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Homepage for the online blues piano lessons series titled


"Blues for Piano and Keyboard"
Have a hankering to play the blues? The piano lessons in this site start very simply,
but by the time the advanced chapters roll around, we'll work through college level
techniques on the keyboard!
Note: Everything in this blues course builds on our original piano lessons course
titled "Pattern Piano and Keyboard".
Learn to play the blues and you'll be able to incorporate your skills into many
other styles, including:
Gospel Music, Rock and Roll, Worship Music, Black Gospel Music, Country Music,
Jazz, Folk Music
Ready to dig in? Lots of stuff to chomp on in this site - enjoy!
Partial transcript below:

Blues Piano Lessons Course Introduction through Chapter 3

This is the course introduction to chapter three taken from Blues for Piano and
Keyboard
Gospel, Rock and roll, Country or Jazz: what do they have in common?
Each one of these styles draws heavily on elements of the Blues. In fact if you
want to become a great player of gospel, rock and roll, country or jazz you've got to
first master the blues.

In this piano lessons chapter we are going to explore


the form of the blues as well as some of the basic
chord structures and patterns that give the blues
their distinctive flavor.
Welcome to Blues for Piano and Keyboard!
Gospel, Rock and Roll, Country and Jazz music all find their roots in the "I'm so
lonesome I could cry" blues. Everyone knows when they hear music with the blues
flavor, whether it's Black Gospel, straight up Rock and Roll, Rockin' Country or
Swingin Jazz... but very few musicians are able to produce this kind of music on
the piano. You certainly can't learn to impart a bit of the blues to your piano music
by reading it from a page... at least not very convincingly.
In fact the best way to learn to play piano blues is to hang out with someone who's
playing the blues - you can look over their shoulder and steal their blues riffs, tips
and techniques. All these things really bring this style to life. You know that's
exactly what I hope to give you through this blues piano lessons course.

Everything in this blues course builds on our original piano


lessons course titled Pattern Piano and Keyboard. This
piano course starts from the ground up, assumes that
you've never played piano before, but then it quickly
progresses through college level musical techniques.

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)

If you're brand new to music or if you already playing and you'd like to learn to play
piano or keyboard by ear, check that course out.
The first thing we need to do is look at the form of the blues
Maybe you've heard of the 12 bar blues? This means that there are 12 measures
or bars that repeat over and over. Within each of these 12 bars are measures with
four beats.
In the upcoming blues piano lesson chapters there's lots and lots of video zoomed
in close to the piano level where you can see the details of what each hand and
finger are doing. But at this point in the first chapter we're not quite ready yet to
look at specific chords are notes.
Instead we're looking at an overview of the 12 bar blues form. In fact, you can see
it there on the screen: 12 bars or measures, each containing one chord. To help
you keep track of where we are in the 12 bar blues, just follow the circle. It will
follow along with what I'm playing on the piano.

One final thought before we play through the 12 bar


blues on the pianoI want you not to be too concerned about what notes I'm playing at this Point. I just
want you to get a sense for the overall form of the blues. Are you ready?
[video: playing through the 12-bar piano blues]
There's some pretty funky stuff there - hang on, because in the piano lesson
chapters ahead, we are really going to dig into this blues style and figure out how
to bring it to life on the piano.
In the next clip you'll hear me talk about fifths, sixths and sevenths. If you went
through our original course, you already know how fifths, sixths and sevenths are
built, but just to be sure, let's do a quick refresher.
How do we build a fifth?
For the sake of practice let's say we want to build a fifth in the scale of C major.
Starting on the root of the C major scale - count up five notes in the scale of C.
It's easy to count up five notes in the scale of C - after all they're all white notes.
However if you understand the first 20 minutes of our original course titled pattern
piano and keyboard, you'll understand very clearly how to build a fifth in any key or
scale.

Now that you know what fifths are let's use them to build a simple foundation for
the blues. Look at the blue box again - the 12 bar blues - for each chord I'm going
to play a fifth built on that chord and then hold it for four beats. Here we go...
[video: playing through the 12 bar piano blues]
Now we're just at the foundational stages at this point - don't be afraid to review
that as many times as you need to so that you'll get a really solid foundation. Then
move on.
In the last audio clip I played a fifth for each chord and then I held it for four beats
like this...
[piano lessons video]
Now we are going to build on that foundation using sixths and sevenths.
To make a sixth, simply count one note higher than the fifth. But this is super
important - count up one note in the scale of the chord that you playing.
Here's where it can seem to get a little complicated. Depending on the scale of the
chord that you're playing that sixth can be a black note, or a white note.
But don't worry, there's a very simple trick that will allow you to find the right note:
In our original piano lesson course, we looked at how all major scales are a simple
pattern of half steps and whole steps. Because of that, some scales look radically
different: For instance, C Major has no black notes while A major has three black
notes. However, they're all based on the same simple pattern of half steps, and
whole steps. Here's the trick: if you learn to use this pattern you'll be able to quickly
find any note no matter what key you're in... Make sure you get the original course.
We'll also be using the dominant seventh chord. The dominant seventh is the
bread and butter chord of the blues and it's the number one spice that you'll use as
you learn to cook up a nice tasty the batch of the blues.
The dominant seventh chord is a different beast. Don't worry about what key you're
in - simply find the sixth and then go to the very next note higher.
Remember some dominant seventh notes will be black notes and some will be
white. Just remember to go to the very next note up from the sixth no matter what
key you're in.
Now are going to use the fifth, sixth and seventh in each measure. On the first beat
we'll play a fifth just like we did in the last example. On the second beat I'll stretch
my hand up a little higher to play a sixth, and on the third beat I'll stretch my hand

out a little more to play a dominant seventh. On the fourth beat of each measure I'll
come back down and play a sixth.
So for the entire first measure of the 12 bar blues where the chord is C it sounds
like this - all four beats..
[piano lessons video here]
So far it's pretty simple but it's solid. This is the left hand foundation that will pull
everything together.
The next thing that we're going to do is build on this left hand foundation...
To continue with this online audio and video piano lessons demo, go to the top of
this page and click the next button.

Blues Piano Lessons Course Chapters 4 and 5


Partial transcript below:
This is chapters four and five taken from "Blues for Piano and Keyboard".
Ahh... you've got your left hand working, now let's work on your right hand.

Guess what? We're going to use our old buddies again fifths, sixths and sevenths. This time however, the
dominant seventh is going to be on the bottom.
I can hear you say "What? The Dominant 7th can't be on the bottom can it?"
Of course it can - for instance the dominant seventh of C Major is a B flat, but there
are lots of B flats on the piano. With your right hand simply play any old B flat with
your thumb and then play the third and the fifth of C major above that.
You've got to get used to the notion that you can spread the notes of a chord out
anywhere you want on the piano. This is what's meant by that term "voicing" a
chord. In our original piano lessons course titled Pattern Piano and Keyboard, we
studied how you can take the notes of any chord and then voice them on the piano.
Then we learned to play these voicings as Rhythmic Patterns - effectively giving
you a powerful music vocabulary that you can use to play any song by ear!

