Sam Ash piano-keyboard nite in Phoenix AZ -Akil, Nikil, Ryan

piano samash akil ode to joy

piano andantino nikil

piano samash nikil barcarolle

piano samash ryan largo

piano samash ryan offenbach

piano samash akil yellow rose of texas

piano I'm walkin rick:dor:ash

Yellow Rose of Texas played by Akil

I'm Walkin' - Rick 'n Dorothy Show - at Sam Ash Soundstage

Over the Rainbow on piano by Dorothy at Sam Ash Piano Night

Jabin plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Mozart

Helen plays Ode to Joy by Beethoven

Nathan plays Merrily We Roll Along

At this point, I'm not sure about the origin of "Merrily We Roll Along" but my own reference point as a child is the Loony Tunes Cartoon introduction as follows-- which is quite good and incorporates the song.

Nathan plays Beautiful Brown Eyes at Sam Ash Piano nite.

Juan plays "Aire" from Surprise Symphony by Joseph Haydn

Rick Potvin does Elton John's Daniel & Yellow brick road on piano at Sam Ash Music.

If you haven't heard Elton John's Yellow Brick Road Album, it's now Youtubed... so here's Daniel, first-- then Yellow Brick Road... by the man himself then my shortened piano stage version at Sam Ash. I kind of replace Daniel with my brother Kevin in this song-- in my mind. My brother Kevin was a 15 minute Andy Warhol star in Canada in 2007, but I didn't realize it till about 2013.  KEVIN you're a star! The red tail lights are Kevin wavin goodbye. Goodbye Kev. Must be the beer in my eyes.



Now Yellow Brick Road...


Okay so here's a mini-tribute to those tunes and Elton John done on Sam Ash stage in Phoenix just with straight piano for now.

Rick does Frank Mill's Music Box Dancer at Sam Ash piano nite.

Here's the original studio recording of Frank Mills version-- which was really pretty fantastic because it was delicate AND pop rhythm at the same time. It has a chorus in the background which I  can't replicate at this time but the stop time in the band is easy. 

When I did this, I plum forgot to go an octave higher. I realized it too late but tried to correct later. 

Rick's Take Five on the Yamaha E433 keyboard at Sam Ash

This 1972 updated version of Brubeck's 1957 hit Take 5 with Paul Desmond on sax runs quick with improvization I can't match but its fun to try. There seems to be an actual score in the fake books but what's done here is much more. The 5/4 time is still fairly unique and never caught on... and still too tricky but doable.


Here I get my blue light-- and refer to my glasses-- which I need to read music not memorized. Brubeck used glasses with heavy rims. The natural health industry now says unfocused vision can be corrected with lens muscle training. I might try that again or take a high does of Lutein and Vitamin A in a formular for vision. For now, light weight rimless glasses are part of my equipment-- just like a power supply or music rack. My improv section includes piano as well as saxophone. I'm not particularly great  in 5/4 and lost my way a few times but got through it.

Rick uses vocalizer with Let it Be to simulate group of singers.

Paul McCartney uses a slightly updated new vocal arrangement in this 2010 performance of Let it Be. The chorus in the background is mostly oohs and ahs-- not the lyrics of the chorus. There is a newer harder rock edge later in the song too.


In this cover, I merely attempt to simulate the chorus in the background by multiplying my voice a major third higher. The lighting wasn't what I wanted but we're still working with the Sam Ash crew on that. I didn't bother using the Yamaha keyboard to simulate the band but I might do that later.

Dorothy plays Bye Bye Blues with authentic banjo style on Yamaha E433.

Instrumental voices on keyboards require different styling techniques to imitate the original acoustic instrument. Here we see Dorothy do Bye Bye Blues using a Dixie style and and authentic banjo strum in the right hand.

Clouds by David Gates ("Bread")

Listen for the I - I+5 - I6 piano pattern repeating every verse.


 I was reminded of Clouds by David Gates this afternoon because the sky in Phoenix was full of big white puffy clouds as it always is this time of year--- fantastic puffy white cumulus clouds all over the place. I found the song on trusty Youtube then got inspired to take a video montage of some of the clouds I watched-- but of course video can't do them real justice. Still, it's an attempt. Once I captured that, I went to iTunes to see what music I could apply to it on iMovie and found a copy of Cowboy Strut. I bave no idea what the copyright implications are at this point but I guess with Youtubes automatic robot music copyright infraction finder, I'll be notified soon if there's a problem. If there is, I'll do my own version of Cowboy Strut and upload it with this video. Here it is with a shot borrowed from Google pic search of Phoenix skyview at the very end. I haven't been making videos but maybe I'll start. Piano lessons applied to videos might be very interesting to do and teach.

I've decided to do my own version of Clouds by David Gates... with piano and possible vocal which is less likely to be a problem for Youtube copyright robots, especially if I interpret it liberally. As soon as I do-- over the next day or two-- I'll delete the CowboyStrut in the video above and replace it with Clouds covered by me.

Here's the video of me doing Clouds


More on this tune in the discussion at this link-
Rick Potvin | Piano Lessons in Phoenix, Arizona: CLOUDS - David Gates-- full suite

Mr. Blue Sky

Dvorak's Largo played by Akil

Nate plays "Rock Song" and "Love Somebody"

Nikil plays Beautiful Brown Eyes