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Letter note-labels on sheet music can be extremely helpful, sometimes almost indispensable, to people who have limited music-reading experience, and/or have no access to a teacher, and/or have limited mobility, or learning hindrances of any kind.
This is an in-depth study of twelve blues licks, with extensive left-hand support tips. Each lick/riff is explored in detail, including variations, fingering, playing tips, and supporting music theory.
More than just learning the notes by rote, you will get insight into the patterns, scales, chords and intervals involved, including how to transpose each lick.
As a result, each lick will be mastered as RAW MATERIAL for endless variations, with applications in many musical settings (genres).
Lick #10 of this group is actually more than a lick; rather, it gives you a complete two-handed 12-bar opening groove, including a left-hand pattern to support your licks throughout your soloing.
Students can download and print optional sheet music for several of the licks. There’s also a sample solo piece with a 12-bar introduction, followed by a 12-bar piano solo that features licks from the class.
By Kent. D. Smith of Piano with Kent. (c) 2010. (c) 2021. All rights reserved.
Welcome Back!
Today we present Lick Number Five, which is formally called the “Ba-do-dee-you Bop” Lick. That is academic terminology right there, and you know that I did not make it up.
But seriously, about this name, which I obviously did make up: As with Lick #2, I named this lick with syllables that match each note of the pattern, so that you can sing the name of the lick as you play it, which is a really good way to get the feel of it. You might want to read the lesson description for Lick #2 for more insight on that singing idea.
Enjoy!
A VIDEO LESSON with KENT
Hey folks!
This is Kent Smith of ‘Piano With Kent.’
I’ve had lots of happy feedback about this lesson, ever since I first posted it on YouTube. People are basically saying that this is the easiest way they have found to learn the notes of all twelve major scales, quickly and painlessly. I learned about tetrachords in my college theory classes, and I have found them to be a little-known “secret” for organizing one’s thoughts about scales and modes. Let me know what you think!
A video blues tutorial describing a versatile lick pattern for jazz and blues piano.
This short jazzy series of chromatic notes, which I call the Flat-3 to 5, is a familiar expression in the Blues. This easy type of lick (you can alter the lick very easily) is heard in a trillion mainstream jazz and blues melodies, as well as in all related music, anything that has even a touch of Blues Inflection.
Which means, you could call this a cliché.
In the Blues, an improvising (lead) player might belt out a cliché, or ten, to explicitly let listeners know where they are: “You are in the Blues, thank you very much!” Any time you venture off into highly original blues territory, a cliché is a great place to come home to!
LESSON #7 – VIDEO TUTORIAL
VIDEO LESSON ~~ JAZZ IMPROV TUTORIAL ~~ JAZZ EXERCISES
As a result, the repeated act of mindfully (and not mindlessly) practicing this drill can increase your general facility with approach tones, as well as give you (possibly new) theoretical insights regarding chord-scale relationships.
This post is from Kent Smith, creator and instructor for the free video-based course called ‘A Study in Blues Piano‘, which is always available right here on ‘Piano With Kent.’
Good day to all students of jazz and blues improvisation, and to anyone else who’s curious!
Here’s a downloadable PDF file of sheet music covering Blues Piano Lick #10, for optional use with my course “A Study in Blues Piano” (all on this site).
This sheet is part of a supplemental collection I’m putting together, in response to recent requests! Stay tuned for more!
Cheers,
CHECK OUT OUR EXCLUSIVE SHEET MUSIC BELOW!
Continue reading “Sheet Music: Lick #10 from “A Study in Blues Piano””
Today’s post is taken from an online exchange between a YouTube follower of mine, and myself, regarding a question he had posted on one of my YouTube tutorials. The topic of discussion here is playing certain difficult chord-shapes on piano…
Continue reading “How to Play Difficult Chords on Piano or Keyboards”
How to Read Piano Music – Step One: Naming the Piano Keys
Here’s a musical overview of your piano keyboard, along with helpful hints for remembering the letter-note/note-names of the keys!
VIDEO
HEY!
CHECK OUT MY EXCLUSIVE SHEET MUSIC WITH NOTES AND LETTERS BELOW:
Continue reading “How to Find Your Way Across the Piano Keyboard Landscape”
Good day!
Today’s post is about using the first four notes of a blues scale as a moveable pattern, with many ear-catching possibilities that can fire up your solos in unexpected ways.
This “rock-bottom four” pattern, starting on any given note, can produce a wide variety of bluesy, funky, and jazzy sounds, when used in a context of your careful choosing, guided by your ear as the final judge.
This is a slide show, which is a common format that I use on my Instagram page, @piano_w_kent.
I have discovered that these types of posts seem to work well on my Instagram page, so I’m going to start featuring these here, too.
TODAY’S REMAINING SLIDES:
Continue reading “Jazz/Rock/Blues Soloing Tip: Using the ‘Rock-Bottom Four’ of the Blues Scale”