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
Let me cover one more bit - you'll hear me talk about a piano blues trick that
involves sliding a chord from minor to major. Now I know I say this a lot, but if you
went through our original Piano Lessons course, you would know how to change a
chord for minor to major.

Here it is: to change a chord from minor to major simply


raise the third of the chord step or move it up to the
very next note.
Let's begin with the first chord in the blues which is C. Now we're going to do a
"chord voicing" - we're going to put the dominant seventh on the bottom, then using
your thumb, (or rather using my thumb... I'm hoping you using your own thumb!)
I'm bypassing the root of the chord which is C Instead I'll jump right up to the third
and fifth.
So this is really an incomplete voicing at this point, but the left hand will be playing
a C. That's one of the great things about learning to voice chords - they get opened
up and they have much fuller sounds as you spread those notes around on the
piano.
So we've got this nice right hand voicing, minus the root, but like I said, the left
hand's going to pick the slack up. It's going to play the root down here. Look at this
nice open voicing - this is how you get really are rich sounds out of the piano.
Typically that C chord with the seventh would be played like this and... no
disrespect to that... there are many occasions where you want to do that, but this
isn't one of them.
We'll use a nice open chord voicing - when you add what we've learned in the last
blues piano lessons chapter, you already have the sound of the blues. You might
be able to get a gig just doing this, but don't do that yet! I've got some more blues
piano lesson ideas to give you!
Now let's add some more spice - we've got the foundations and we want to add
some of the spice that really makes it come alive.
Let's take a look at that first chord C Major again - now I'm tossing the seventh at
this point. I'm just going back to C triad and playing the third and fifth. Since you
went through Pattern Piano and Keyboard you know the difference between C and
C minor is - just the difference of 1/2 step on the third.

Just remember when you say C minor that the word


minor only relates to the third of the chord. The
same goes for C7 or C minor 7. It's just a
difference of the half step on the third of the
piano chord.
Here's what I'm going to have you do now: every time we play chord in the 12 bar
blues, I'm going to have you first play it's minor version (like Cm7) and then using

the same finger, just slide that third up 1/2 step to C7. It's a very simple technique.
Here's what it looks like if you played it over F7...
[ piano lessons video here ]
It's exactly the same over G7...
[ piano lessons video here ]
Now we're going to use this very simple piano lessons technique and play through
the 12 bar blues again. You'll be amazed how this simple little minor to major slide
suddenly brings real life and character to the music...
[ piano lessons video here ]
That's a nice little blues trick!
Now we're going to put it all together: some left hand rhythm with some Yum Yum
right hand spice!
In the upcoming piano lessons video you'll hear me referring to whole steps and
half steps. Whole steps and half steps are the main building blocks of scale and
chord construction.
For a more in-depth study of whole steps and half steps, go through the course
titled Pattern Piano and Keyboard
One last bit of music trivia - in the upcoming video you'll hear me talk about moving
one of the blues riffs up an octave. For more detailed studies in octaves and other
foundational musical techniques, you really need to go through the course titled "
Pattern Piano and Keyboard".
Let's move on now to a piano blues riff that's been tried and true down through the
years. It's built on everything we've learned so far. Here it is...
[ piano lessons video here ]

Now since you're a fan of the blues I know that you've


heard that piano riff maybe a million times in jazz
music, blues music, gospel and country music. Let's
study how to play it...
Simply play the first chord voicing of C that we learned, then the top note goes up a
whole step, the middle note goes up 1/2 step, the bottom note goes up a whole
step, then all of the notes slide back to their original positions.

The whole thing sounds like this [ piano lessons video here ]
Note that in the illustration I have the top note going up a whole step, the middle
note going up 1/2 step, the bottom note going up a whole step, and then back. This
all happens within the first four beats of C like this...
Now if you want to go deeper and have an in-depth study of how all these whole
steps and half steps come together to create chords so that you understand how
music itself is constructed, dig into the online piano lessons course titled Pattern
Piano and Keyboard.
I know that I keep talking about that, but I'm really not ashamed of the advertising
because it's been so very helpful to literally hundreds of thousands of piano lesson
students around the world.
In this chapter we're dealing with the right hand primarily, but just in case you want
to push the envelope a little bit with both your hands, I want to throw you a little
extra bone for your left hand...
In the last chapter we dealt with playing fifths, sixths and sevenths for each beat of
the 12 bar blues. Do you notice my Pinkie is repeating that note every time? And
that's how I taught it to you.
That's a great way to start with a left hand but if you want to throw in something
more, you can do what I do a lot - it's called the rhythmic kicker. Check this out...
[ piano lessons video here ]
Do you see how the index finger is throwing in that extra note in between each
beat? The pinky is just sitting and holding. So you've got a couple different options
now in your left hand, but remember - you don't have to throw the new rhythmic
kicker in right away.
OK or write let's go back to what we're studying in this chapter - this is a new right
hand blues riff and we'll play it through the 12 bar blues starting on C.
To continue with this online audio and video piano lessons demo, go to the top of
this page and click the next button.

Blues Piano Lessons Course Chapter 6, Section 1


Transcript from this piano lesson below:
This is Chapter 6 Part One of Two From "Blues for Piano and Keyboard", online
Piano Lessons.
Welcome back! Today we are going to expand on some of the blues riffs that we
learned already.
Now blues riffs are just groups of notes that sound cool together on the piano. Like
this:
[ piano lessons video here ]
Let's get started. So far, we've learned a blues riff that sounds like this... <<riff
here>> Remember that? If you don't, you can review any of the previous chapters
at http://www.playpianotoday.com/blues
We're going to move on now. We're going to learn a new blues riff and call it "Blues
Riff #2". Here it is again, lower.

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
[ piano lessons video here ]
Now here's where it's really begins to sound fantastic... when you alternate Riff #1
with Riff #2. Can you hear that?... Riff #1, Riff #2, Riff#1, followed by 2.
Yeah, just back and forth. It's mighty fine. Alright.

Here's some more now.


<<riff demo>>
Ok, let's get started on this piano lesson.
Now at the end of that little piece, I played a long blues riff: <<sound>> that sounds
like it's probably pretty tough to play. But guess what, it's not. It's actually very
simple. We're going to learn something in this chapter, Chapter Six, that's a
component of that big, long, bluesy riff. And then, in Chapter 8, we're going to put it
all together and you're going to be able to play exactly what I did. So get ready,
there's lots of stuff to dig into here.
To begin with, let's learn how to play this new blues riff, Riff #2.
[ piano lessons video here ]
Now, do you remember the very first right hand riff that I taught you?
[ piano lessons video here ]
Now sometimes, I play this riff up high on the keyboard, and sometimes, down low
- just depending on whatever chord I happen to be playing at that particular
moment.
For instance, when I played this riff over the C Chord, I played it right here
<<sound>> and then I played it higher for F, <<sound>> then I played it a little
higher yet, for G <<sound>> ... just depending whatever chord I happen to be
playing at that particular moment.
Now this new riff, Blues Riff #2, is what's called a static riff. That means it never
moves. You always play it in the same spot on the keyboard.
Now I know you are wondering, how could that be possibly be interesting? Playing
the same thing in the same spot. Here's the secret, this new riff, it's only played by
the right hand. So it keeps hammering the same thing in exactly in the same spot.
But the left hand keeps moving to a different chord in the blues and because the
static riffs works with all those chords, you got a new flavor every time you play a
new chord on the piano.
It's incredible! Now the reason sounds so cool, and reason that it works overall, is
because this static riff is based on the blues scale. Now that's a super! super!
important point. I'll talk to you about it more in the upcoming chapters.

