Elmo Peeler Note-for-Note Piano Transcriptions | | | Dear Elmo, Let me introduce you to the home of the most accurate transcriptions of classic rock-and-roll keyboard parts available anywhere - note-for-note transcriptions of the piano and organ tracks for rock's most historic recordings - available in PDF format with an unconditional money-back guarantee. | | | | I'm a conservatory-trained (the Eastman School of Music) rock keyboardist/arranger, who has toured the world with three Hall-of-Fame artists: The Beach Boys, Rod Stewart, & Ricky Nelson. There are several ways I can help you: Please check out my website and continue reading this introductory letter, which has the same layout - similar sections - as my monthly newsletter. BTW, to make sure that my email doesn't end up in your Spam folder, please add me to your Contact list and/or mark my email as "Not Spam". Note that every Title Heading is clickable. | | ALL of the Sheet Music listed on my website has been personally transcribed by me, and guaranteed to be note-for-note perfect. Whether you: - have a cover band and want to get your keyboard parts exactly correct,
- are a professional who wants to study the styles of rock's greatest keyboard players, or
- are a hobbyist that wants to learn how to play pop/rock and great piano music,
...these note-for-note transcriptions will prove extremely helpful. | | And a few stories about The Beach Boys, Ricky Nelson & Rod Stewart | | Born and raised in the Mississippi delta, I began playing professionally in Mississippi juke-joints at age 14, won the Mississippi High School Piano Competition twice (Junior & Senior years), went to Eastman, then moved to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles (read more about my background here). Too busy to accept students during my touring years, after arranging/conducting/playing all of Rod Stewart's "UnPlugged" world tours, I began accepting a few students, including members of Weezer, Vampire Weekend, Incubus, and others. My students would often ask me to transcribe their favorite keyboard tracks for our lessons. In 2010 I began making those transcriptions available to the public on my website. | | Carl Wilson, Elmo Peeler & Brian Wilson | | Over 300 transcriptions are now available. And if you need anything transcribed that's not already on my list, let me know and I'll send you a free quote on the cost of creating it, with no obligation. My interest in transcribing keyboard parts began when I was fifteen and performing every weekend with my high school rock band, The Cavaliers. The local music store sold sheet music for pop/rock hits of the day, but it was never accurate. So I would painstakingly write out the correct parts for the hits of the day. Upon moving to L.A. I never played in cover bands again, but had the good fortune to tour with the actual hit-makers themselves. One of the first musicians to compliment my hearing was the legendary back-up singer (and former Raelette with Ray Charles) Clydie King, who nicknamed me "Dr. Ears". She even asked me to play organ at her wedding. Since at that time we were touring with songwriter Paul Williams, we chose, appropriately, "We've Only Just Begun" (Paul gave her away). | | Soon thereafter Carl Wilson invited me into the Beach Boys' rhythm section, playing synthesizers, B-3 organ, and their 9-foot Baldwin concert grand, which they carried from concert to concert. During a concert tour in London when we were rehearsing at Pinewood Studios, a legendary film studio, the large room was packed with the five Beach Boys themselves plus our large rhythm section and all the supporting crew. At one point Carl and the other four Beach Boys (Brian, Dennis, Mike & Al) were rehearsing a song that we were going to perform for the CBS Records convention. Hearing that Carl - who had the voice of an angel and usually right on pitch - I couldn't help but point out that he was singing a little flat. Immediately the entire room went quiet. Carl looked over at me, waited a few moments with a look of startled surprise on his face, and said "off key?". You could've heard a pin drop in the room during those moments... then, breaking into a large smile, still looking right at me, he said, "you're right!". Immediately the tension in the room dissipated, and everyone, including Carl, broke out into good-natured laughter. Apparently no one had ever had the temerity to call them on their pitch before, and I, still sort of 'green' in the "big time". hadn't known better. Thank goodness it was well-received by all. :) | | Several years later after leaving the Beach Boys and joining Ricky Nelson's Stone Canyon Band, Ricky asked me to pick out the piano parts for many of his own hit records (he had more Top 40 hits than any other artist of his time except for Elvis himself). Since one of my favorites was "Hello, Mary Lou", I carefully picked out the piano part. During rehearsal the part fit perfectly and added a lot to the rhythm