184 Old Folks

TEXT: [email protected]
TEXT: This is one of the tunes that seems to invite bluesy/gospelly kind of playing, especially at the end of each 8 bar section. There are some excellent piano versions around - including several by Oscar Peterson.
MARKER: On Gm7 & C7 neighbour tones on nmain chord tones
MARKER: Series of minor 11th voicings descending chromatically to Em7b5
MARKER: Series of notes in pairs fingered thumb and index finger to better accent appropriately
MARKER: On Am7b5 - D7alt an easy run Eb(3),G(5),Eb(3),C(2),A(1),Ab(3),G(1),Gb(3),F(2),E(1),Eb(3) etc
MARKER: Gospelly lick leads to G7
MARKER: Similar lick leads to C7
MARKER: Blues scale lick leads to F
MARKER: On Eb7 the half/whole step diminidhed scale
MARKER: Right and Left H ands in unison an octave apart
MARKER: On C7 half/whole steep diminished scale as above
MARKER: Line over C7 is made from chord tones 'surrounded' by upper and lower neighbour tones.
MARKER: In tempo with bass and drums
MARKER: On Gm7 - C7 main chord tones surrounded by diatonic neighbour tones
MARKER: On Em7b5 scale tones (E locrian=F Major scale) played with upper neighbour
MARKER: LH Piano plays on dominant with grace note - a la Oscar Peterson
MARKER: 'Locked hands' - chords in close position with top note doubled by L Hand below
MARKER: On C7 voicing moves up by minor 3rds
MARKER: Tremolo in RH
MARKER: 'A' section repeated by piano only
  • Path: Disklavier Jazz 2/184-Old Folks.mid
  • Size: 19 KB
  • Updated: February 10, 2026

Play (beta)

0:00 / --:--

Please note that this player is in Beta, and that it often does not play Yamaha XG format files correctly.

Instructions

If you have a Bluetooth-MIDI adapter installed in your Disklavier and are using an app (such as PianoStream), you can stream these MIDI files right from your Apple device to your piano.

Otherwise, you can put them on a USB stick. Files will be playable natively on newer Disklaviers, such as the Mark IV, E3, and ENSPIRE. You can see my Disklavier compatibility table to see which instruments support USB.

For older generations of Disklavier using floppy disks or Nalbantov USB emulators, see my article on converting MIDI files to E-SEQ and creating PIANODIR.FIL.

Read more about the former Kuhmann Directory (Disklavier World).