours is the vey best kind of comment that I can receive. You are benefiting and also ackonwledging my hard work. It is very hard and one needs to be highly motivated. The rewards are worth it , brother...please believe me. ALWAYS swing loose!
Hello Kent. I've been watching several of your videos, and this one is one of my favorites. It's such a beautiful piece. And you've so generously explained it, with all of Bill's subtle voicing and chord changes. I want to thank you for the great work you've been doing here (as you say, it's about a day's work for just one video). You're one of the most honest people one can come across, because you explain things clearly and simply. I'd love to take lessons with you, but I live in Paris, France. I think I'll be buying your books very soon. Take good care, and keep them rolling. All the best Kent, and God bless, Ralph.
That's a great comment, Ralph, and much appreciated. This is encouraging to me that my work is appreciated. I'm happy to be able to share the knowledge this way.
Thanks Kent - I've spent all day learning this piece and wish I'd found this video a few hours earlier! Your explanations are excellent - thanks for posting.
Kent Hewitt Thankyou so much! Thanks for your work and all your analysis! this tutorial helped me to understand better this beautiful song! Hugs from Brasil!
If I could, I would give this video multiple thumbs up! Thanks so much for sharing your thorough analysis and knowledge of Bill Evans music! You are a great teacher.
I love this tune so much. I've tried playing it reading the sheet, but I'm such a slow reader.. I bet that with the help of your analysis I'll be able to read it, understand it and remember it much faster and easily. Thanks!
KH, this is now my life's work to try and surround this piece, which you have so beautifully and clearly explained. You are top of the heap. (Well maybe next to Bill Evans). Hats off again.
Oh wow...what a great compliment. I heard Bill Evans live in '64 ...not many can say that....and being a jazz pianist...that may be my qualifications ....thanks!
Hey Kent, I just wanted to let you know i hope you are doing well. Thanks for all the knowledge and lessons you have provided the world for the foreseeable future. Your contributions are now timeless as a blessing of our digital age. I guess, thank you for existing. You will help countless people for as long as we persist, and will always have a legacy here.
Kent! Im having a great time growing in my musicianship utilizing your videos (and your book - I just bought it!) .. Your content is an incredible gift! Thank you very much, good sir. I’ve got about half of this song down so far!
Chris, thanks so much for the comment and for telling me...It brings joy to my heart that I can make a difference, and I wish you all the best in your musical studies.
Thank you so much for analysing this song! Bill Evans is my favorite jazz pianist, all time! Hope you can have more videos on how to play Bill Evans' music!
Dear Kent thanks for giving us the opportunity to learn this beautiful masterpiece. It was interesting to hear that Bill changed your life in music. incredible enough it happened to me too. Since I get known with his music he changed my life. But I must admit that my musical playing is limited and I can not read music so trying to play Bill by just hearing is almost impossible. So this transcription coming so close the way he did it is a gift for me. I hope you could put more Bill's music in more videos. God blessed you.
Thank so much for the kind words. Bill was a great inspiration to me. I was fortunate to see him a number of times... once at the Village Vanguard, and also my quartet opened for him in Hartford just before he died. Great privilege.
Dear Kent thank you sooo much for the videos and website. I find it extremely helpful to watch your tutorials and, so far, its the only way I can improve my jazz playing. Its always such a pleasure to hear you playing! Keep it up and I am sure there are way more things to discover with you! Stelina
One of my very favorites by Bill Evans, I've sung it for years, and it's such a treat to hear it de-mystified on piano. Inspires me to try it myself, trying to stretch my piano skills.
The quarantine got me here. Such a nice sound! You did it well and love the sound of piano and the way you play was marvelous!!! Love from Mongolia! ❤️🤗
Love this song.. I used to play this for fun all the time, but forgot how to play it now.. great to have this video for when I get my hands on another piano. thanks for posting it!
+Wayne Hawley It's a great song, but not that easy to play especially if you look at the original Bill Evan's version. I appreciate your writing to me. Thanks!
+Kent Hewitt yea in no way was it easy to learn, not sure if I was playing that one but the one from an npr recording with Bill Evans, I'll try to find the original to look at too, thanks for replying!
+Jon Ferguson You're welcome, I used the 70's transcription and it matches what he played on his first recorded version from the album "new jazz conceptions".
The piece in itself is ear opening with the 5ths cycle, I feel very lucky to have found this video. Definitely not the last I'll be watching from here!
This is Bill Evan's masterpiece. I'm sure it will be a pleasure for you to learn. Thanks for the comment! ru-vid.com/show-UCdmjw5sm9Kn83TB_rA_QBCwplaylists
This video has helped me understand so many things. It's amazing. This is life-changing stuff. Cannot thank you enough for sharing your knowledge... I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful your channel is. Please.... more! ^^ Rene
RRTheN00bPwner Thanks again for the great comment. It is my pleasure to share the knowledge and there's lots more to come. Please subscribe and keep in touch!