section's performance of it. When we finished, Ricky walked over to the piano, where I proudly told him that I'd picked out the piano part just as it had been recorded. With an equally large smile he informed me that there was no piano on the record, that it was actually a tenor banjo, played by his father, Ozzie Nelson! The part really seemed to make the overall feel perfect, so we kept it - Ricky loved it. | | Rod Stewart & Elmo Peeler | | Then, years later, I found myself on tour with Rod Stewart, conducting/arranging the 21-piece "UnPlugged" orchestra. The stage was in the shape of a square, like a giant picture frame, and inside the square was the orchestra. Rod and the rhythm section musicians (which included Ian McLagan on B-3) stood on the stage, but for me, the conductor, a small square hole was cut into the stage, and I'd ascend and be visible to the audience only during the songs that used orch (about 12 of the 24 songs performed nightly). At some point in every concert Rod would introduce me to the audience, and I'd stand up in that "conductor's hole" and take a bow. Since the introduction didn't require me to actually step all the way up onto the stage, I'd usually take off my patent leather shoes (that went with the tuxedo) in order to be comfortable for the 2-hour performance. | | However, one night Rod asked me to step all the way up onto the stage for my Intro, and of course, noticed my sock feet - no shoes. He had a great sense of humor, and made light of it to the 20,000-person audience. Anticipating that Rod might do it again, the next day I went shopping for shoes - bright red female pumps. Although it was sort of difficult to find them in my size, one shoe store had them. At the concert that night, I sneaked the red pumps into my conductor's cubby-hole, and shortly before my introduction I put them on. Sure enough, Rod Introduced me and asked me to step up onto the stage again. When he saw me in my white-tie-and-tails, wearing my red low-heeled pumps, you could've knocked him over with a feather - he was stunned! Grinning broadly, in front of 20,000 fans, he whispered into my ear, "You set me up!" I just smiled right back at him and nodded my head - yes, I had indeed. It was one of the few times that anyone had gotten the last laugh with Rod! | | Most of my monthly newsletters contain stories about the players whose keyboard parts I've transcribed during the month, but I wanted to share a few stories about my own tours. If you'll sign-up for my monthly newsletter, on the first day of every month you can read about my newest transcription(s), my latest exercise and the human aspects of the great players I've transcribed. You'll never be spammed, and the list will never be shared with anyone. | | | | Normally, in my monthly newsletter, this is where my latest transcription(s) would be mentioned. However, for this introductory email, I'll just mention one of my personal favorites - Ian Stewart's "Key to the Highway". Although he played piano on many Rolling Stones' tracks - including "Honky Tonk Women", "Let It Bleed", "Brown Sugar", "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" - Ian Stewart, the founder of the Rolling Stones, had a special passion for boogie-woogie, and revered its giants: Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Meade 'Lux' Lewis. When he passed away unexpectedly in 1985 shortly after the end of recording the ten-track Dirty Work album, a hidden, untitled, uncredited eleventh track was included: Ian's solo piano old-style boogie-woogie version of the old classic, "Key to the Highway", which he'd recorded in 1964 at Chess Studios in Chicago. | | A New Challenging, Beneficial Exercise | | | | Normally, in my monthly newsletter, this is where my latest exercise would be mentioned. But for this introductory email, I'll just mention one of my exercises that is useful for those interested in several R&B/Gospel techniques used by Billy Preston and Richard Tee - my "R&B-Gospel Elements Exercise, incl. Substitutions". This 10-bar exercise demonstrates the two most important chord substitutions in R&B, gospel, rock and blues. Richard Tee used them so much they helped to define his sound. It also demonstrates how a "Hendrix chord" can be used instead of a regular dominant V7. And it shows how to set up a V7 chord by means of a flat-VI 9th chord. Plus, it further illustrates an important Left Hand Gospel pattern along with Billy Preston-style chordal walk-downs. | | If you want to learn more about Gospel & R&B, this exercise combines a lot of good, important elements into a 10-bar phrase - and it's a lot of fun to play. (BTW, if you need other good, effective technical exercises, pleases check out the other 81 exercises available.) | | Great Sounds & Highly Organized | | If you're using a vintage synthesizer, please check out our synth patches here. These are the most highly-organized and best-sounding synth patches available anywhere, guaranteed.
