“The Blues Piano Crash Course” Lesson #3: “Five Must-Know Riffing Devices”
Category: Blues Piano Lessons
“The Blues Piano Crash Course” Lesson #2: “A Left-hand Groove”
PREMIUM CONTENT (Lesson #3 is a free sample).
Welcome back!
If you’re going to play solo piano Blues, or you want to add a strong supporting groove to a band, then this lecture is for you. Learn to use your left hand to play a dance-able, foot-tapping chord rhythm, while freeing up your right hand to fire off licks and lay down supporting chords. (Later in this course, you’ll master the art of putting both hands together as a dynamic duo.)
PREMIUM CONTENT VIDEO LESSON:
Continue reading “The Blues Piano Crash Course” Lesson #2: “A Left-hand Groove”
“The Blues Piano Crash Course” Lesson #1 – The Blues Scale
Welcome to the Blues Piano Crash Course, Lesson One!
In this first of eleven Blues Piano lessons, discover how a simple 6-note scale — the famous “Blues Scale” — is a musician’s gold mine for creating original blues sounds. Immediately after this lecture, you can sit down at your piano and start creating bluesy licks and melodies that are all your own.
You may find it interesting to learn that a piano player who knows how to make nice licks, using only this C Blues Scale (the one introduced here), could technically sit in on a blues jam session in the key of C.
Here’s the video.
Continue reading “The Blues Piano Crash Course” Lesson #1 – The Blues Scale
Blues Piano Licks #1 and #2 from “A Study in Blues Piano — Focusing on 12 Licks”
Students of blues, pop, jazz, rock, et al:
This is the first lesson in my course, A Study in Blues Piano: Focusing on 12 Licks.
BLUES LICK #1: Energy
Lick #2, plus all the others, are available 24×7 to members of Piano With Kent (All-Access).
BLUES LICK #2: Da-boo-da, Boo-dee-ooo
Continue reading Blues Piano Licks #1 and #2 from “A Study in Blues Piano — Focusing on 12 Licks”
Do you need to read music to learn jazz or blues piano?
Wassup! Today I’m sharing my reply to a question from a student at Udemy.
STUDENT QUESTION:
Hi, Kent!
This is a two part question; first off, is there anything you recommend (videos, specific techniques, etc) to improve my sight-reading that won’t make me want to shout profanities?
I’ve Googled it obviously, but I’m curious about your opinion, as I enjoy your method of teaching.
Secondly, do you find skilled sight-reading necessary for jazz and blues? In other words, in your professional opinion, can I learn to be a proficient jazz and blues pianist without tackling my fear/hatred of sight-reading?
Continue reading Do you need to read music to learn jazz or blues piano?
Blues Piano Crash Course #9: The Melody Machine
Lesson #9 (video) “The Melody Machine”
This thing I like to call the “melody machine” is by no means a new technique for creating strong melodies. Singers, composers and improvisers have built melodies this way forever. In a nutshell, it’s a specific way of using the underlying chord progression as a “generator” of melodic material.
Sometimes this “melody generating” concept doesn’t get enough of a spotlight. By spotlight, I mean pointing it out and teaching it, in places where students can fully appreciate the power of the results.
So here’s a great place for that spotlight: the art and science of creating powerful blues licks!
Continue reading Blues Piano Crash Course #9: The Melody Machine
Learn about the Major pentatonic scale, and its cousin, the “Relative Minor” pentatonic (video lesson)
Dear Members:
Learn about the Major pentatonic scale, and its cousin, the “Relative Minor” pentatonic scale (a video lesson). The relationship between any major scale (or key) and its relative minor scale or key is explained here as well, in terms of traditional music theory.
A Nice Technique for Smoother Scales
“SMOOTHER-SOUNDING SCALES” introduces a simple technique for making your scale passages sound more EVEN; that is, with a more consistent loudness across all the notes. The technique involves deliberately accenting certain notes, then removing the accents. The final result is a more even sounding scale! Voila!
See ya soon!