But for now, listen to a sample of the right hand playing the static riff in the exact
same spot on the keyboard while the left hand moves through different chords of
the blues. Here it is.
[ piano lessons video here ]
Now, did you hear how the right hand kept hammering the same exact riff while the
left hand playing different chords? That's called a static riff. It doesn't seam like it
would have much interest because after all you always play it in the same spot.
However, when you couple together in the left hand, it can become a very, very
powerful force in the blues. Now a bit of clarification: I did say that you play the
static riff in exactly the same spot in the keyboard no matter what chord the left
hand was playing - there's one exemption. You can play it up an octave (or two
octaves), or an octave lower, whatever the case is, that way it's always the same
notes but in different registers on the keyboard.
Now if it sounds I'm getting a bit technical on this point, you know what? I am! It's
time to dig in - there are great concepts here but it does take some technical,
musical knowledge. Now if you play the piano, and if you're really comfortable with
these terms, let's move on.
But if this is starting to sound like a foreign language, you really need to go through
our course titled "Pattern Piano and Keyboard". You can find that piano lessons
course on the net at www.playpianotoday.com.
"Pattern Piano and Keyboard" starts with the very beginning foundations of music.
It assumes that you have never played piano before, but then it quickly moves to
college level techniques. But the real power of this piano lessons course is that it
will enable you to learn to play piano by ear, quickly - using the revolutionary
technique of rhythmic patterns!
This is so powerful! Using this tool of rhythmic patterns, piano students are quickly
able to develop their own unique style and unique sound on the piano or the
keyboard. They are able to create fantastic arrangements of any song by ear.
Doesn't that sound like fun? We literally have hundreds of thousands of students
around the world who have gone through this course and they have found a new
passion in music.
Now once you have gone through that course, come back here. Work your way
through this online blues course. At that point, you'll have a solid musical
understanding which will allow you to become a creative musician - and this is a
key to a life long love of music.
[Music fading]

Now we're going to work on the individual notes of this right hand blues riff, the
static riff, blues riff #2 frame by frame.
This has been part one of two from chapter 6, in the piano lesson series titled
"Blues for Piano and Keyboard". If you want to see more piano lessons, come on
over to http://www.playpianotoday.com.
[ piano lessons video here ]
In this website, there's a wealth of online piano and keyboard lessons and you can
dig in right away.

Blues Piano Lessons Course Chapter 6, Section 2


Transcript from this piano lesson below:
This is Part Two of Two from Chapter Six in the Piano Lesson Series titled, "Blues
for Piano and Keyboard".
[ piano lessons video here ]
Now we are going to work on the individual notes of this right hand blues riff, the
Static Riff, Blues Riff Number 2, frame by frame.
Now once again, the reason that the static riff works over every chord in the
blues is because the notes that make it up are taken from the blues scale.
Now in Chapter 11 of this Blues Course, we go over every conceivable blues scale,
zoomed-in in ultra slow motion. But just for reference, let me show you the C Blues
scale here.
<C Blues Scale>
Now, here's the Two Octave Blues Scale, <demo>. That's the C Blues Scale.
Chapter Eleven of this Blues Course is one of those chapters that you really have
to nail really solid if you want to become a great blues player. It deals with
foundations and it deals with all of the blues scales. In addition to the standard
blues scales, we go through a lot of different kinds of blues scales. For instance,
the "Turnaround Blues Scale" is really useful in creating great blues riffs. Let me
show you an example of that. Watch for the hand turning around within the blues
scale.

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
<Turnaround Blues Scale Demo>
Now I'm not going to go over all the detail fingering. You can go through Chapter
Eleven and it literally goes through every key. It will work you through in different
speeds until you become very proficient at playing the blues scales. That will really
open up your world of playing in the blues because your hands will be free. But the
Static Riff, <music/demo> is very simple to play. There's the first two notes, and
then I play the next note with my thumb. Now I go over my thumb and come down
with my thumb. Pretty simple. Kind of the skeleton of that blues scale. And again,
that's why it works so well over every chord in the blues.
Now the power of learning all these different blues riff comes when you learn
that you can put them into your own music and into your own songs and
alternate, mix and match them any way you'd like to come up with powerful
arrangements of any song on the piano.
Now this really is the premise of our course titled "Pattern Piano and Keyboard". If
you haven't yet learned to play by ear, and you want to learn all of the foundations
of these blues stuff is based on, go through the online piano lessons demo found at
PlayPianoToday.com.
Alright let's get to the good stuff. We're going to play all the way through the twelvebar blues again. This time we'll alternate riff #1 <riff#1 demo> with the static riff, riff
# 2 <riff#2 demo>. And as I play through, watch for both riffs played in different
octaves or registers on the keyboard. Alright, here we go.
[ piano lessons video here ]
Alright! There it is. Lot's of fun with the few extra goodies thrown in there at the
end. Actually, that long extended riff all the way down in the keyboard - we'll go and
study it in just a couple of chapters. So stick with me, we've got a lot of great of
stuff to dig into. If you'd like to see more, come over to keyboardblues.com.

Blues Piano Lessons Course Chapter 7, Section 1


Transcript from this piano lesson below:
Notice that my left hand is only playing two notes at a time. This is the simplest
piano comp chord you can do but it can be nice and funky too. In the
upcoming video, watch the left hand on the piano. You are going to see lots of
instances where it's simply playing just those two-note tri-tone comp chords. Now,
the left hand is going to be doing a lot of other things as well, but you'll see lots of
occasions where it's simply laying down that two-note tri-tone comp chord.
Now the right hand is going to be doing lots of blues riffs and tricks that I'm going to
show you in upcoming chapters. But this is an example specifically to show you
those left-hand two-note comp chords that are so powerful. Watch for them, here
we go.
[ piano lessons video here ]
Did you see them? I played a whole lot of two-note left hand comp chords. Now
let's study how to build them on the keyboard.
[ piano lessons video here ]
The two notes that we'll be using to create these left hand comp chords are
the third and the seventh of the Dominant 7th Chord. Remember that the
Dominant 7th Chord is the number one most common chord used in the blues.
Usually you'll see them written as a capital letter followed by a 7. Now here's a
major brain saver, to find the Dominant 7th of any chord, simply play a note that's a
whole step down from the root.

