Great Mini Master Class John! Back in the early 1980's, I had a gig at the Yale Law School New Haven Ct. at the Yale Law School. I was playing solo classical guitar and just finished playing, "Waltz For Debbie", and a women comes up to me and says, "Hi, Im Debbie", and I said, I'm Robby. She continued and said, "you just finished playing, Waltz For Debbie, and I'm Debbie. My uncle was Bill Evens. ( Bill Lived in Branford CT, ) As a child, I'd be at his house, Bill was always playing the piano in the living room, I was always dancing around his piano. And he wrote that song for me! " Just thought you'd like this aspect of the great tune, Waltz For Debbie... story.
I'm not a piano player or even a musician but i enjoy playing and listening to music. He's got a super gentle touch on thoes notes. Isn't that what made Mr. Evans a legend? You're gonna live forever in my sounds like Randy Newman 😊
Miles Davis used to call Evans on the phone just to hear him play. An interesting fact, Bill Evans is the pianist on the most famous jazz album with Miles Davis and Coltrane. But what many people don't know is that Bill Evans wrote Blue in green which miles took credit for.
Miles gave him 2 chords, Bill evans came back the next day with blue in green. Once that was all said and done, evans suggested he may deserve some pay for it, to which miles shot back with an offer of “a check of $25”
@@svensvensson6705 I never read or heard that story...I knew Bill went home and wrote it but never heard he even suggested getting credit for doing so.
I just "discovered" waltz for Debby and came stop listening to it. Im a big Vince guaraldi fan, and somehow it snuck into a radio station based on the great pumpkin waltz, which i love. Waltz for Debbie is just devastating when I first listened. I started learning some Vince during the pandemic, and you working out bill Evans waltz gives me hope that I'll get to a point where it isn't so intimidating. Just got to break it into smaller bites. Cheers John and look forward to another album.
Yes! He is just like you and me....but with more talent. But he is so human and I love it. It is infectious how he is just so open....like "here I am...the right notes and wrong". Let's work it out together! I hope he becomes serious about jazz and takes it on for the second half of his life. He deserves to give it serious time to continue studying this music on piano and guitar. I say get the Dead thing out of the way and move completely into jazz. Thank you John Mayer, I see a brand new shining light within your soul today.
This is absolutely f*cking beautiful! I never ever knew you had it in you John, where have you been hiding? Get in front of a piano more often because it is lovely and so refreshing. You have it, the jazz is within your soul. I am so happy I found this today! Don't mind if I pick up my guitar and join you, do you? Thank you for this!
Nice musicianship as always from Mr. Mayer, whom I admire very much. For the record: the point of confusion, at around 4 minutes, re: 7th chords - John plays the Major 7 note (F# here, in the key of G), and thinks for a bit. I think that he realizes that he has muffed up the explanation some. \:-0 While teaching, you get confused trying to articulate ideas that you've taken for granted... Shit, it happens all the time. No worries. Seriously. That F# over a G major triad (G-B-D) makes G Major 7. Drop the B to Bb, and the F# to F, and you have G Minor 7. Now play the G Major triad with an F on top, and you have: G7, aka G "Dominant" Seven, aka G Seven. Mention "g seven" to any working band and they will play G - B - D - F. In some form. :-) hth!
JM , thanks for sharing (I once saw you on a TV "Sessions" recorded in Sydney (playing an SRV Strat) your playing was "astonishingly beautiful " ( like above here)
damn dude, i love the approach to piano, im a guitar play the same. but i find this uncanny ability to just sit with a piano and let the brain and ears tell the hands what todo. its like exploring the guitar again at 16 again, its such a wonderful thing, the art of discovery. i feel like after years and years of studying the same instrument, it becomes.... not bland, because theres always something todo. but its different. theres no longer discovery theres hmmm... inspiration, consolidation and articulation. very different from learning how to speak again. Learning how to speak and say i love you in a different feels different
You spent a year at Berklee and no music theory classes? I had no such luck at Eastman, and an 8 am class at that. Maybe you should call AK - after all she copped half your grammy. She owes you at least one tutorial and a bottle of Stoli (Gaga fuel when she's writing at the piano) cheers
Do you think you should have possibly listened to this tune like just one time even, before you decided you were going to teach the world how it’s meant to be played? This is not how it’s meant to be played, by the way. And seeing chords as “shapes” is a guitar thing and will stop you from ever really being able to do this^^^^.
Did you listen to any of the video before going full theory snob? If you understand the arrangement of notes in a chord you can pick your way through them, and doing it on a piano lets you see the “shape” of each chord and transpose it in between keys. Don’t be a jackass.
