Elmo Peeler Note-for-Note Piano Transcriptions |
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Greetings!
Today is the first day of April and time again for my monthly newsletter, to keep you informed of recent transcriptions and other news of the last month. Welcome to Springtime, my favorite time of year!
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Billy Preston & The Beatles - 1969
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My new transcription this month has the best of both worlds, i.e., the best rock band and the best keyboardist - The Beatles and Billy Preston.
Brand-new this month is a note-for-note transcription of Billy Preston's electric piano part in The Beatles' "I've Got a Feeling", recorded in 1969 during their last public performance, the 'rooftop' concert.
Plus, there's a new exercise to help you better understand and play 'flips' and tremolos in 3rds.
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BTW, to make sure that my email doesn't end up in your Spam folder, please add me to your Contact list and/or mark my email as "Not Spam".
Note that every Title Heading is clickable.
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ALL of the Sheet Music listed on my website has been personally transcribed by me, and guaranteed to be note-for-note perfect.
Whether you:
- have a cover band and want to get your keyboard parts exactly correct,
- are a professional who wants to study the styles of rock's greatest keyboard players, or
- are a hobbyist that wants to learn how to play pop/rock and great piano music,
...these note-for-note transcriptions will prove extremely helpful.
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In the News! - Billy Preston & The Beatles - "I've Got a Feeling"
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Born in 1946 in Houston, Texas, Billy Preston as a child moved to Los Angeles with his mother, a stage actress -
for whom twenty years later he would write "You Are So Beautiful".
Although he'd never had a music lesson, by age ten Billy was playing organ onstage, backing gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland and Andrae Crouch.
At 11 Preston appeared on an episode of Nat King Cole's TV show singing the Fats Domino hit "Blueberry Hill" with Cole.
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Billy Preston & The Beatles -
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He also appeared in St. Louis Blues, a 1958 movie about W. C. Handy starring Nat 'King' Cole, Eartha Kitt and Cab Calloway; Preston played Handy at a younger age.
In 1962, Preston joined Little Richard's band as an organist, and it was while performing in Hamburg that he met the Beatles. In 1963, he played the organ on Sam Cooke's album and released his own debut album, , for Cooke's SAR label. In 1965, he released the album (which includes "Slippin' and Slidin'") and performed on the rock and roll show In 1967, he joined Ray Charles' band.
Following this exposure, several musicians began asking Preston to contribute to their sessions, including the Beatles, seven years after meeting him while playing with Little Richard.
During the "Get Back" sessions Lennon suggested that Preston join the Beatles, even using the term "Fifth Beatle", but the idea was dismissed by the others. Billy Preston was the only artist to receive joint credit on a Beatles single ("Get Back"). Preston also accompanied the band on electric piano for its rooftop concert, the group's final public appearance.
He played on ten of their songs plus a medley, including this month's new transcription, "I've Got a Feeling", "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down", "Dig a Pony", "One After 909", and "The Long and Winding Road" (the electric piano part). He played organ on "Let It Be", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "Something", "Dig It", "Let It Be", and a medley (on the Anthology 3 album) of “Rip It Up,” “Shake Rattle and Roll” and “Blues Suede Shoes.”. And he laid down an outstanding Gospel piano part on "Without a Song", a rare track with only Preston, John Lennon and Ringo Starr.
My transcriptions of songs by The Beatles:
Here are my other Billy Preston transcriptions:
Plus, here are my Billy Preston-related exercises:
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This month I'm pleased to offer a new Billy Preston transcription, his classic Fender-Rhodes electric piano part on The Beatles' "I've Got a Feeling".
Recorded during their 1969 'rooftop' concert, their final public performance, it was released in 1970 on their album Let It Be.
The song itself was a combination of two unfinished songs, Paul McCartney's "I've Got a Feeling" and John Lennon's "Everybody Had a Hard Year".
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The 8.5-hour-long documentary, Get Back, shows Preston playing "I've Got a Feeling" with The Beatles in the studio of their downtown-London Apple headquarters building. They were already friends with Preston but he'd never played with them before.
During the run-through of "I've Got a Feeling" he ad-libbed the same iconic electric piano riff that has become so identified with "I've Got a Feeling". John Lennon quipped with a wry smile, "You're in the band." And George Harrison remarked about what a great sound the electric piano was.
This is a note-for-note transcription (from a multi-track) of that great track.
