Jerry Lee Lewis style country piano tutorial with solo

* Take note - solo ideas begin at 10.30 for those of you comfortable with comping in country style piano.
Nick Tosches insightfully wrote that Jerry Lee Lewis swapped the music of sin (rock'n'roll) for the music of guilt (country). The aptly named Killer made some great records in the country idiom while retaining the flair that marked his trail-blazing early rock material. This tutorial centres around a later cut, "Thirty-Nine and Holding" on the Elektra label. The chords are typical for country - in the key of G with the 4 and 5 as well as 2-5-1 measures including the A7. Take note of the run ups and run downs in the left hand that enhance the emotive qualities of the song. The solo features many signature motifs of the Jerry Lee style: scale runs, riffs in sixths with tremolos, glissandos, liberal smatterings of suspended 2nd chords and blues type turnarounds. Watch Terry's playing as he varies it each time. Get these chops down and you can literally play thousands of country tunes. Enjoy!

[@spo-dee-o-dee5399]

Just a note on this channel. I am a player learning these songs like most of you. I lived in London for a number of years and Terry Miles was my piano teacher. The videos on this channel are lessons I filmed and edited and Terry generously allowed me to upload to share with you all. I am currently back in the UK doing more blues, boogie and country tutorials with him and will post them in the coming months. To clarify I pay for Terry's services as he is a professional teacher and musician, however I choose what I want to learn/practice. If you want to learn a specific song I strongly urge you to get in touch via his KZbin account (Terry Miles). He's also got some fantastic DVDs he has made and I am encouraging him to do a country piano one. Let him know you appreciate his work. As much as the appeal of free tutorials seems a given he is a guy who needs to pay the bills. My small contribution I do because I love the music and know how hard it is to find truly talented mentors. Thanks for all the great comments and keep playing. Best, Julian

[@johnwalker1474]

Spo-dee-o-dee many thanks for posting these videos Julian. They have been a great help! I have invested in some of Terrys tutorials which I can highly recommend to anyone else interested in learning this style of piano playing. I’ve also found Terrys friend Dr K’s (Brendan Kavanagh) channel to be a great help. All the best John

[@angelirenecrim3500]

This is awesome and I have a few of Terry's video He's wonderful also !!!!! Thank You It seems as if EVERY time I think i'll play some today Something puts a stop to IT Thank You for this Video

[@Hs3u39]

Thanks!

[@general_ahab]

one of best jerry lee lewis tutorials yet...ive seen thanks a lot!

[@casie6871]

I’m just loving your natural speaking accent and the JLL singing. 😁

[@mcdonaldsprotienpowder1375]

I like the sound of that piano

[@frankprial2580]

Tell could you keep it slow for the older learners rhan

[@LHC-hs3ib]

1:18 with automatic subtitles: „so Allah the bomba“😂

[@LHC-hs3ib]

Esteban Elijah no, you got it, nobody cares at all

[@stillbill3018]

This guy is a good music teacher for beginners , dang good! The style is what I like, it's got soul!

[@SjaakShirly6559]

Makes me happy to see and listen to this!

[@MatheusDinizsr]

I just found this channel and it's already one of my favorites

[@glasgow757]

Thankyou for uploading this ... Terry Miles is fantastic.... Very kind of you both to share

[@johngovern8792]

Yes I watched the whole video! Very good presentation! You the man! Thank you so much

[@hbbeverly]

Wow, this is the best tutorial I've ever seen on how to play Lewis style! I've tried since 1968 to teach myself, but in the end you need somebody like yourself to crack the code, so to speak. Many thanks to you for doing this - maybe it's not too late for me to play afterall!

[@hbbeverly]

+Spo-dee-o-dee And many thanks to you for the extra link my friend! Happy Holidays to you, and a prosperous New Year!

[@msbeckyleigh]

Thank you so much. This has been the most helpful piano tutorial I have ever seen. Feels like I've seen the light. It's such a fun song to play. Thank you again. I made a breakthrough learning this song :-)

[@devilsonfera2310]

Apesar de não entender nada que na teoria,mas na prática é nota mil😂

[@kevo3985]

I'm saving this and will learn this song it's one of my favorites thanks for the toturial

[@s1mon1983]

Wonderful video,thanks a lot!

[@biancaleigh3d]

Superb lesson, Thanks...

[@vansullivan236]

Great, thanks!

