LinnProvising Lesson 1 - (LinnStrument tutorial)

[@oyajiru]

I appreciate this a lot. Starting simple, yet still musically makes a world of difference. Can't wait for the next one!

[@reckon104]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@rosssafronoff2083]

Thank you, I am very excited about your offering. I am your target audience -- new musician, first instrument, and reading my first music theory book. I like the highly constrained approach and the bite size content. Thanks for showing the cords being performed with either hand, that helps since I am practicing what I learn with both hands.

[@reckon104]

Welcome aboard Ross! I am so happy you find this approach helpful. I look forward to taking this journey with you!

[@monch1962]

Thanks Steve. I appreciate you starting out with the absolute basics, then working up from there. Fun times ahead with this series!

[@reckon104]

Great to have you along for the ride David.

[@colognialist1964]

im new to linnstrument... lot of work to come.. thanks for the lessons, sir

[@johanwk]

I just got a Linnstrument, so I'm a complete beginner. Having followed this video, I will definitely watch the rest of the series and try to practice with your advice on how to approach the instrument. It feels like a case of incredible luck :) Thank you very much!

[@reckon104]

You're very welcome Johan! I hope you find them useful.

[@AlexDainiak]

Thank you a lot for your effort! I think that this is an extremely important event for the Linnstrument players community indeed! I have been waiting for a looong time for tutorials/methods to appear, but so far seems that only Jeff Moen had published his method online. There are quite a lot of videos with sound design/drone focus or about connecting the Linnstrument to fancy hardware, but so few videos where Linnstrumentalists actually share their melodic/chord playing techniques and improvisational approaches. Have been keeping your video of “Two-handed concepts for the Linnstrument” in my favourites and really happy that you’ve found time for a whole series of tutorials. Expecting yours and Fountain’s tutorials to be a treasure trove for my development as a player. I think it would benefit you both if you cross-link each other right in your videos’ descriptions.

[@reckon104]

Thanks so much Alex. The link with Fontaine is a great idea. Maybe just a link to his channel with an explanation that he is doing education videos as well. Also, Roger does have a tutorial playlist, maybe a link to that makes sense. Anyway, thanks again!

[@bcchannel6938]

Thanks for your commitment and great teaching.Looking forward to more...

[@reckon104]

You are very welcome!

[@wmichaelf]

First, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge on this. I stumbled across your 'Dry Heat' vid and promptly went and pulled my Linnstrument out from storage. I've been using the 'Velocity Keyboard' app on my iPad (running into my DAW/VST's). The big drawback to that is that you don't have any tactile feedback on where you're at on the keyboard ... so you have to watch the keys all the time ... but it has served me well for quite a while. I'm going to give the Linnstrument another chance based on your demo. Thanks again.

[@reckon104]

Hey Michael, thanks for watching. Just so you know, "Dry Heat" is Fontaine Burnett's video and he is also doing some instructional videos which you should definitely check out if you haven't already.

[@HouseOfSpheres]

Hey, thanks for this series. I know Jeff Moen had begun posting his tutorials online, but it’s nice to have even more tutorials out there. I’ve been playing guitar for 27 years now and have long been looking to expand into keyboard-like sounds, since my piano technique is lousy. I picked up a Linnstrument last year and recently picked up a Ztar Z7S, and I often find myself juggling both at the same time because I simply haven’t yet grown comfortable with reorienting my left hand in the axis appropriate to play the Linnstrument as a lap/tabletop keyboard. This will be helpful for opening some doors that way.

[@reckon104]

Hope you find it helpful Shane. It's probably a bit basic for someone with your experience, but it will get more interesting as it goes along and more suitable for more experienced musicians. Thanks for the feedback.

[@jazcan]

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I have a piano background (classical) and purchased the Linnstrument last fall because of its amazing expressiveness. The difficult part for me is getting used to the layout & learning the chord locations & fingerings. I’m also looking forward to learning your improvisational techniques. I can play the piano with my eyes closed & hopefully will be able to do the same with the Linnstrument someday. I’ve subscribed to both your & Fontaine’s videos which will definitely help me learn & master this amazing instrument.

