Improvising the blues on the piano is
a lot easier than you might think. It's a great way for beginners to
sound very cool, without having to be as good as Oscar Peterson.
If you're just browsing, scroll to the bottom of this page and listen to
the midi file example to get an idea of what this lesson is
about.
In this lesson we'll introduce some neat blues ideas to get you started.
Assumed knowledge:
A basic idea of where the
notes names are on the piano.
Some ability to read
music, at least in the treble clef.
So let's get going!
The 4 Note Blues
Learn the blues scale and you're half way
to playing the blues. We're going to introduce the first four notes of
it now, played in the right hand. Use the fingering as shown:
The first stage is to improvise around
these notes. If you're not familiar with improvising don't panic!
It's really not such a big deal. Try following these two rules for now :
You can change direction
whenever you like, and repeat notes as often as you like - but do
not skip a note. For example, if you're on Eb, you can play F or C,
or repeat Eb again. But you can't jump to F#.
Try to vary the speed and
the changes of direction. Make what you play unpredictable.
Once you've practised the
right hand by itself a bit, add a C and a G in the left hand as shown:
Try playing the left hand notes, then a long phrase using the four right
hand notes. Once the left hand has faded away, play it again and start a
new phrase in the right hand.
That's a great first step towards learning the blues on the piano. I
recommend spending a while getting used to the notes and experimenting
with the possibilities.