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
For instance, to find that mysterious note that turns C into C7, first start with the
root which is C then go down a whole step which is B flat and just that quickly,
you've found that Dominant 7th note that can turn C into C7. Now, we're putting the
7th down on the bottom of the chord which is usually considered an advanced
musical technique; but once you know this very simple secret, this advanced
technique becomes very easy to do. And you can play that Dominant 7th note
anywhere you want. You can play a nice and low on the keyboard with your left
hand, <note demo> that's the Dominant 7th down there, Or you can play it up high.
Learning to do this is one of those very easy to understand musical shortcuts that
can revolutionize your playing.
[ piano lessons video here ]
Comp chords don't have to be complicated. They're just two notes played by
the left hand on the piano. Isn't that crazy? Two notes can sound so
fantastic. Sometimes less really is more.
Now the right hand is playing a whole lot of stuff but we'll dig in to that in future
chapters.
Now if you pick two notes in the left hand to make comp chords it'll sound great if
you pick the right notes. It's just like anything else in life. It doesn't have to be
complicated but it does have to be right. Now the good news is that it's pretty easy
to find these two notes. Let's check it out.
[ piano lessons video here ]
In our piano lessons course title "Pattern Piano and Keyboard", which you can find
on the net at playpianotoday.com, we studied the two notes of these comp chords
specifically, thirds and sevenths. In fact, we went over every kind of seventh chord
possible. If you really want to become a creative musician, you really need to go
through "Pattern Piano and Keyboard". Here's why.
You can be a piano player or a keyboard player who just reads notes off the page
and that's good, reading is important. To be a well-rounded musician, you
eventually need to learn to read music. To do that, you can simply take lessons
from most any local piano teacher and they'll teach you how to read. Now while I'm
not minimizing the value of learning to read, the truth is that simply reading music
does not make you a complete musician.

In order to completely free yourself up musically and become a creative musician,


you need to understand what you are doing. Once you understand music, you'll
find a new whole world of creative ideas will open up for you on the keyboard.
"Pattern Piano and Keyboard" does exactly that. It starts from the ground up, it
doesn't assume that you've ever played the piano before. But by the end of that
course, you'll be able to play any song by ear, completely free from sheet music! In
addition, you'll be able to come up with songs and arrangement of songs that have
your own, unique sound. Something no one else has. And something that you can't
get from the written page.
Now I know that's exactly what you're looking for because in truth, everyone
is. When they sit down and play the piano, they want to be creative. So check
it out at playpianotoday.com.
[ piano lessons video here ]
Alright, let's study these tri-tone comp chords in detail. So far, we've been playing
the twelve bar blues in the Key of C, which naturally makes the first chord C. And
then we studied how it changed C into C7, that nice little trick. In fact, we're going
to change every chord now in this 12 bar blues exercise into a Dominant 7th chord
because it's just so nice, rich, and bluesy. So we'll play C7 like this:
[ piano lessons video here ]
And then F will be F7 and then G will become G7. It's pretty simple.
Alright, let's go back to C. Now remember, we're going to make it C7 by putting a
7th at the bottom. Now, let me stack those notes traditionally with the Dominant 7th
note up on top. That's how most people typically play it. It's a real simple way to
play it but sometimes it's really useful. It's kind of like a Bebop chord, right? Maybe
like a train coming down the track.
Now to build our first tri-tone, we're going to pick two of those notes: the
third and the seventh, and that's it. So here we go. This is the first tri-tone comp
chord. You saw me get all funky and get all jiggidy with it earlier in the video. So
this is what we are going to play for C7. Just that simple little two-note comp chord.
Of course, it looks just the same in the left hand except that it's played by the left
hand. So that's what this looks like.
This has been Part One of Two in Chapter Seven. In part two, we're going to study
in detail that tri-tone comp chord and how it's used in the blues. If you'd like to see
more, come on over to keyboardblues.com.

Blues Piano Lessons Course Chapter 7, Section 2


Transcript from this piano lesson below:
This is Part Two of Two from Chapter Seven, taken from Blues for Piano and
Keyboard.
So far in this chapter, we've been studying tri-tone left hand comp chords,
those fantastic two-note chords that you can do so much with. Now let's look
at them in detail.
They call it "tri" because tri means three and it's made out of three whole steps.
Can you see that?
[ piano lessons video here ]
Here's a whole step, there's a whole step, there's a whole step. We studied that in
"Pattern Piano and Keyboard"; and we learned that half steps and whole steps are
the absolute foundations when you're putting chords together on the piano.
Now, I want to show you something a little strange. Kind of off the beaten path kind of "How weird can you make your piano lessons?"
Now this is the absolute truth - back in the middle-ages, a while ago, the tri-tone
was considered an evil chord. They actually went so far to call it the "devil
chord". Now, I think God makes all things beautiful. In fact, today, if you listen to
Black Gospel music or Gospel music in general, you'll hear chords that are
full of tri-tones like this:
[ piano lessons video here ]

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
Ain't that nice? There's a tri-tone right in the middle. Or what if you play a tri-tone
down here? Remember those three whole steps? <demo> There it is. You can play
a nice fat chord built on that. Isn't that amazing? That simple little tri-tone.
And here's an amazing fact, ninety percent of all the great rhythm and blues
chords that really are fat are based on this simple little tri-tone. Incredible. You
know they had a lot of fun making that a devil chord back in the middle ages. In
fact, if you sang a tri-tone in a chant back then, you'll get kicked out.
Excommunication for the musician. But now you know better, you know that the tritone is actually a beautiful thing that can be put to use very nicely.
We're going to go a step further. Now that you know how to create these tri-tones I
want to show you how to play them in different locations so that your hand doesn't
have to jump - so, that C tri-tone and F tri-tone chord are within a half step of each
other. Now that may sound ludicrous, the notes C and F are a fourth apart on the
keyboard. But now I'm going to show you how to invert these tri-tones so that
they can be played right next to each other. This is typically an advanced
concept but once you understand the pattern of what I'm going to show you, you'll
be able to play this stuff right away. Check this out.
We're going to start with the chord F. Now here's a new concept, I'm going to invert
or turn-over this to F7 chord by putting the 7th on the bottom and the 3rd on the
top. Now do you notice how close those notes are to the ones I played in the video
example for C? But now these chords relate to the chord F and I've inverted it or
turned it over and put the 7th on the bottom. Now I'm going to go back to C just for
examples sake.
[ piano lessons video here ]
There it is, the 3rd's on the bottom now, the 7th on the top. And F, has the 7th on
the bottom and the third on the top.
But the really powerful concept that I'd like you to get here is that even though F7
and C7 are radically different chords, you can play them very simply right next to
each other by inverting that F7 comp chord which means turning it over and putting
the 7th on the bottom. Learning to invert chords like this is a powerful concept that
can really free-up your left hand.
So far, we've looked at C and F. The one other chord that shows up is G7. Now if
you noticed, I've inverted the G chord as well. I've put the 7th at the bottom, which
is F (music), and the 3rd on the top (music), which is B. And look at that, by
inverting that G chord that's right next to the C chord, and it's really close to the F

chord. What a powerful concept than can really free up your hands on the
piano.
Now that you know how to create these left-hand tri-tone comp chords, I'm going to
play the same video again. The video where the right hand's flying around and
playing lots of blues riffs but the left hand is mainly playing either C7, G7 or F7 as
two-note tri-tone comp chords. But this time, I'm going make it just a little easier to
focus on those tri-tone comp chords . Every time I my left hand plays one of them,
I'm going to flash a light on the screen, just like this. <example>
Alright, two-note comp chords, here we go. <demo>
Alright. That was an entire buffet of left-hand tri-tone comp chords. I hope you got
them all. When you're ready, let's go on to chapter 8.
[ piano lessons video here ]
If you'd like to see more, come on over to keyboardblues.com.
[ piano lessons video here ]
In this website, there's a wealth of online piano and keyboard lessons that you can
dig into right away, including this lesson.

