Joanne Brackeen Teaches Herself to Play the Piano

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TEACHING HERSELF HOW TO PLAY THE PIANO [:89] NOW, A JAZZ MOMENT Thou Swell under
  1. JAZZ MASTER JOANNE BRACKEEN TOOK TO THE PIANO LIKE A MOTH TO A FLAME.
Joanne Brackeen: I remember sitting at this piano and just playing the notes and saying, “Oh, wow. This is the easiest thing in the world. These notes all go up. These go down. I could do anything on the piano. I just remember thinking that.”
  1. MUCH SO, SHE TAUGHT HERSELF HOW TO TRANSCRIBE MUSIC.
Joanne Brackeen: Somehow, we got two of these records. Frankie Carle and His Girlfriends. Frankie Carle and his Girlfriends up, under, fade into Curved Space at end Frankie Carle is a piano player that maybe one of his favorite piano players was Fats Waller, and then Carmen Cavallaro. I liked Frankie Carle better. So, every time my parents would go shopping (you had to go out for everything). I would put on the record player. Piano’s in the same room. Every note that the record player played, I played, and I wrote it in there, you know? And so, six months later, I could play the piano.

THIS JAZZ MOMENT WITH JOANNE BRACKEEN WAS CREATED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.

“Thou Swell” composed by Rodgers and Hart and performed by Joanne Brackeen, from Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Volume 1, used courtesy of Concord Music and by permission of WB Music Corp/Lorenz Hart Pub, ASCAP. “Wrap Your Troubles in a Dream” written by Harry Barris and performed by Frankie Carle from Frankie Carlie at the Piano – The Golden Touch, used courtesy of Jazzology and by permission of Shapiro Bernstein and Co, Inc. ASCAP. “Curved Space” composed and performed by Joanne Brackeen, from Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Volume 1, used courtesy of Concord Music and by permission of New True Illusion, BMI.

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