Beginner Blues for Piano - Part 1

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 D, you can play Eb of C, or repeat D again. But you can't jump to F or 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. Click here to listen to an example: 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.

Beginner Blues for Piano - Part 2

Still using the same four notes in the right hand as we used in Part 1, we're now going to add some left hand chords.

Questions & Answers

We're going to use two left hand chords, played close together so they're easy to find - but they still sound great! The chords are C major and F major:

Remember how in part 1 we tried to group the improvisation into phrases, based on the length of the left hand chord? We'll do the same here, but this time, try to think of the two chords as being a kind of question and answer session: Play the C chord Improvise above it in the right hand Change to the F chord Try to answer the first phrase Repeat

But what does 'answering' a phrase mean?

Think of any everyday argument or discussion. One side says one thing. The other side might : agree entirely - repeating the phrase exactly

agree almost entirely - repeating the phrase, but perhaps with a small alteration at the end agree with some parts and not others - copy one part of the phrase, and make the rest totally different agree, but amplify a point - extending the phrase by taking a detail and playing with it totally disagree - do something exactly the opposite

...and so on - there are lots of other possibilities of course. Click the play button to hear an example.

The Blues Scale

Now it's time to learn the remaining three notes of the blues scale:

Making a full blues scale as :

Play up and down the scale a few times and then try it with C and G in the left hand, as in part 1. Finally repeat the question and answer exercise, using the C and F chords and the full blues scale in the right hand. We're now ready to add some rhythm into the equasion - that's in Part 3

Beginner Blues for Piano - Part 3

In this lesson we're going to stay with the first 4 notes of the blues scales we used in Part 1, but now we're now going to add a bit of rhythm in the left hand. Listen to the midi example throughout the lesson to get a good idea of how things go, but remember, we're improvising! Above all have fun, enjoy playing around with the notes and don't be too scared of making mistakes!

The Left Hand Rhythm

The first part of our left hand rhythm consists of two two-note chords - CG and CA:

Against this the right hand play the first four notes of the blues scale - C Eb F and F#

A few tips: To begin with simply play nothing but quavers in the right hand, against the crotchets in the left. Once you have got the hang of this add a few spaces as in the midi example above remember what we learned in Part 2 about thinking in terms of questions and answers. On the whole, play neighbouring notes - don't do any big jumps for now, till you get more comfortable with the notes.

A bit of syncopation
To add a little more colour, the final step for this lesson is to add some syncopation to the

left hand. Syncopation means playing 'off the beat'. The left hand is stomping away 'on the beat', and the idea is to play some notes 'in the gaps' between the left hand note, instead of together with them. I find it's easier to pick this up by copying an example, so rather than explain things in detail, listen to the two midi clips below and then try to play in a similar style yourself.

Now here's a longer example - no notes, just listen, get a feel for it and then try yourself! That's is for this lesson. The final lesson in this series will look at building a full 12 bar blues progression.

Beginner Blues for Piano - Part 4

In the final lesson in this series we're going to build a 12 bar blues progression and, using the blues scale in the right hand, improvise over the top. Once you've cracked it, its no exaggeration to say that these simple ingredients can provide you with a lifetime of pleasure! Following on from the improvisation we did in Part 3, the next step is to use the whole of the blues scale (learned in Part 2) in the right hand in our improvisation. It might sound something like this:

Now it's time to forget the right hand for the moment and look at what's going on in the bass. To create our 12 bar blues progression we are going to need two more left hand positions. One on F:

and up a tone to G:

The 12 bar blues progression

Now it's time to put it all together. The basic twelve bar blues follows a 12 bar chord progression as follows: C-C-C-C-F-F-C-C-G-F-C-C 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10- 11- 12 You remember the first left hand rhythm we learned, using a CG - CF pair in the left hand? Well TWO such pair corresponds to the a bar - or to ONE letter C in this progression. Similarly, 2 pairs on the F chords correspond to a letter F, and the same for G. So here's how the overall left hand pattern will look.

The final step - have you guessed yet - is to improvise using the full blues scale whilst playing this progression. The hardest thing about this you may find is remembering to change the left hand pattern at the right point. There's no easy secret to this, other than that old chestnut - practice! Play the progression over and over again until it's really in your blood before even trying to add the right hand. You could also start by just playing one or two notes in the right hand before adding other notes later. Here's an example of an entire 12 bar improvisation:

Where to go from here.

Once you're comfortable with the right hand, try moving beyond the octave up the keys - using the same scale of course. This adds a massive range of colour to the improvisation and should make your blues really start to sound professional Look into variations on the blues pattern. Using a G instead of the last C is a good way to build into the start of the next 12bar Always try to keep a sense of phrasing - questions and answers. Don't be afraid to leave large gaps in the melody, while the left hand chugs on - this can be very effective.