The Allman Brothers - Jessica Piano Solo Tutorial - Part 1 

This is one of the most asinine comments I've heard. So.. you're under the impression that good musicians don't transcribe solos? LoL.. Thats like saying good writers shouldn't read and study someone else's work. Transcribing a good piece of music is ear training, building vocabulary, Learning to tell a story with peaks and valleys. It helps with dexterity, muscle memory. It's encouraged in every Music School, and I know that Chuck has transcribe many solos in his day.. he says so on his DVDs.

This is Feb 2019, nearly 7 years after your post, and this work is still helping other musicians. Great job and thanks to you, I'll have a great solo to add. Really appreciate!!!

I have to commend you for patiently responding to someone who, clearly, is beneath you. You have contributed something valuable -- and I wanted to add my voice to those who have responded with warmth and gratitude.

I've been hearing this piano solo on the radio for forty years or so, thinking how great it would be to be able to play it, but also thinking it's way beyond me at the same time. You changed all that for me. In a couple of days, with the help of your outstanding tutorials, I've pretty much got it down. Thank-you, Tyler! I'm moving on to the Steely Dan stuff now. Speaking of which, can you do a tutorial of Sign In Stranger from The Royal Scam? It has an amazing piano part!

Tyler: And all who are diving into this. Great job. Very helpful. I've been playing for so long now, and I always loved this tune AND THIS SOLO! BTW: It might be helpful for some of you to go back and count carefully when Tyler plays it all the way through at the start of this video. For instance: The first phrase starts on the "and" of beat one. The next phrase starts on beat two of it's measure (measure 5 of the solo). The 3rd phrase (the 3 note groupings of the pentatonic A scale working their way down) starts right on beat one. Then (and this one confused me at the slower tutorial speed) starts on beat 4 of the measure leading into that phrase (the F# and A pickup notes).

I’m a guitar player, and it’s nice to see why this solo sounds so cool, and the skill required. Educational and informative. Thanks for posting.

Thank you so much, I am the keyboard player for The Michael Allman Band. This is extremely useful and a big time saver.

Oh man that’s great. Can’t believe this has been on for ten years.

Chuck Leavel himself said that the piano solo that’s on the original studio recording he improvised. He said that he had to “learn” it from the recording, because audiences were unhappy if he didn’t play it the same way live. I play lead guitar, and while I don’t play the solo from Jessica exactly the way Dickie played it on the recording, I do play most of the more recognizable hooks. There are some songs that people just really want to hear it the way they remember it. Hotel California and Freebird are good examples. I learned the right hand parts of this piano solo note for note, and I get to play both the piano and guitar solos when we perform live. When I absolutely nail it, people think I walk on water, but since I didn’t compose it, I feel more like I just got really good at copying someone else’s work. I’m way happier with my guitar solo on this song, because I never play it the same way twice; parts of it are truly my own

I've been wanting to learn this piece for years. I'm very appreciative of this video. I'm finally taking it on :-)

Wonderful deconstruction. As a piano player, I've always just approximated the feel of the solo, but never bothered to figure it out note-for-note. Great job in pointing out the key Chuck Leavell riffs in this tune, especially the country-style "hammer ons" of the second going to the third (while holding on to the fifth--also works for fifth going to sixth and holding on to the tonic), and that change where he goes into the blues scale. That's basically what I think of for the solo--countryish major pentatonic with those "hammer ons", then go into a pentatonic-blues A mix at the climax. I missed some of those chromatics, so I'll be incorporating them more into my playing. Well done, sir.

Aloha Tyler- Thank you so much for sharing. I love the Allman Bros tunes. I enjoy playing (or trying to play) the piano, but struggle a lot. Your teachings & insight are so greatly appreciated. Mahalo & e malama pono (thank you & take care)- lee

I'm a guitar player who knows a few tunes on the piano. I play everything by ear and never claimed my approach is correct. I love these songs that I teach, and people really seem to enjoy learning them. I can't take someone like you seriously.. If you were a good musician you would be sharing it with the world. Your comment just screams insecurity to me. I would suggest taking a long walk in the woods.. get some of that anger out.