[@reckon104]

You're very welcome! I hope you find it helpful. So far it's pretty basic stuff, so for you it may be a bit limited in terms what you're likely to get from them and probably Fontaine's will be of more benefit for you. But it'll start to get more interesting soon. Best of luck on your journey. It really is a fun and rewarding instrument to get into.

[@jazcan]

@@reckon104 I actually find it quite challenging. The fingerings are more like guitar which takes some getting used to. Practising chording and putting each finger down in position at the same time. The one advantage over guitar is that I’m not getting calluses on my fingertips …at least not yet 😂

[@tricordertransmissions1442]

Steve you have an innate talent for teaching. Its clear you have a plan for how you are going to progress the people who are learning from this video and that really shows how you want to share your talent with others - thank you for that! I'm very excited for more in this series as I wait for my Linnstrument to arrive.

[@reckon104]

Thanks so much for the very kind words!

[@arpadandrassy481]

Thank you for starting this course. I really hope it will become a excelent learning reference for Linnstrument players

[@reckon104]

I hope so too! Thanks for watching.

[@askdjfle]

Thank you! I’m looking forward to the next episode. There’s several possible fingerings for a major chord even ignoring inversions and so on. I’m curious if you ever those alternate fingerings. I’m also curious if you recommend using different colors for certain notes. For instance it seems useful to make the C and G in a C scale each be different colors than the rest instead of just making the C note a larger circle.

[@reckon104]

Thanks for watching. So, as far as the first question goes, yes, I use many different fingerings and over time this course will cover them all. But this approach is about "constraint and mastery" before moving on. But it will gradually open way up. Also, as far as the lights go, in this course, we will actually be going the other direction in that at a certain point we will turn off every light except "c" (and it doesn't matter that it's "c", that's just a reference point) because I my formulation the key thing is to know where you are relative to the tonal center and in some ways too many lights can be a distraction. I will explain this clearly as we move on. Thanks again for watching!

[@Ind3xs]

Very nice. Ill be following along.

[@reckon104]

Glad to have you along for the ride!

[@PatternMusic]

Thanks Stephen. I'm working through this, and I'm optimistic. I tend to take on too much too fast. And then I don't retain any of it. Or else I put myself in too advanced a class where I don't have the coordination skills or experience to keep up. This seems about right. I might add that anything you can do to make the technical stuff clear from the beginning would be super helpful. (Even a low-tech paper diagrams written with a sharpie or a dry-erase board helps.) With this lesson I immediately went back and made four diagrams each with the two rows of five boxes with the notes and the fingers for each hand. e.g. C-Major (C-G-E) Left: [ ][ ][G-2][ ][ ] [C-4][ ][ ][ ][E-T]

[@reckon104]

Thanks for watching. I wouldn't get too hung up on the number of the notes (like c-4), you can really play them anywhere and it's just a matter of taste in terms of how high or low you want either hand to sound. The key is just getting used to how the notes relate to each other. I think this will become clear as the lessons progress.

[@sujoybose77]

Thanks a lot to come up with this tutorial series. I was looking for such content. I am facing challenge to play Arp with left hand and melody with right hand. Chord is something I somehow manage to play with left hand. But it's the arp (left) and melody(right) combo that's giving me some trouble Hope you will cover that in future.

[@reckon104]

That kind of thing will be a bit down the road. Thanks for watching.

[@user-kx5fs9jy1g]

This is great. Do you happen to offer remote lessons?

[@reckon104]

Thanks so much for the positive feedback. I am not offering lessons, but I believe Fontaine Burnett may be. You couldn't possibly do wrong with him.

[@catoninetails789]

What synthesizer do you use here? Can you recommend some synthesizers that are good for chordal playing?

[@reckon104]

So sorry for the late answer. If you're still interested it's the acoustic samples tines library.

[@dragonfly_bry]

Awesome work man! Fontaine is the truth too 😂

[@reckon104]

Thanks so much. And I absolutely agree, no one is more truthful in the LinnStrument world than Mr. Burnett!