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Tips and practice on two-handed coordination for piano, using notes from the blues!
Continue reading “The Blues Piano Crash Course – Lesson #5 “Put Your Hands Together””
FREE SAMPLE LESSON
The Blues Piano tradition is full of tried-and-true “stock” licks, as well as many devices for creating endless original solos.
In this lecture, you will learn to use five such “must-know” riffing devices.
FREE LESSON:
Continue reading ““The Blues Piano Crash Course” Lesson #3: “Five Must-Know Riffing Devices””
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””
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.
Continue reading ““The Blues Piano Crash Course” Lesson #1 – The Blues Scale”
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.
Lick #2, plus all the others, are available 24×7 to members of Piano With Kent (All-Access).
Continue reading “Blues Piano Licks #1 and #2 from “A Study in Blues Piano — Focusing on 12 Licks””
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?”
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.
“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!