“Tonight, James wears beige. Hammond learns Albanian, and I pet an alpaca”

Fantastic transcription of this song! I have listened to it since 1973. I am a lead guitar player too since 6th grade, but I grew up with a bunch of piano players, Mom, Grandma, Aunts, Siblings, etc. We had a spinet piano that I taught myself on starting in 9th grade. I'm a huge fan of the Allman Brothers, Chuck Leavell, and his Sea Level Band. Anyway, I bought 2 Yamaha keyboards 20 years ago, just played chords and a few solos, but I have just now gotten serious about playing keyboards. I started this one on my own today and got the intro and main theme parts down. I found some useful partial song sheet music. Then I found your video here! Wow! I learned the first part of the solo from it an hour ago. You are definitely a multi-talented person! Thank you for giving us this video. If I learn it, I may play it in an AB tribute band we are putting together. Take care.

Hey dude just want to say thanks for all the time and effort you put into these videos. Great stuff! Helped me a ton breaking this down into smaller parts and showing the fingering. You have a gift for teaching! Peace and much success!

thank you so much for making this! you are great at teaching, sometimes people take things way too slow and it makes learning things tedious but you do a great job

Thank you so much for making this! I've been wanting to learn this for a while and you make it easy to understand

I watched this video during last summer and wanted to start playing this. I did first part then didn't have time... now I have almost month before next semester starts and I'm gonna do it! thanks for this, I'm really glad you made these videos! :)

Thanks for your clear teaching!

thank you so very much,! Your teaching method is perfect, so very helpful.

Well done. Good hard work figuring it out and then ‘splainin’ it.

This is big, big, huge, giant help to me! Man, thx sooo much for this video! I can't explain how grateful! I am for this, there's not enough words to describe how deep my gratitude goes! Oh, btw, i read all the comments here, it looks like someone had left some rude, maybe disrespectful, "snarky" comment(s) a while ago. Maybe Years and years ago. But it looks like the community banded together with the same consensus, that the commentator wasn't even close, was way off, way wrong and probably tried to put somebody down for some odd, weird reason? Like, no reason, actually. And yet it seems like the community took care of it as well though. Im def proud of this community and definitelly impressed with this guy that made this tutorial video! He is def famous!, in my book! Anyway, most of those jackasses who comment down to people to try to hurt, versus constructive or complimentitive, are all usually doing it because they are worthless bums who have to stealself worth instead of earn any! Usually because they're selfish and/or lazy don't feel good about their self whatsoever! They try to find some way to knock anyone down they can because they need that to feel any better about theirselves! They feel they're just plain garbage, all day and all night, every 24hrs! They feel like sewers sludge run off looks, they look in mirrors and see nothin so they try to get that tiny bit of self worth they get when they think they knocked someone down a little lower than they are. Hence, someone is lower than them; their logic is that they're higher now than somebody else, for sure, because they know it, they can prove it, they actually saw someone they think was lower than them because they did the knocking down to the person!! And so they now feel better about their self, for all odd 1 to 2 mins, then they go find done way to do it all again. Pitiful. They'll always be that way, it's a sad existence. The problem is that it only lasts for about 2 mins. Then it's gone! Thus it's not sustainable. It's gone in a MINUTE! So they gotta fo it again! They're worthless!! It's like if someone builds theirself a house, they can look at that house for years and years and feel good about themselves. That's sustainable. The bully who criticizes to make theirself feel better can only get about a min or 2 any self worth out of each demeaning act they do. So they gotta do it again. Repeat. Again. Repeat. Again. All day, night, week, month, year after year after year! Phew!! It's dreadful, wears ya down just thinking about it and they live in this cycle of hate and selfishness for all around them to witness, every day! Ughhh. I didn't even need to read those hideous comments to know why the community banded together against them. Im proud of this community and this video! Thanks again for taking your valuable time that you didn't have to use to create this video and then upload it for us, for only to help complete strangers get better at something! It's not like anyone paid thousands or millions for all this work that went into making this tutorial video! (Ughh, i keep thinkin about the jackass with the shitty comments) Anyway, Im soooo grateful to be able to watch this anytime i have a chance to!

Thanks a lot for doing this. Its tremendously helpful getting all the little different parts sorted out. As i practice it, my fingering is a little different. Don't listen to any stupid ass haters. Your effort is totally appreciated. Thanks for sharing this. .

I’ve been returning to the piano a little bit every day for a month, and today I went through the whole thing at full speed! Hurt my forearms like crazy, but so satisfying. One thing I noticed is don’t overuse the sustain pedal or you can’t make out the melody. Thank so much!

that's beautiful. wow !

Excellent tutorial! Thank you so much.