Blues Piano Lessons Course Chapter 8


Transcript from this piano lesson below:
Congratulations. You made it all the way to Chapter 8. You must be very interested
in learning to play the blues on piano!
Now back in Chapter Six, I taught you something called a "static blues riff", it
sounded like this:
[ piano lessons video here ]
If that seems familiar to you, let's go on. If not, go back and check-out Chapter 6 of
the blues piano lessons because we are going to build on that today.
We call this a static blues riff because it never changes. That's what static
means. Like static on the radio - "sshhhh", the static never changes. You'll only
hear that if you fall asleep in front of the radio and wake up at two in the morning...
Now this static blues riff, [ piano lessons video here ], is played by the right hand in
the same exact spot every time while the left hand plays different chords on the
piano.
[ piano lessons video here ]
You can go back to Chapter 6 and review that if you need to. But today, I want to
show you something different about that static riff that I kept teasing you about in
Chapter 6. Remember at the end of the 12-bar blues I've always played these long
bluesy phrases...
[ video here ]

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
...and then I told you I'd show it to you in the next chapter and I never did. (!) Don't
worry, we'll get to it today. But in Chapter 7, I ended up showing you those powerful
left hand comp chords. Remember that?
[ video here ]
I hope you enjoyed Chapter 7, there was some great stuff for your left hand in
there. But today, we're going to dig back into the static riff from Chapter 6. [ piano
lessons video here ] And I'm going to show you how to extend it into a nice long
bluesy phrase on the piano:
[ video here ]
Now that long extended version of the static riff might sound really complicated to
play but let me blow your mind: The long extension of this static riff [ video here ] is
really simple! In fact, you know most of it already if you learned Chapter 6.
It's actually the same static blues riff [ piano lessons video here ] two times, high
and low. Now in between the high static riff and the low static riff, there's a tiny little
riff that connects the two. I call it "the connector". What a great little name, how did
I ever think of that?
This is what it sounds like: [ video here ]. So here's the static blues riff [ piano
lessons video here ] with the connector [ video here ], then you play the same
static blues riff an octave lower. Now here's what it sounds like altogether up to
speed [ video here ]. Let's do that one more time. Here's the static riff up high
[ video here ], here's the connector [ video here ], and finally the static blues riff
again, lower.
Now that was nice and slow. I can't wait 'til you can play this on your keyboard,
but there's even more. Once you learn to do that, you can keep running the static
riff and the connector-static riff and connector all the way down to the bottom of the
keyboard - it sounds fantastic! Let's play it like that once. This time we're going to
kick the tempo all the way up and we're going to run that thing all the way down the
keyboard. Here it is.
[ video here ]
Now I know that may be a little over the top to make that riff roll all the way down
the keyboard -a little flashy, a little dramatic, but every musician has got to have a
few tricks in the bag, right? I mean drummers can twirl their sticks so keyboard

players, when they do, roll this baby all the way down the keyboard, then look at
the drummer and say, "Hey! You're not so tough."
[ piano lessons video here ]
At this point in the blues course, you either are really digging into the keyboard and
really loving this stuff or maybe you're scratching your head and you're wishing you
could understand it just a little more. If that's the case, you really need to go
through our course, titled, "Pattern Piano and Keyboard". You can check this
course out online at playpianotoday.com. Go there and it'll give you an online video
demo of what it means to play the piano or the keyboard by ear using the
revolutionary technique of rhythmic patterns. This course starts simply from the
ground-up. It assumes that you've never played but then it progresses quickly to
college level techniques. By the end of the course, you'll have an entire arsenal of
rhythmic patterns that you can use to play any song by ear.
In addition, a large part of this course is taken up with teaching you to create your
own patterns. Now, this is where you'll develop your own unique style on the
keyboard. You'll be able to create songs and arrangements that are all your own.
This is super exciting stuff. If you really want to study the piano, if you really want
to become a great musician, buy that course and go through it. It's really not that
expensive but it's very thorough and it'll get you up to speed quickly.
Now before we play through the 12 bar blues in this chapter, I want to show you
one more thing. If you remember way back in some of the earlier chapters in this
blues piano lessons course, you'll remember the very first right hand blues riff that I
taught you. [ video here ]. Remember that? It was called "Riff #1". Now, if you need
to, go back and review those chapters. The reason that I'm bringing it up is
because we're going to use it when we play through the 12 bar blues in just a
minute; but I'm going to use it a little different way than we learned it. I'm going to
play it up really high and twice in a row like this... [ video here ].
The thing that will really change the blues riff character this time is that I
won't play it on the same beat that I did when we first learned it. What I mean
is this: when we learned Riff #1 for the first time, I always started playing it on the
first beat of each measure, 1-2-3-4... [ piano lessons video here ]. This really
emphasized or accented the first chord. [ video here ]
This time, I'll start on the second beat of each measure then I'll play it twice in a
row. 1-2-3-4...
[ video here ].
This really makes different sections of the blues riff accented.

Once again, the concepts covered in this lesson build on the original piano
lesson course titled "Pattern Piano and Keyboard". Make sure you check out that
course for a solid music foundation!

Blues Piano Lessons Course Chapter 9


Transcript from this piano lesson below:
This is Chapter Nine in the piano lessons series titled, "Blues for Piano and
Keyboard".
< piano music playing >
Now blues and Gospel music have always had a lot in common. Here's a new
left hand piano technique for you... [ piano lessons video here ]
In the past, I've taught you a left hand riff that sounds like this: [ piano lessons
video here ] Remember that? You can review that in earlier blues chapters. Now
the right hand is going to sound like this: [ video here ] That's also a blues piano riff
that I taught you in some of the earliest blues lessons chapters.
Today, I'm going to teach you a new left-hand blues riff called left-hand propulsion.
It sounds like this:
[ video here ]
This is a great left-hand piano technique to use especially if you want to
learn to play some cookin' black gospel music. Let's take a closer look.
[ video here ]

