I have vivid memories back when I was about 4 or 5 years old hearing the music and magic of pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi with the Peanuts animated cartoon specials back in the early 1970’s.
Usually starting in the Fall, there would be commercials on TV that would advertise an upcoming Peanuts special: It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, A Charlie Brown Christmas or in the case of Easter, it was It’s the GREAT Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!
And with the animated specials came all of the commercials for Dolly Madison baked goods. Dolly Madison was the sponsor of the specials.
I became completely captivated by Vince’s jazz attitudes in the Peanuts specials. I have always loved jazz, funk, fusion from the the age of 2. This was an early experience connecting art, animation, and music into a single medium. It provided an incredible creative medium that helped me appreciate them and eventually aim to imitate all of them throughout my professional career.
It was pure genius tho mix jazz and animation, along with the Peanuts characters. It’s a timeless combination, though the 70’s has some downright funky and psychedelic scores by Vince and his band. He started integrating synthesizers along with piano and clavinet, plus fender rhodes and wurlitzer at any given point. His keyboard textural color pallette was truly a product of the time and his musical sensibilities, which was pure genius.
I had tried to learn Linus and Lucy, one if his most well known songs, over the years. I never really learned it correctly and kind of half assed it to be “good enough”, but definitely not accurate whatsoever.
So, in December of 2025, my friend Kendall from Kendall Brown and The Earthtones, one of the two bands I currently play with had an idea of learning it along with Christmas Time Is Here, debut and play both at an upcoming 2025 Christmas show and our last show for the year.
I had an opportunity to really nail both, so I sat down and watched tutorials on how to play both of them not for note, chord for chord. I literally worked on just the left hand then just the right hand then eventually combining them, just as I did when I was first learning the piano.
A good friend named Chris Holt, who just so happens to have been The Eagles second guitarist right next to Joe Walsh, told me many years ago that the key to playing Linus and Lucy correctly will just happen – it will just somehow “click” and then you have learned how to get it to work with both hands.
He’s was right. Both parts are two different rhythms that dovetail into one another, but you have to feel it and then let the muscle memory take over to be able to actually do it.
I spent two solid weeks working on both pieces. It took me 4 days alone just to get the two hands to play together correctly for Linus and Lucy.
But, it finally sounded just like both pieces and I figured out how to play Linus and Lucy with both hands perfectly.
The only thing is that because of the key of the original is in a higher register to sing, we had to transpose it down a whole step, which changes the key and changes to the overall vibe of the song so it feels different. Personally, the original key is where it is at and works the best.
The other thing that I got out of this challenge was an understanding about composition. I was amazed at the lush chords that both hands create when playing together. basically each hand plays notes that connect with the other hand to create these 8 fingered chords that have a wonderful sound to them. I never play or think like that when I play. If it happens, it is purely by intuition and muscle memory and shows up.
After all of these years of playing and hundreds of concerts under my belt – both personally watching and also professionally playing, I am still learning new things that I never knew to know. And I am open to learning MORE new things to improve my playing, knowledge of music, the history of music and the musicians and what made them unique.
