Learn How to play Blues Piano – Get an overview of this musical style. Once you know the basics of playing the piano, perhaps the next step would be to try to familiarize yourself with the various styles of music, which you can play on the Piano. And what better than learning to play Blues on the Piano!
Do you know how to play the blues scale on the piano? How about the 12 bar Blues progression? Even if you’re not, sooner or later, you’ll know about it as the ‘Blues’ scale is considered to be the basic scale on which most other style of music can be played.
The blues scale forms the base for many different styles of music so it is important that you are aware of it. This free blues piano lesson will give you a glimpse of the basic stuff and then you can build up on it, as you get more comfortable with the blues scale. Here, I will be taking you through the 12 bar blues and also throw in some riffs to go along.
Why Learn to Play Blues?
In fact, Blues forms the basis for many other styles of music; it even has its own scale, known as the Blues scale. The blues scale is an important scale to learn as it is practically used in almost any style of music. Jazz, Rock, Boogie Woogie, Country you can find the use of this scale almost everywhere.
Knowing the blues scale will also help you to play some interesting piano-riffs!
What is 12 Bar Blues?
The 12-bar blues is what you will need to learn initially when you start learning Blues Piano. 12 bar blues is nothing but three chords played in a fixed order for 12 bars.
Read more about the 12-bar blues here.
Using your Lefty
Play the octave notes with the left hand, using your first and fifth fingers. So for C chord, you can use the 2 fingers to play the C notes which are one octave apart.
Using your Right hand
You play the melody with your right hand; of course you can play chords too but most of the time it is going to be melody. You already know the notes of the blues scale so as you maintain a steady beat with your left hand, just play some notes to form a melody. Of course it needs to sound bluesy!
Characteristics
Here are some of the skills that you will need, if you want to know how to play blues Piano. You will need to incorporate them in your playing to make it sound bluesy!
- Blues Scale: You need to learn this scale! You may find it a bit awkward initially after having played the major / minor scales.
- 12-bar form: You need to play chords in a specific order for 12 bars. Here’s a video showing how to play the 12 Bar Blues on Piano.
- Shuffle Rhythm: Play chords in a delayed manner.
- Grace Notes: Use extra notes besides your main melody notes.
- Major / Minor chords: Use Major and Minor chords.
Here’s a nice video that shows how to play Blues on Piano.
How to Play the Blues Scale
The Blues Scale is an important scale to learn once you have become comfortable with the Piano/Keyboard. Once you are comfortable playing the beginner lessons and understand the major/minor scales pick up the blues scale for exploring.
Structure of a Blues scale
The Blues scale is different from the major/minor scales in the sense that there are very few notes in this scale. Besides, the distance between the first two notes is one and a half step. Then there are three notes, which are chromatic. So, if you compare it with major/minor scales, the Blues scale would look weird to a beginner. But once you practice it and get used to it, it will be fun to play with.
The Blues scale based on the C key would look as follows.
C Eb F F# G Bb C
What about the fingering?
Normally, you play the blues scale with only the right hand and play chords with your left hand. So using the right hand, you can keep the thumb for the white keys and the third finger for the black keys.
Chord Progressions
A blues song can be defined in terms of the number of bars or measures used, more common ones being:
- The 12-bar blues
- 8-bar and 16-bar schemes
In terms of what chord progressions to use, there are a couple of ways to proceed:
- Standard I-IV-V chord progression
- Use of flatted thirds, fifths and sevenths (known as the blue notes)
So, blues is heavily dependent on the pentatonic scale, and can be written in either a major or minor key.
Recommended Books to Learn Blues Piano
Top books to learn blues piano. The 12 bar Blues progression and the Blues scale are also explained in these books, to refresh your memory.
100 Ultimate Blues Riffs for Piano/Keyboards
This best selling book, 100 Ultimate Blues Riffs by Andrew Gordon is a comprehensive guide to some of the best musical phrases that make up blues piano / keyboard playing. There are five sections broken down into: Basic Blues riffs. R&B influenced Blues riffs. Boogie Woogie. Rock influenced Blues riffs. Gospel influenced Blues riffs.
To help you better learn (and use) these riffs, the book includes two completed songs that demonstrates how to combine many of these riffs to form a song.
Now even you can learn how your favorite Blues keyboardists play, including Dr. John, Leon Russell, Chuck Leavell, Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, Otis Spann, Nicky Hopkins and many more!
Improvising Blues Piano
The ‘Blues’ scale is the basic scale on which most other style of music can be played. So you must learn it.
And if you’re looking for resources to further enhance you skills on Blues piano, the
Improvising Blues Piano book is something that you should seriously consider buying.
The basic principles of blues piano explained for the intermediate-level pianist in an easy-to-grasp fashion.
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