BTW, a MIDI file is available in addition to the PDF sheet music.
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(to listen to the isolated electric piano track, click here)
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Two of the Most Important Types of Licks in Blues & Rock-and-Roll
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My new exercise this month is designed to help improve facility in playing two important types of riffs often used in blues and boogie-woogie and in rock music in general, i.e., 'flips' and tremolos in 3rds.
A flip is a briskly executed up-then-down arpeggio (broken chord). And a tremolo is similar to a trill, where the same two notes alternate rapidly a second apart; but the two notes of a tremolo are at least a third apart.
The most common tremolos are in 3rds, 6ths, and octaves. On rare occasion they can be in 10ths, e.g., Ray Charles' "Makin' Whoopee". |
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This exercise is in four sections, each of which is a 12-bar blues pattern with the same right hand part (although two of the four sections transpose the right hand up an octave). However, each of the four parts uses a different left hand pattern.
Fingering is included. If you'd like to improve your ability to understand and to play flips and tremolos, this should help you.
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The Hangout Place for Gospel Classics
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You don't have to be from the Deep South to love Gospel piano, nor do you need to belong to any particular religion. All you have to have is a love for wonderful old-time, swinging, uplifting piano-playing.
Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Richard Tee and Ray Charles, some of the greatest keyboard players ever, loved the style and infused their own performances with Gospel licks and rhythms.
Inspired by the wonderful playing of the portly Associate Pastor/Musical Director of my childhood's Baptist Church deep in the piney woods of Mississippi, in recent years I've transcribed and/or arranged a few Gospel classics.
This little corner of my newsletter is where I'll keep you informed of my latest efforts to share that old-time Gospel sound.
Here are my Gospel transcriptions and/or arrangements, plus some exercises:
Full-blown Gospel:
Heavily Gospel Influenced:
Moderately Gospel Influenced:
Gospel-related Exercises:
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Helpful for Those that Don't Read Sheet Music Well
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Most of my transcriptions have heretofore been available only as sheet music in PDF's. That is gradually changing - some are now also available as MIDI files, which can be especially helpful for those who would prefer to listen to them than to read the sheet-music notation.
This section of my newsletter is where I'll keep you informed of which transcriptions and exercises are available as MIDI files.
BTW, if you'd like my sheet music in a MIDI file, just let me know which one(s).
Here are the currently available MIDI files of my transcriptions, arrangements, and exercises:
MIDI Files of Rock & Pop Transcriptions:
MIDI Files of Exercises:
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If you're using a vintage synthesizer, please check out our synth patches here.
These are the most highly-organized and best-sounding synth patches available anywhere, guaranteed. Get the most out of your vintage hardware with these large patch libraries:
Ensoniq
Kawai
Korg
Roland
Yamaha
Even if you don't use the actual hardware synthesizers, there are software emulations that will allow you to play these patches on your computer, as VSTI's in your sequencer. These include:
Korg Legacy Digital Edition (for M1 & T1 synths)
Native Instruments FM8 (for DX7 synths)
Aurora FM (for DX7 & TX81Z synths)
SQ8L (for ESQ-1 synths)
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I've had the good fortune to have taught some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, and if you're serious about learning, I'll be happy to help you, too.
By means of Skype lessons (or in-person if you're in L.A.), I can coach you and help you to improve your technique, your rhythm, your ability to improvise, your knowledge of music theory, your sight-reading, and to develop relative pitch.
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- The Beach Boys
- Rod Stewart - All 'Unplugged' Concerts
- Ricky Nelson - Stone Canyon Band
And I've also won classical piano competitions performing Beethoven, Rubinstein and Saint-Saens' Piano Concerti. See me playing here. "Josie's Boogie" is quite the virtuoso dramatic minor-key showpiece; check out the ascending double-octave run at the ending... :)
Thanks to the internet, I can help you play piano better - rock or classical, by ear or by note.
Or if you live near the Hollywood Hills, I'll teach you in my home or yours.
1) Your musical background
2) Where you are currently, musically-speaking
3) Your musical goals
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My students include members of:
- Weezer (Rivers & Brian)
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Vampire Weekend (Ezra & newest addition, Greta)
- Incubus (Mike)
- The Strokes (Nick)
- Rooney (Robert)
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Jason Schwartzman (Mozart in the Jungle)
- Courteney Cox
- Pablo Dylan
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Los Angeles, CA
323-650-6602
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