Fantastic and very helpful breakdown of an incredibly beautiful jazz piano tune! Thanks so much for taking your time and truly explain how it's done! P.S. Love your playing!
@@KentHewittpiano88 Hey, Kent, I sent you the above note 3 months ago...finally arranged the tune for guitar, and here's a blog post on it, for your amusement. You get a video embedment (?) and a shout-out. Thanks for your help! rollyguitar.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/some-arranging-thoughts-on-waltz-for-debby/
Kent this is so deep I have to play it at .75 speed. You realize a secondary benefit for bassists like me is the practice I get following your left hand - as if I were standing on stage over your left shoulder. I'm knee-deep in My Foolish Heart as well . . .
You should study Bill's written bass line, from any of the recorded versions. The best one is the original version, played by Scott LaFaro. Write to me for transcript.
Nice Kent. Thank you! You helped me with three things in particular...1) I much prefer your harmonic and root movement in measures 3ﹰ-5 of G- to E7/G# to A9 over my Real Book version which has G- to C7 to A7/G. Much better! 2) I wasn't doing the 3 over 4 feel section as such. It really helps to think of it that way to capture Bill's sound. 3) I wasn't using drop 2 voicings at the ends of the phrases for some stupid reason. Again...much better with them and more enjoyable to play. I've started playing this tune again with a new enjoyment of it because of these nuances. You're the man.
Thank you...there's no way anyone can get close to Bill Evan's and how he played it...it's just impossible...but we can learn from it. Check out the Oscar Peterson version....that's the next best one. ....completely different.
Martin Eigenmann Thanks, I appreciate the positive feedback very much. Please subscribe and check out my other videos , including Bill Evans' rootless voicings.
Kent, I'm afraid you gave away the store with this lesson. I have been playing this song, with my own yard sale approach for years now. Inasmuch as you have laid it out so clearly here, I think that with a year's diligence, I will have it right. All you need to know is right here. You are a mensch of the highest order.
I love it Kent! I have the arrangement in the New Real Jazz Book. Forth chord they have marked as a C7 which you called an E7. I haven't tried it yet but I'm definitely going to work on this one. It's a winner. Thanks!
On Bill Evans' 1st trio recording "New Jazz Conceptions" he plays an E7 (inverted) which makes sense because the next chord is A7. E7 is also on the transcription, so that is how he originally wrote it. On later recordings he played the C7, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because it follows Gm7. However. I prefer the E7. Thank you!
Dear Kent, thank you for the amazing tutorial. I used a lot of parts from your arrangement and mixed it with some from Bill's live one to create my own. Would love to have a video about how to solo over this tune: the changes are pretty standard but for some reasons I find myself being very tied to the original melody and having difficulties to navigate convincingly through the chords. Thanks you for this and all the other great content of your channel. Kind regards from Italy!
Thanks for the request...I'll put it on my list. You might want to take advantage of the transcription book which has Bill's solo written out....which would be much better than mine, ...of course!
+Vitor Guerreiro I usually don't analyze solos because I prefer to play my own solo and analyze that. I guess I'm too lazy to spend another 3 hours on this. (sarcasm) Thanks!
Hi "Dr" Kent, Altered dominant & cat friend here again. Was looking for your Waltz for Debbie PDF download last night as my physician friend Debbie who is clasically trained loved your RU-vid! (Your site says call for that download) (She took me see Amadeus while back and then later played the whole score over a bottle of Pinot Grigio.) Like your LI water views, she has a Steinway & Sons installed in her Chesapeake Bay facing living room! Thank you once again sir as you magically help us lay-jammers w/The Gr8 American Song Book!
@@KentHewittpiano88 Thx "Dr" Kent !!! Sent request, pls check your Spam folder if not see in inbox! Playing with stuffing Mel Minors V+1/2 tone on the V with ii-V-I's today (eg A MelMin agsinst G7) on the guitar. Working Man's b/# 5s, 9s, b7!
+GAM3RS ASSASS1N I'm glad you like the sound. It is a great piano (1905 Mason & Hamlin Model AA) The amazing thing to me is that I'm only using a Canon Powershot S95 (just a portable camera) for both the visual and audio and no other sophisticated equipment.
+GAM3RS ASSASS1N That's just the way things worked out...believe me, if it was different, I would have to spend a lot of money making it better,,,,and I'm thankful, because I'm fussy, (you can imagine?)
Kent Hewitt Oh yea, I have always tried to define my mess and that fusiness of mine. Believe me I can imagine the fussies. We are usually the ones who improvises.
