Davell Crawford
Pianist, vocalist, composer, and arranger, Davell Crawford is acclaimed as the “Piano Prince of New Orleans” and Gospel is at the heart of everything that he does.
May 17 · 2021
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Seminar Description
Seminar Description
In this live seminar we discuss the slow blues style. Davell will share some tips, ticks, and techniques to improve your slow blues performance.
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Slow Blues Workshop
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The sound quality on this seminar recording is so bad I couldn’t listen to it. Can this be fixed?
Hi Wendy,
Apologies for the poor sound quality…. it should have been tested properly beforehand by the camera man.
I will make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future.
Cheers,
Hayden
Thanks so much Davell, want more of this!! Piano sound a bit rough, but the content FANTASTIC !
Wow! I could spend a year just practicing the instructional gold between 24:49 and 30:35 on this lesson. Thank you very much for this lesson. Have always wanted to know the nuances of a Slow Blues.
This guy’s good!
This is a great lesson, will have to watch over and over to absorb this knowledge of playing the blues- “FEELING” 🙂
Great seminar. Particularly the IV–>I combinations with the accent on the IV. A light-bulb moment. I read somewhere that you can keep going in soul and gospel with the iv of the IV on to the IV of the IV of the IV and so on although I’m not sure which context it can be used in.
Hayden he plays better then he teaches. How bout You learn this and teach it to us?
Cheers my teacher. 🙂
Hi Glenn,
Yes I am planning to record some blues lessons in 2023. It’s a style that I have been working on this year and I can definitely share some tips and insights.
On a related note, you might like to check out my course “Bluesy Stride For Beginners” – https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/bluesy-stride-piano-beginners/
We use the tune Georgia On My Mind and explore lots of bluesy embellishments.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hey Glenn. I’m not sure if you are still here and I’m new here, but this is Davell Crawford!!!! 🙂
Hayden. I love that Slow blues in Dfritin. Please cover and teach this song, exactly how he’s doing it. It sounds so good, and I want to learn the techniques that he is using.
Thanks a bundle. BTW, I learned Georgia….I took me 5 days. 🙂
Cheers,
Glenn
Hi Glenn,
Yes I will get started on this when I have finished my in-progress course on the tune “In A Sentimental Mood”.
I just thought a lesson that you will enjoy is the following:
https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/12-8-feel-for-slow-blues/
When playing the slow blues, we most often feel an underlying 12/8 pulse. Try counting and feeling this pulse when playing Georgia, and also when playing with the blues form. You can also try counting the 12/8 pulse when listening to Davell’s demonstration and that should give you some insight into how he is feeling the underlying time and where he is accenting and adding fills.
In the interim I will get started planning a slow blues course and I’ll get this published for you asap.
Cheers,
Hayden
Man, you are the best. i am in NY, but next time I visit London, I would like to take you and your favorite person to dinner.
Cheers,
Glenn
I am struggling to see what notes he is playing. There is no graphic of a piano (not sure the official name for that) and I don’t see any downloads that would help with the voicings. Is there another class that discusses voicings that I should watch first?
Hi Randall 👋
Welcome to PianoGroove!
Yes we have a dedicated course on slow blues piano here: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/slow-blues-piano-for-beginners/ – this course covers the exact style played in this seminar.
Please check out that course and it should be exactly what you are looking for.
Let me know if I can help further and enjoy the lessons.
Talk soon,
Hayden
Hey Hayden. I think I might have jumped into a course that was NOT intended to be followed note-by-note, yet the more I watched the more I learned even though I’m probably missing the voicings so far. Listening to Mr. Davell talk about “feeling” while showing how he coveys that. Priceless.
How could you possibly blame me for jumping into this one when I saw it was led by Sugar Boy’s grandson? 🙂
This leads me to tell you what an amazing site this is. Bringing together these amazing artists to teach . . . I think this will be the best money I spend in 2024.
Hi Randall,
I’m really glad to hear that you are enjoying the website and the learning materials.
I think it’s a great idea to follow your interests on the site and choose the lessons and seminars that appeal to you!
I agree Davell’s performances and demonstrations are wonderful. The seminars with davell were coordinated remotely during Covid and as a result the visual and audio quality suffered, but this is an insightful seminar none-the-less.
If you check out the link I posted above, that course walks step-by-step through the slow blues style including voicings, bass line patterns, and turnarounds. The course was actually inspired by Davell’s seminar here and so you will see a lot of the same material but broken down in a step-by-step format.
I recommend to study that course to learn the voicings, fills, and progressions, and play along with Davell’s performance to absorb the feel and phrasing.
Enjoy the lessons!
Talk soon,
Hayden