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
In this next session, we're going to make use of musical concepts called half-steps
and whole steps. Now if that sounds like a foreign language to you, you really need
to go through our first course titled, "Pattern Piano and Keyboard". It's the original
piano lessons course and you can find it on the net at playpianotoday.com.
Let's look at the first chord of the song, "Down by the Riverside" - what a wonderful
old spiritual. The first chord is C, however this riff does not start on the root of that
chord, it starts a whole step below. So a whole step below C is... B flat. Right
students? Yeah, right! So the first note is a whole step below the root, then it goes
up a half step to B, then another half step to C (which is the root) and repeats. So
it's actually pretty simple. Let me start again, starting a whole step below the root,
up to speed, it sounds like this: [ piano lessons video here ] This blues riff really
helps to push or propel the beat of the music on the piano.
Now the second chord of the song is F. Remember, we don't play the root. We start
a whole step below F which is E flat right? Okay we start a whole step below, come
up half step, come up another half step and repeat it. So F sounds like this:
[ video here ] ...and I'm throwing my right hand blues piano riff in with it. [ video
here ]
Nice and funky okay? Now let me go between C and F. Sounds like this: [ piano
lessons video here ] Here's G: [ video here ] Right? I started a whole step below
the root, came up a half step, came up another half step, and repeated it. So here's
G again: [ video here ] Okay, let me show you something a little more now.
Okay, I've taught you the left hand propulsion. Today, I want to show you something
a little more. If you've gotten comfortable with that, I want to show you the left
hand propulsion with an octave backflip. How do you like that? You can be in
the Olympics! Here it is: [ piano lessons video here ] In F it sounds like this: [ video
here ]
You start a whole step below right? Come up a half step, come up another half step
[ piano lessons video here ], and then drop an octave [ video here ] Really thump it
good, like a kick drum. Here it is again: [ piano lessons video here ] Here's F
[ piano lessons video here ], Here's G [ piano lessons video here ] Aright, let's put it
together now with the right hand.
Sometimes I'll play the repeated note [ video here ] and then sometimes I'll play
that octave backflip [ video here ] In either case, here's the whole thing:

[ video here ]
Here's the entire song again, minus vocals, so you can concentrate on just the
piano.
[ piano lessons video here ]
In this website, there's a wealth of online piano and keyboard lessons that you can
dig into right away, including this lesson.

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 10


Overview
Transcript from this piano lesson below:
This is a quick overview of some of the video highlights
from the online piano lessons series titled "Blues for
Piano and Keyboard", Chapter 10.
[ piano lessons video here, song used in Chapter 10 ]
Now if you're like me, when the blues is cookin', it
makes you want to get up and boogie around the room.
In this edition of Blues for Piano and Keyboard, I'm
going to teach you exactly what I just played - note for
note. So this is going to be quite an extensive lesson.
Now your left hand is going to study something called
the walking bass. You can hear the bass player behind
me - He's walking around as I'm talking. Now if you're
watching on the video, you probably noticed that the left
hand was doing this walking bass technique on the
piano. It was walking around in between all the different
chords and that's what exactly what I'm going to teach
you for your left hand.

For your right hand, there's going to be 5 Blues Riffs


that we're going to study. Four of them are going to be
brand new. So you've got some new stuff to chomp on!
In fact, if you want to rewind that video and watch it
again, watch the right hand. It's doing all kinds of crazy
stuff. But again, I'm going to teach you exactly how I did
it, note for note.
We won't just memorize these riffs, we'll study how they
are put together so that you can use them in your music.
That's a lot of stuff to learn but you're going to really
enjoy this lesson. Let's dig in.
Now the left hand's got a sad story. Everybody kind of
neglects the left hand, especially in the keyboard
world. I've heard so many students say "I don't know
what to do with the left hand. It just kind of sits down
there. It just seems kind of useless." But today, I'm going
to teach you something a little more. Because you see,
in blues and gospel music, the left hand is so very
important. It drives the music along.

Watch the Video Version of this piano


lesson (top of this page)
Now in this course, I've already taught you already a
couple of left hand licks. In the full version of this lesson,
this is the spot where we go though and do a recap of
the previous left hand blues techniques. And then we
introduce new left hand techniques. Here's an excerpt of
the video where we're looking at something brand new
in the left hand. [ video here ]
Now the walking bass is a little different, it never
stops. [ piano lessons video here]. Hear that? It's
always, constantly driving the beat. Always moving
between one chord to another. This is a great technique
to put in your musical toolbox. Okay, let's dig in and
really study this.
Now we're going to talk about options today. When you
study the left hand walking bass you got a lot of options.

For instance, let's look at the first two chords of this


song, over the phrase - "Lay down my burdens, down by
the riverside". What a great thing to do with your
burdens!
Okay you start with the chord C - "I'm gonna lay down..."
"My burdens" - down to F. Now C comes on the first
beat, 1-2-3-4. And then F, 2-3-4. Now, the walking bass
generally does quarter notes. If you remember from the
original course, quarter notes are one note per beat.
Like this, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. Now, that actually is the
simplest form of a walking bass. Just repeating the
note. Now it's not really that interesting yet, but it's
a good place to start.
In the full lesson, we actually spend quite a bit of time in
the left hand technique.The left hand is something
that's really overlooked in a lot of piano lessons.
Specifically, we go into a lot of detail about how to put
together a solid left hand walking bass. In fact, I'm going
to jump ahead in the lesson now, where we're right at
the end of the section studying that left hand walking
bass. Here's an excerpt from that video:
[ piano lessons video here]
4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1... right that's just quarter notes, on
each beat there's something going on. Whether it's a
chord tone, or whether it's a distant passing tone leading
somewhere. This is a lot of great stuff here that you're
learning! I want to throw you a little extra bone today.
We're going to talk about something called a rhythmic
kicker. Listen to this...
[ piano lessons video here]
And did you hear that little extra note? Right at the end
of beat 4? I'm going to do it a little slower, listen...
[ piano lessons video here]
Ahh!! Did you hear that note? It kicked in just at the end
of beat 4.

[ piano lessons video here]


Now, what I'm doing is throwing in one of the notes
from the line right at the last half of beat 4...
Although the left hand gets a lot of attention in this
lesson, I want to give you some video samples from that
portion of the lesson where we're studying the right
hand. In fact, we're going to look at five right hand
blues piano riffs. There's lot of material in here to
study. In fact, we're getting a lot of technique as well as
music theory. Like every one of our lessons, you'll be
able see each riff in detail, up close, in slow motion.
Here's a sample of the video where we're looking at the
right hand blues riff number 4.
Riff number 4 isn't made up of a whole bunch of
different notes. It's simply a C triad. It's got some sliding
going on, right? It's got a rhythmic kicker that keeps
happening. And it keeps rocking back and forth between
the triad and some passing tones right?
[ piano lessons video here]
Now if you just sat down on a summer day doing this
with you right hand... you know a monkey could do this!
Now to take a simple riff like that where you're just
rocking your hand back and forth, and catapult it into a
fantastic rhythm and blues riff that fun to listen to, and a
lot of fun to play, you've got to start shifting all the
musical accents around. That's really what makes it
come to life. This is super important! Let me show you
what I mean -now this riff is based on what we call
triplets. Just like a tricycle has three wheels, the triplet is
made of three separate sections of the beat.
You see it on the screen there, and you can hear that
I'm accenting the first part of each triplet. 1 - 2 - 3 ..
Sounds like your going to waltz around the room. It
really doesn't have much to do with the blues at this
point. And when you start throwing the accent around it
really gets a little crazy in your head. But it really makes
fantastic riffs. Now look on the right side of the screen,
you can still see four beats. However, I've put different
sections of the beats in bold.

