I saw the Liberace video a while back. I was quite intimidated at first. Then I noticed that he was only playing a standard blues riff on the right hand so that took some of the "intimidation" out of me. Now the left hand....him playing in the Key of F. I'm thinking "well, you just keep practicing that left hand riff until you get it down solid." So what initially "intimidated" me, once analyzed, he's not doing anything more than what many blues players do.

Before you rush to defense mode. I was just trying to take some of the "intimidation" out for anyone else who feels that way after watching it.

By coincidence, I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully to date)to master that same left hand riff for six months now. Ever since I watched this video.



I have a good piano left hand, but this riff is something I just can’t conquer. So I’m not downplaying what Liberace did with it by any means.

For the record, I'm a big Liberace and Victor Borge fan. Heck I even steal some of Victor Borge's jokes. But they are both exceptional pianists when they need to be. You can tell a lot of practice was done over many years to get to that level. If I'm correct, Victor Borge was originally a concert pianist? And Liberace was just plain a child prodigy.

Something else....I’m not sure if this just applies to me or to anyone. I learned this from a solid month of acoustic piano shopping. I must have played on nearly 100 pianos between all of the stores around here. Here’s something very important I learned (for me!).

The better the piano, the better one plays. That translates to: I make all kinds of mistakes at home on my wimpy upright with it’s not-so-good “touch.” In the piano stores, I’ve played on quite a few grand pianos: Bosendorfer’s and Steinways and even a Fagioli. There’s something about the keys on these monster pianos that just seems to hold your hands in place.......hard to describe but I find I make absolutely NO mistakes when I play on the grands. And the huge sound you get from these grands inspires you to play better also.

Luca is playing that Swanee on a grand. I’m wondering how much the instrument lends itself to his playing and makes it easier for him. That video is ancient now. He turned out to be a fine boogie woogie player as he got older.