[@KalElvis]

Love this instructor! Great video

[@pedroseco4293]

Excelente!!!..muchas gracias por este tutorial, se aprende rmuchisimo tenicas que sirven para otras canciones también

[@marisamacc]

Wonderful tutorial! Thank you

[@LyleMorgan-en2kx]

Thank you Spo-Dee-o-dee

[@belindajardim3145]

I really enjoyed this piano tutorial (iv never heard this b4), loved all different things u showed, trills etc😍🎶🎹

[@lasht2monyon]

I've just found out you do this channel Terry, You're a real star, thanks for all your videos,

[@adamwhite5553]

Thanks very much for this very helpful and clear lesson. It's great how you explain the concepts in the solo as there are so many classic country licks that you can get a lot of mileage from once you're used to them. And the verse and chorus use simple ideas but are very effective in playing all manner of similar progressions. Best wishes 🙂

[@jasper007s5]

way over my head. maybe, some day. enjoyed it. thanks

[@PIANOSTYLE100]

Jasper007 S please read all of this will take just a few minutes and copy and paste it for future references.do you read music not absolutely necessary but I think I can help here.. every process is a combination of little processes. boogie style is easy to play if you start slow like real slow get the finger coordination and timing built up. you can start with two fingers chords on the right like ce. then go down two octaves on the left with the left hand play a c note , then chord on right then e on left, then chord on right, then note g on left base side, then chord on right side, then note a then chord then b flat then chord start slow. now do everything in reverse. it's kind of a rinse and repeat thing. now b uild up your speed. there are three different chords and this if the first of the twelve bar blues in boogie style which Jerry did often.

[@jasper007s5]

Thank you. I'm giving it a good try. Thanks for your time

[@sonoffrettkillr]

Would love to see a Jerry Lee style version of I'll Fly Away

[@PIANOSTYLE100]

Todd Emrick I teach that on piano style100 it's not professionally made and not specifically Jerry Lee style.. I don't have anybody holding the camera. again if you check it out I apologise for the pix quality.

[@trishtv8310]

Hello there.....I am a novice player who knows chords, and so far have been exploring thim with songs like Purple Rain and Yellow Brick Road and that sort of thing...but I wanted to be able to play country too and blues and scales and how to solo and all that...so i saw your video here and went for it. This is my first time using scales, soloing, etc. Playing the bass and rhythm with the left, changing over, etc.....I have been working on this all week, and this is day four and I am doing great. I just wanted to say thank you and you have a viewer here that wants to see more more more!!!!!! God Bless YOU!!!!!

[@timothythornburgh5614]

Terry is a great teacher

[@andrews2171]

If I was the swearing type, I would say that I f-ing love this lesson!

[@paulwilliams8763]

beautifully made simple. thanks so much. wish I knew about this like twenty yesrs ago lol. Anyway not late I am learning.

[@paulhipp]

Wow! SO Great!! Thanks very much!!

[@jansenrsouza]

Very nice video! Helps me a lot!

[@Lazarett]

It sounds like a Lucky Luke song . I'll try it on the piano soon .Thank you very much !

[@tailcoatsixkiller]

you are my new hero. down here in ol' Tex we call that boogie-woogehhh!!! my new hero after Warren z and The Killa of course. i just cant thank you enough. i mean it. Cheers!!!!

[@teresaayers9733]

I hope that you keep teaching piano i love this hope you teach how to play in all the chords

[@RobertSlover]

lovely thanks mate!

[@d4rl4nd75]

Great job man.

[@devilsonfera2310]

Muito obrigado já faz um tempo que eu estou procurando um vídeo assim já me inscrevi no seu canal,e espero mais vídeos assim, obrigado que Deus te abençoe

[@kamronrhodes5151]

R.I.P. Jerry Lee lewis

[@Vegan_Vampire]

good. helped me.

[@PIANOSTYLE100]

kind of a Floyd Cramer lick thrown in I like that..

[@bikesound2]

Hope you post some more songs

[@PIANOSTYLE100]

never did hear he extra g before. do you happen to have a PDF.. I play mostly by ear but I'm trying to even that out.

[@spo-dee-o-dee5399]

This was pretty much done off the cuff so no PDF I'm afraid. Thanks for the positive comments

[@eduardogabriel1999]

I finally found the G spot my girlfriend fucking told me about!

[@flexmasterant]

Can you do JLL over the rainbow??? 😁

[@georgedavis9943]

Dude. Awesome tutorial and excellent video. Thank you!!

[@tailcoatsixkiller]

any suggestions on how to play Goodnight Irene? i can hear it but i cant make my damn fingers do it.

[@auryperezgonzalez9220]

Que bien me gusta .mucho la música americana muy bien

[@docholiday1360]

I have very short fingers and can barely reach an octave G chord like you do, let alone break it up smoothly. Any tips people? Thanks for the video though, it's incredibly informative, I've been trying to imitate the country ballad style JLL does and this video kind of cracked the code, as hbbeverly stated earlier.