This is kick ass man thank you ❤

Someone in my band decided we should play this at our upcoming Thanksgiving gig.... obviously they dont play keys lol. Anyways this is really REALLY good Tyler. You saved me days of listening and hacking through sheet music. Thanks man

Love it and all your videos.

Thanks for this! Very helpful!

I've gotta learn to play this....For Gregg and all the boys...will be checking this out...thank you!

I just put my ear to the speaker and figured it out. It's not as hard as it seems.. once you get a few of the difficult riffs down you just fill in the rest. It's all about developing your ear so that you can identify what their playing.

Awesome Brotha!

Thank you! Really Helpful!

Killin it!

Thank you so much. Im very grateful

Spot on!

Hello Tyler and thanx for all your efforts. I only wished that your kind of tutorial was available when I first learned to play music 35 years ago. I would be a million times better than I am now. I am DILIGENTLY learning all 3 parts of the solo. Am almost done 5 weeks later but I am thrilled. Should you ever have some free time on your hands, I would love to hear your version of the end of Layla in the key of C#. I know that they sped up the tape in the studio but C# is the key for me. I have heard some approximations that were just that. Feel free to google me and keep in touch... Alex Saraceno

This is brilliant, thank you! Did you ever post the piano solo from "One Fine Morning" by Lifehouse?

Thanku your great work

wow man, good ear dude!! I am guessing that piano is not your main instrument? If not, I am even more impressed!! I have been playing keyboards for quite a few years, and I have a pretty good handle on it, so my comment is not from a novice standpoint. Again, you did a good job figuring that out.

Thanks.. that means a lot.

Thank you so much for your amazing tutorials! I can’t find any trace of you recently, though. I am curious where your impressive musicianship has taken you… AND, if you are still around and interested in more teaching, how about Sunny by Erroll Garner?

Wow love it!! Your piano even has that same sound as the orig recording!! Awesome!!!

Good playing. Your keyboard looks exactly like my Casio Privia PX 320.

Man, I wish I could play piano..that looks really fun.

You are a great teacher i really like how you call out each note Can you do another chuck level solo come and go blues or old love from unplugged clapton thanks for your lessons

Thank you

thanks for this

As a professional jazz musician, I completely support your reply regarding transcription to develop musicianship. That snarky comment about improvisation & feeling demonstrates a fundamental lack of knowledge of music. All mature musicians develop & work on vocabulary & solo architecture as part of the craft. Even an untrained person who actually pays attention can hear this by comparing different takes.

I have got the right hand part of the solo down, but I'm just finding it difficult to fit the left hand in with it, please help

Thanks

Tyler, do you have a printed transcription in pdf form, so I can refer to it while watching your video?

Wondering if you know the beginning boogie woogie piano part to zeppelin's Hotdog or could break it down

Ha, ha, excellent, love it, thanks.

Appreciate this tutorial, but the link I gave you is so much more fun to sit with the man himself....also, my feedback would be that you are talking down to the listener a smidge. Anybody learning this should be expected to have basic skills of finger cross overs and knowledge of scales, or they are working on the wrong stuff. I’d give a lot more credit to the listener of a fairly advanced tutorial like this. Regardless, thanks!

I want to hear you sing, I like the bass in your voice

seriously does.

Is there a PDF for this?

Is there a musical term for the pattern sort of thing at 7:30? Numerically I think it would be something like 6, 7, 9, 5, 6, 8, 4, 5, 7, 3, 4, 6

Dang! so did you learn that by tabs or did u transcribe it by ear? that was pretty insane. yes i knew it was pentatonic i got something right lol

"Tonight i wear a hat"

Casio Privia? The keyboard make lot of noise.

4. I'm rushing the tempo.

I've been playing this for 40 years and never fingered it anything like this,guess thats why I failed lessons

....I say if your having a bad day, leave your comment at another time when you feel like you can respect others....otherwise start walking west until your hat floats....

Easily

I just read a few of your snarky, mean spirited comments. Pretty easy to hide behind a computer screen and spray liquid excrement over others' efforts. Maybe you can post some of your playing so everyone else can judge your ability?

I just went to your channel to see if you had any Piano tutorials in which you practice what you preach... couldn't find any. Could it be an inferiority complex? Too afraid you'll be judged so you just troll through life, knocking down people who do what you wish you could do. Some of the best musicians in the world are self taught. They get the music out any way they can.