[ piano lessons video here]


Now it doesn't sound real musical yet. In fact, when I
show it to you on the keyboard now, you may say "Nah!
it doesn't sound very musical" However, when you put
it in context with everything else, it really lights up
the stage. First let's go through slow and count out
those strange musical accents.
[ piano lessons video here]
Stop the video and go try that! That would probably
snap your mind, unless of course you are a genius. That
snapped my little mind. But now let's bring it up to speed
and really pull those accents out. And you'll see that it
comes to life. Here it is...
[ piano lessons video here]
Alright, it's starting to come to life. But now let's go a
little further. Let's put it in context with the song that
we're using in this lesson. Now the tempo is really
cooking! And if you look really carefully, you will see that
riff number 4 is immediately followed by a riff from back
at chapter 8, the long extended static riff. Let's take a
look.
[ piano lessons video here]
This is just been a quick overview of some of the
highlights from Chapter 10 from the piano lessons
series titled "Blues for Piano and Keyboard". The
complete version of this lesson is very detailed. In fact,
we go through every chord, technique and riff - note for
note, in sow motion. If you'd like to see more, come on
over to keyboardblues.com.

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 11


Text-only transcription of this piano lesson:
Chapter 11 of the blues piano lessons series deals with blues scales and
exercises designed to strengthen and set your hands free on the keyboard. In
this piano lesson, we'll really dig in as we head into the musical gym. We're going
to get a work-out!
I know this is what you've been waiting for... did you ever feel like your hands are
chained to the keyboard? If you learn Chapter 11 in its entirety, I promise you that
you're going to be free on the keyboard. Your hands will be able to run all over the
piano and play all kinds of funky stuff. Now, if you want to stay where you're at just turn the video off and watch T.V. or something. But if you want to really get
good on the piano, learn Chapter 11 - we're going to learn some great, great stuff
here.
Let's jump ahead - I'm going to give you an overview of everything in Chapter 11
that will speed up and strengthen your hands on the piano. This is just an
overview of this piano lesson. If you want to grab the whole lesson, head on over to
keyboardblues.com and you can grab the whole thing there. If you really want to go
to the wood shed and strengthen and speed up your hands, stick with me.

The basic building block for Chapter 11 is the piano blues scale. Here's what it
sounds like...
[ piano video lesson here ]
That's in the scale of A, you'll see later on that I'm going to break it down note for
note. I'm going to give you exact fingerings. But for now, this is what it sounds like.
[ scale here] Whether you're brand new to the blues, or whether you're an
advanced piano player, there's lot of stuff in this piano lesson for you. First, I want
to talk about a few different sections, a few different levels of study.
Let's talk about the "backing tracks". If you ordered this piano lesson as a disc set
through the mail, look at one of the cds. You'll see that it's labeled "backing tracks".
What we did is have a band come into the studio and then we had them play
through the 12 bar blues for two and a half minutes in every key. Here's how it
works: after I teach you each new section of this piano blues lesson, I'll have you
kick on the backing tracks. As you play along, it accomplishes two things: the first
thing is that it's fun, right? If it's not fun, why are we doing it? Playing the blues on
the piano has got to be fun. You've got to be smiling and having a great time. So
when you're playing with the band, you're having a great time.
Here's the second reason, and it's probably just as important as having fun.
Keyboard players are notorious for sloppy timing. And the reason for this is
that we're usually playing piano by ourselves, right? Saxophone players grow up in
school playing in the band with other people, but keyboard players are like the lone
musical cowboys: we're out there playing piano by ourselves. What happens is that
our timing gets really sloppy.
So as I teach you each one of these new things to play, regarding the blues scales
and all the different musical skills that I'm going to teach you, I'll always have you
turn on the backing tracks and play along with the band. We'll be having fun and
establishing rock solid timing on the piano!

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
Let's talk a little more about those backing tracks. Not only does the blues band
play in every key through the 12 bar blues, it also plays at three different speeds.
So, for instance, on the backing tracks for the key of A, you'll find that the band
plays through one time slow, and then it plays through at a medium speed, and
finally it plays through at a fast tempo. All of this just in the key of A! And then for
the key of B flat, there's a slow version, a medium version and a fast tempo version
- of course you can guess why. It's because as you progress, you want your hands
to be able to play at higher speeds on the keyboard. Also within each one of those

tempos, the band slowly speeds up over each two and a half minute section. So
this is a really kind of a gradation of accomplishments as you go through on the
piano.
So far we've talked about the backing tracks. That's what the blues band has
recorded. The band has recorded the blues in all 12 keys at 3 different speeds for
you to play with on the piano. What specifically are you going to play against those
backing tracks?
Through the course of Blues for Piano and Keyboards, Chapter 11, I'm going
to teach you seven musical skills that are essential to playing the blues.
Seven skills that are increasing in complexity. Once you have mastered these 7
skills and can play them in most of the keys, up to speed, your music is going to
explode! All of a sudden your hands are going to be cranking. People are going to
say, " What happened to you Superman? What is going on?"
So I'm going to start now and show you each one of those seven musical skills.
Let's pretend that I've come to your house and we're going to learn this together.
We're going to learn seven musical skills in the key of A.
So there we are at your house, and we're going to learn the blues. We need to see
some video that'll show you exactly what to play. So, no matter what format you
ordered the course in, whether that's downloadable video or DVD video, you
simply go to the main video menu. On the main menu you see there's a button that
says "video vault". Within the video vault there are short videos that show all these
seven musical skills from both hands in EVERY key. So there's quite a lot of
videos! So you'd look under the key of A, and you'd look for skill #1. That would
show you a video that would look something like this.
[ piano video lesson here ]
The next thing we do in this piano lesson is to get out the backing tracks cd (or
click on the appropriate "backing tracks" section of the downloadable version of
this piano lesson). Find the slow version of the A blues scale and play the half
scale along with it. This is what it would sound like:
[ piano video lesson here ]
See how simple that is - you already have half of the A blues scale in both hands.
What I want you to do is let the track play all the way through as you just keep
alternating the right hand, then the left hand, then both hands. You do that a
number of times until the track plays all the way out. By the time you've gone all
the way through the track, you're pretty comfortable in both hands with the bottom
half of the A blues scale on the piano. And now you're ready for musical skill #2. So
you go to video vault and you take a look at skill #2 for the key of A. You'll see that
instead of half scales, now it's a full one octave scale on the piano. Let's take a
look at that video from the video vault. Skill #2 key of A, full 1 octave scale...