[@tailcoatsixkiller]

+Doc Holiday you just said it. i have a similar problem and i'd encourage you to consider the immortal words of David Allan Coe...JUST THE TIP! meaning what i have had to do is teach my five finger to hit the note with it hangin off the edge of the key. keep trying!

[@docholiday1360]

tailcoatsixkiller Thanks for the reassurance that it is possible! I will be working on my 5th finger a lot, for sure :)

[@tailcoatsixkiller]

No problem! I'm tellin ya it is totally possible..my little finger is just BARELY hittin the very edge of that octave key. . But with practice it learns to press it firmly enough that no one but Me looking at it would ever notice!

[@PIANOSTYLE100]

Doc Holiday this is an old post but you can use two fingers to play blues you can play a standard base with left hand and use two fingers to play the bflat and the dflat and crush those to fall down to the white keys b and d then c and e then then d and f..

[@docholiday1360]

Hey pianostyle100, thanks for the tip! I've gotten better at stretching to those big octave chords since my comment but will definitely try your method.

[@TonyRush]

Great video. You've captured the classic sound of Jerry Lee. The only thing I would disagree on is the use of a dominant 7 when playing the C chord. Classic country music rarely uses a dominant 7th, even in passing. It sounds great. It's just not a pure country sound. I'm fairly certain that Jerry Lee's original arrangement used a straight C chord. I could be wrong.

[@spo-dee-o-dee5399]

I hear you Tony and yes, traditional country tends to stick to straight chords, however, I would never call JLL a "traditionalist" and his playing, including country, is always a hybrid of blues/gospel/rock/boogie where the dominant 7th is more prominent. Also see the work of his great progenitor, Moon Mullican. More generally playing the 7ths helps with setting up the chord changes, which is where I like to use them

[@rogercrouse6069]

very very good....you are a nice guy to post these... thank you very much...!!does he do any ELTON jOHN TUTORIALS?

[@grantheron4595]

Do you think we should all go back to the acoustic piano after all cherry Lee Lewis and the rest of them always pretty well played on a acoustic piano

[@leperedeamir5353]

Bonjour le nom de la chanson

[@thebloodye]

Is this Terry miles?

[@carson3746]

Anyone have a website to suggest that has good Jerry Lee Lewis Sheet music along with the midi file? Thanks to Spo-dee-o-dee for your video on JLL!

[@ZHStudios2000]

can you do a video of crazy arms solo

[@spo-dee-o-dee5399]

+Zhutch14 There are plenty of videos of Crazy Arms out there. I recommend 12keys version (search Jerry Lee Lewis country/boogie style), whose solo is pretty close to the original. What I am trying to suggest with this video is that you can use these kit bag of riffs to work with any country tune. You could also contact Terry Miles directly if you wanted to pay for a tutorial. And watch all the live versions by JLL. Keep playing it Killer style, but make it your own.

[@ZHStudios2000]

+Spo-dee-o-dee can you make a solo lesson of That lucky old sun by Jerry Lee Lewis

[@elisahabetdaryati1456]

Terimakasih

[@PIANOSTYLE100]

anytime run into a problem I'll try to help you do you read music at all . I play guitar also and they are related.

[@gerechtsdeurwaarderpeter6311]

What is he playing in the left hand during the solo

[@rcrewe3733]

@@gerechtsdeurwaarderpeter6311 , It seems he's doing basic triads by hitting the root note first with his pinky and then the 3rd and 5th notes together. I need to practice the triad chords more with my left hand.

[@devilsonfera2310]

Na teoria não entendi nada,mas na prática é nota mil 😂

[@mozaratlasse9705]

✌👍👏👏👏

[@stephenlaitman96]

Love it. Where can I buy the music sheets?

[@fakamatalamai69]

I have one piano I still confused bro

[@MateosSwing]

Tune de piano please!

[@angelirenecrim3500]

If you can not say something nice just keep your mouth shut

[@MateosSwing]

Sorry

[@albkhar4036]

Thanks. Can you share a tutorial on type for runs for western style hymns - (Its Jesus and me)

[@Jack-hy1zq]

tune the piano!!

[@williamjohnson1264]

Really liked this video! I play a lot of those notes already 'cause I play some counrty-style piano, stuff,like last date by Floyd Cramer and some boogie and three Scott Joplin rags. But this is great, it'll enhance some of my own stuff!, Thanks for the video,I think I'll subscribe!!

[@zyxmyk]

thanks. very helpful.

[@RanBlakePiano]

Maybe better. Less talking we have visual and aural that is fine photo s Still nice video

[@alexazam41198]

That Sounds more like Jonny Cash haha

[@dey462]

To fast for bigining

[@joseperes777]

Very nice ....but tune the piano 🤣🤣🤣

[@duffpogisymbianize7377]

Deactivate you youtube account! shameful !

[@vardenispavardenis260]

Thanks!!!