Even if you don't use the actual hardware synthesizers, there are software emulations that will allow you to play some of these patches on your computer, as VSTI's in your sequencer. These include:
Korg Legacy Digital Edition (for M1 & T1 synths) Native Instruments FM8 (for DX7 synths) Aurora FM (for DX7 & TX81Z synths) SQ8L (for ESQ-1 synths) | | During this pandemic many are having to stay at home more. It's a good time to pursue one's artistic passions and to put time into self-improvement. Whatever level you're on, I'll be happy to help you. By means of Skype lessons, I can coach you and help you to improve your technique, your rhythm, your knowledge of music theory, your sight-reading, and to develop relative pitch. | | - The Beach Boys
- Rod Stewart - All 'Unplugged' Concerts
- Ricky Nelson - Stone Canyon Band
And I've also won classical piano competitions performing Beethoven, Rubinstein and Saint-Saens' Piano Concerti. See me playing here. "Josie's Boogie" is quite the virtuoso dramatic minor-key showpiece; check out the ascending double-octave run at the ending... :) Thanks to the internet, I can help you play piano better - rock or classical, by ear or by note. Perhaps all you need is just an hour on Skype discussing rock keyboards. 1) Your musical background 2) Where you are currently, musically-speaking 3) Your musical goals | | | My students include members of: - Weezer (Rivers & Brian)
- Vampire Weekend (Ezra & newest addition, Greta)
- Incubus (Mike)
- The Strokes (Nick)
- Rooney (Robert)
- Jason Schwartzman (Mozart in the Jungle)
- Courteney Cox
- Pablo Dylan
| | | | Rivers Cuomo: "Brian and I both took piano lessons from the Beach Boys' touring keyboardist." Brian Bell: "Yeah, his name is Elmo Peeler and he just did a string arrangement for me. He used to play for the Beach Boys in the '70's and did all the Brian..." Rivers: "He has all these like, exact, perfect keyboard parts from all those old Brian Wilson songs and he taught them to us." Brian: "Yeah" Matt Pinfield: "That must've been fun." - Nationally-broadcast 2016 Radio Interview with Rivers Cuomo & Brian Bell of Weezer (to listen, click here) | | | | | I just can't put the words together to say how I feel. I guess I just want to say thank you for seeing something inside of me as a student. I feel like if I work hard, I have a chance... You are exactly the teacher that I dreamed of before you showed up. Hearing you play the Rachmaninoff piece... was so emotional for me... watching your beautiful hands dance all over the keyboard and the music touched me deeply. We are spreading my wings... Anyway Elmo, thanks... You feel like Yoda to me when I am in your presence. - Scott N. | | | | | Again - just a perfect transcription. Thank you so much.. I 'get' the solo now; the correct left-hand makes a big difference (as does getting the right-hand notes right!) and the fingering tips are very useful. I can't play it at full speed yet... but I'm working up to it.. it's so satisfying to see something that is just right in every detail. (and) I've just spent a glorious few days learning to play your transcription of Mean Woman Blues, and I don't think I've had so much fun at the piano in years. You are simply the best transcriber in the world, no question. - Mike T. | | | Los Angeles, CA 323-650-6602 | | | | | | | |
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