Roger Bennett on SG piano/bass combo
I found this on YouTube as part of a video on southern gospel piano playing (I’m not sure of the original source, so if anyone has this video or is familiar with it, feel free to post the name of it). It’s an interesting lesson in what I call the “SG piano/bass combo.” In it, Roger Bennett (with help from Scott Fowler) explains the oddity of playing piano with a bass player.
This is quite an enlightening clip, especially for those who think that to play in a group that relies so heavily on piano, one must have amazing keyboard skills. As Roger demonstrates, for much of the song, he is doing nothing but playing off-beat chords. That’s not to take away from Roger’s abilities – he states himself that he used to get frustrated trying to get accustomed to such playing habits.
I’ll admit, I have a hard enough time playing chords with my left hand, let alone playing a straight rhythm pattern on the offbeats with it. I never had any formal training, though, so perhaps I’m lacking in an area that most pianists are completely comfortable; that, and I’ve never yet had to play with a bass player!!
[...] David Bruce Murray offers interesting thoughts here. [...]
There used to be a couple of SG piano courses advertised in the classified section of the Singing News. I seem to recall that one specified that it was a video course. Could this clip be from that course?
That is from the Raintree course that Larry Polston had years ago. It was interesting to see the different artists and their approach, but not real detailed as I recall in really getting into meat. I seem to recall Anthony Burger on there talking about when he was young asking a pianist to show him how he die something, and the pianist would not help him. He went on to say that he and everyone on that vidoe he was sure would help any way they can and that the pianist who had turned him down either wasn’t around anymore or at least on the video and at least intimated that it was because they had been selfish and kept their talents to themselves.
I believe Jeff Stice went on to say that he didn’t mind showing people licks he discovered and figured God would just give him new ones.
The more I think about it, the Raintree was also by Larry Polston, but was a cassette and book course. The video I think was a separate offering and might have been called Keyed Up, but I am not sure. The things I mentioned above still apply to the best of my memory though.
I found this. It looks like it is called Sharing Notes. I recognize the cover. I believe the other video was performances by the same group (or a lot of them) at the same session that the instructional videos were made, and didn’t have any lessons.
http://www.larrypolston.com/pianovideos.html