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Tendonitis Heads Up

Unfortunately, the subject of how to cure tendinitis has been on my mind a lot lately since I have been playing music nonstop and have been experiencing some pain.While I was able to beat my tendinitis the first time around, this recent resurgence (among others in the past few years) made me very nervous and I decided to start a quest to find out how to get rid of it once and for all. There is still only one true way to ensure that you do not get tendon pain and problems: to do everything you possibly can to maintain and prevent the problems before they ever happen. If you’ve read my post about how you are an athlete than you know what I mean.

This time around I have discovered even more new ways to combat the problem of tendinitis. This is basically just a warm-up post to give you a heads up: in my next post, I will describe to you the new routine that I have been following which has led to what I would personally call miraculous results. Before I started following this routine, it often felt like tendinitis was similar to breaking out of a prison cell. It was like you had to be patient for years, constantly digging an inch more every day until you could finally escape. Sometimes, the guards would catch you before you could escape and you would have to start all over again. This new method that I have been following has led to the fastest recovery time I’ve ever experienced with my numerous bouts of tendinitis. I only hope that you can experience similar results! More soon!

Left Hand Technique: Taylor Eigsti

While I was at the Brubeck Institute, in Stockton, CA, I had the priviledge of working with a great young pianist, Taylor Eigsti. Taylor is one of my favorite people to study with and I go back to him for lessons whenever I feel in need of some inspiration. Whenever I feel bored with a subject, he instantly finds a way to challenge me. I have lots of great ideas and exercises that I will eventually get around to posting about that I have learned from Taylor, but I wanted to take a look at this video of him playing “Like Someone In Love.” You’ll notice that throughout the video he uses lots of great runs in his left hand to fill up space, acting as exciting, modern-sounding fills.


How to Sound Like Oscar Peterson

For all you jazz pianists out there, I’d like to point out a few simple techniques that Oscar Peterson commonly uses:

1. Bluesy licks – If you listen closely, you’ll notice that his lines characteristically have little bluesy inserts within them, or often at the very beginning. I would recommend transcribing some of these and playing them at the beginnings of your lines.

2. Arpeggiated lines – Oscar often plays quick arpeggios up simple chords. Listen carefully and you’ll notice this happening often in his improvisation. The best part is it’s not that hard to do once you practice it a little bit. For starters, try practicing a g minor triad arpeggio and running it quickly up and down the piano over a C7 chord.

3. Oscar regularly uses riffs and repeats them over and over to build tension and interact with the band.

Eventually I’ll post a video to give you a better idea of how these techniques work. See if you can pick out the different ways he uses the above techniques in this video of C Jam Blues:


Something else that you’ll notice is that Oscar had a very strong grasp of how to play like other pianists. In my opinion, the work you put into practicing the styles of those who came before you will contribute greatly to your ability to discover your own way of improvising. Notice who Oscar’s influences are in the video below. Oscar wouldn’t have had Brad Mehldau on his list, so by listening to Brad, you’re already developing your own style. I highly suggest you watch this video and think about what it means to you:


If you enjoyed reading this post, please go to the top right of the home page and follow the blog. Many more to come!

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