I grew up listening to Oscar. Saw him three times in concert, as a soloist and in a band, once on a show where he and Ella Fitzgerald had Ray Brown, Bobby Durham and Joe Pass as the band. He's the reason why I decided to become an improvising musician.

One thing I advocate in my lessons is tapping the left foot to keep time. Watch the Oscar Peterson video, His left foot is always going when he's playing a groove.

This gives each hand something to relate to besides the other hand, and gets your body involved in music-making. Playing with only your digits will never have the groove that body involvement will give you.

The left foot is important because, for a pianist like Oscar, the left hand is the time-keeper in the music. This is true for most Stick players as well.

For more on the importance of tapping your left foot, please see:

http://www.greghoward.com/free_hands/dvd/

I am nowhere near knowledgeable enough about music to even begin to understand how complicated this is. They sure have the "making it look easy" that is the hallmark of true masters.

Thanks so much for sharing. I'm hoping one day to be good enough to truly appreciate just how incredibly difficult is the music that they make look absolutely effortless.