Is this guy playing an octave up?

[amc252]

Hello everybody,

Beginner here, need to clear up a doubt.
I was watching this video tutorial about the jazz standard Misty.

Looking at the music sheet above and the hands position on the keyboard, it seems to me that he is playing one octave above what's indicated in the sheet.

Am I wrong?

[perfect_pitch]

You are absolutely right... and I don't know why he's doing it.

[lelle]

Yes you are right, strange that he would do that without saying anything about it.

[amc252]

Thanks for clearing this up.
My only explanation is that, as I heard in a video by  Stu Harrison at Merriam Music, sometimes jazz pianists play the left hand an octave higher to not overlap with a bass player.
Of course, the pianist in the tutorial is playing alone, but maybe leaned toward the midrange without thinking about it.
Whatever the case, it was confusing at first.

[keypeg]

That part of it is sloppy teaching.  Why have notation at all if you're not going to play what's written - or not write what you plan to play?

[keypeg]

I just went through the video.  (The term "popular abridgment" is unfamiliar.)

I suppose that if you want to learn which notes to play by copying somebody's hand, and you can't read notes much, it might give you that part (either in the wrong octave, or in the right octave but written wrong).  In the "analysis" the chord explanations are incomplete which can lead to wrong understanding, and there is one error.  The chord at 3:55 is not a "minor C7" -- It is a C7.  Since this is a classical pianist, he is probably more familiar with Roman Numerals (dunno).

In introducing the first chord, he says that "every note can have its own scale".  There are many kinds of scales so I went "huh?".  If he is trying to say "major scale" it would still be wrong, since the 7th note of G major is F#, and he is pointing out the F (natural).

breaking down and correcting the "info"

The chords for the first part, in order, are:
G7, C(maj7), G7, C7, F(maj7)

In each case, the 3rd of the chord is left out, but we still can "hear" the whole chord in the same way that if I write "mny peopl like ths" you will mentally fill in what is expected.
G7 --- GBDF
C(maj7) - CEGB
C7 - CEGBb
F(maj7) - FACE

So he is using two kinds of "seventh chords" --- X7, and X(maj7).  The "X7" is also called the "dominant 7" chord, even though it doesn't always have the dominant function (don't worry about that part).

X7 or "dominant 7"  is a major chord topped by a note that is the interval of a minor 7th from the root.  Or you can say that it is a whole tone (or 2 piano keys) down from the octave.  So GBDF, the F is a whole tone down from the G octave.  The major 7th interval is a semitone away, and part of the G major scale.

X(maj7) is a major chord topped by a note that is a major 7th from the root. That is also the 7th that is in the major scale if you played up from the root note, and it's a semitone down from the octave.

He skirts around the problem by just saying something like "this chord".

----------------
I would NOT follow the "cookie cutter shape" suggested at 1:29.  Many self-taught students are those with poor non-observant teachers fall into the habit of a rigid pre-shaping of the hand.  Some of us fell into this and had to relearn (Dr. Mortensen has some excellent videos on this).  If you want to know how to move your hands, watch the beginning of the video where he plays through the piece and look for the relaxed fluid motion.

[keypeg]

You are absolutely right... and I don't know why he's doing it.

I think I just figured out why.  Think of how it would look if written as played.  Would you use the C clef for the LH, or use a bunch of ledger lines?  If students don't really know how to read much (the way he is pointing out almost every single piano key one might assume so) then the way presented might be the simplest appearance.

[amc252]

Thanks for the feedback.

I didn't actually use this tutorial, just checked it out cause Misty is a piece I was learning.
Apart the wrong example he gives, there are a couple of things a didn't like about this tutorial.
First there's the thumb over 2nd finger movement at the end of measure one. It seemed awkward and unnatural to me.
I came up with a finger substitution (2,1,2,1 instead of 1,2,1) myself, which was later confirmed by a teacher to be the best option.
Second, he just shows how to play the first part of Misty, and never bothered to post the second half.
It seems like a lack of commitment toward his followers.

[keypeg]

There are a few underlying things here probably.

- What's on YT is probably part of a lesson and series of lessons, so you're getting a fragment.

- He appears to be teaching toward a particular "target audience" (market) with particular attributes: maybe they don't read music and don't want to read music, want shortcuts and instant gratification.

The first time I ran into this person, he was teaching a series of lessons gratis on another site, over a course of quite a few months, at an intermediate-advanced level.  He taught good, solid, basic strategies.  Then he disappeared and came back on the same site teaching quick to learn Christmas songs at Christmas and such - the teaching was very different.  How you define your target students, goals of those students, what kinds of things they are willing to learn and you will teach them - that's the other picture.