[ piano video lesson here ]

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 11


Text-only transcription of this piano lesson:
This is section 2 of 4 taken from the introduction to Chapter 11 from "Blues for
Piano and Keyboard".
(continued from previous piano lessons video) ...and now you're ready for musical
skill #2. So you go back to the video vault, and take a look at blues scale #2 for the
key of A. You'll see instead of half scales, it's a full 1 octave blues scale. Let's take
a look at that video from the video vault. Skill #2, key of A full 1 octave scale.
[ piano lesson video here ]
Then you'll fire up the blues band backing tracks again and you go back to the key
of A, the slow version. And you play musical skill #2 along with it. It would look
something like this...
[ piano lesson video here ]
I just throw a little flourish at the very end of each one of those piano blues scales.
Did you notice that? Let me show you...
[ piano lesson video here ]

This is kind of a little extra rhythmic jump I like to throw in there on the keyboard at
the end of each piano scale. You'll see me do that in a lot of the piano lessons
video. Okay, we're going on now - and we've spent the afternoon at your house
and you can see where this whole thing is going. It's going to get more and more
aggressive on the keyboard, and let me just remind you, you don't have to move
this quickly.
If you stay at skill #1 for a month or musical skills #1 and #2 for a couple of
months, it doesn't matter. Just as long as you're always increasing your
musical skills on the piano - always pushing the envelope of your
musicianship.
But this point, we've been here for the afternoon and you say, "Hey Dave! I want to
move on musical skill #3".
Skill #3 - you find it in the video vault and we're going to look at it. It's called "The
two octave scale". Let's take a look at musical skill #3 from the video vault, key of
A. We've got to zoom out the video a little bit so we can show you musical skill #3,
it's a two octave scale. The right hand looks like this. . .
[ piano lesson video here ]

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
Did you notice that the two octave piano scale was exactly the same as the
one octave piano scale except for the transition between the octaves?
Rewind that and take a look at it again if you need to. It's time to crank up the
rubber band again and get them going in the key of A, the slow version. We're
going to play musical skill #3 against the blues band backing tracks.
[ piano lesson video here ]
If you've never played blues scales on the piano before and this your
introduction to them, don't worry. If you're thinking, "Oh! man this ridiculously
hard!", remember at this point, if you're working every day to the point where you
can get both hands going over two octaves - that's super aggressive! If you look at
this overview and you think, "I don't know if I'll ever be able to play that on the
piano", take my word for it, you will be able to play this on the piano.
Years ago, I wasn't able to do this. But eventually you'll be able to play all of these
scales on the piano. Especially if you'll really dig in and practice.

There were years in my early college years, when I was majoring in music and I
really wasn't taking things too seriously. Then I saw a great piano player and I
thought, "My goodness! If he can do that, I can do it".
I remember I was talking to another musician about this. He was saying how
discouraging it was when we saw that great piano player that was much
better then either of us. I said to him, "You can either be discouraged or
encouraged when you see a musician that's much better than you."
You have the option to say, "I'll never be that good on the piano", or you can be
inspired and say - "Wow! look what God's doing through that person. Maybe
I can aspire to play the piano as well (or better!) than them." So I want to
encourage you and say, "You can do it! If you've got 10 fingers and you got the
desire to play the blues on the piano, dig in and God will give you the desires of
your heart." That's what He promised. So I want to encourage you, dig in and you
can do it.
There's actually a few more musical skills here that we're going to look into. The
"Three Octave Scale", the "Broken Octave Scale" - that's a lot of fun. And then the
"Turn-around Scale". The last musical skill is putting all this stuff together.. By that
time, you are ready to be the big funk daddy of the piano (or queen funk momma!)
whatever the case may be.
Now the video vault does not contain any videos at all for this musical skill - skill
#3. Here's why: The Three Octave Scale is exactly the same as the Two Octave
Scale but just it has another octave on top. So there's no video in the video vault
for this particular musical skill. However, just for the sake of explaining things really
clearly I want to show you what it looks like. We're going to look at the 3 Octave
scale right now even though it doesn't show up at all in the video vault.
Remember, the 3 octave scale is the same as the 2 octave scale with just an extra
octave up on top. Makes sense doesn't it? Here we go.
[ piano lesson video here ]
Alright, now let's play that on the piano against the blues band backing tracks.
Here we go!
[ piano lesson video here ]
The full introduction into this piano lesson consists of four separate videos. This
has been one of them. If you want to get the entire lesson, and it's really quite a
lengthy piano lesson. It's a couple hours of video as well as a couple of hours
worth of audio blues band backing tracks. Lot's of stuff to sink your teeth into!

In this website, there's a wealth of online piano and keyboard lessons that you can
dig into right away, including this lesson.

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 11


Text-only transcription of this piano lesson:
This is section 3 of 4 taken from the introduction to Chapter 11 of the piano lessons
series titled "Blues for Piano and Keyboard".
Now we're going to take a look at something called "Broken Octave Scale". This is
something that's completely different from previous blues piano scales. It's
going to be a way to get your hands to stretch out a little bit and gain a lot more
strength. I noticed that when I began playing the broken octave scale for a couple
of months, my hands seemed to get really strong. So let's go back to the video
vault were we're going to look at the broken octave scale which is musical skill #5.
The broken octave scale is based on the blues scale. Let's take a look at it in
the left hand for a second. Here's the blues scale in octaves:
[ video here]
You see how it's the same on the piano as the blues scale but it's in octaves?
Notice that every time that this area of my hand [ video ] comes to a black note,
I've got to use my fourth finger. And anytime it's a white note, I use my pinky.

Okay you could start like this...


[ video here]
But the broken octave scale, sounds like this...
[ video here]
Now the broken octave blues scale is a tough thing to do. If you get on the
keyboard and you've never done this you'll going to think, "This is impossible!" But
it's not! Not only is it possible, this section of the piano lessons contains one of
the most powerful techniques to make your hands strong. I didn't say it was
easy. But once you get this under your hands, it's going to catapult or leap-frog
your piano technique and musical abilities a number of levels up. So don't be
discouraged. Let me show you a simpler way to start.
Do you remember the half scales that we played on the piano? You can do the
same thing with the broken octaves blues scale.
[ video here]
Let's try that now with the blues band backing tracks. You see how simple that is?
Get your hands going. One more time! Now let's do the full octave...
[ video here]
As you're working on the skill #5, the "Broken Octave Scale" let me just remind you
once more. If you need to, you can cut it down to just half of the octave. Like this:
[ video ] You can have the backing tracks play all the way through and you can just
do this:
[ video here]
When you get really comfortable with that, don't stay there. Push yourself so you
can do the whole track including the full broken octave scale on the piano.
[ video here]
I'm sure you've noticed we're just working on the left hand. Let's take a look at the
right hand of the broken octaves scale on the piano. Now again the broken octaves
scale is based on blues scale. It's the same exact notes on the piano. And
remember when this pinky gets close to a black note, don't play it. Let the fourth
finger play that note instead. The pinky plays the white notes. And that fourth finger
plays the black notes. And the broken octaves are like this:
[ video here]

Just like the half-scales, the full 1 octave scale, the 2 octave sale and the 3 octave
scale, we go back and forth with the hands. So I'm going to zoom out the video
now - I'm going to show you what it sounds like with the blues band backing tracks
playing skill #5 on the piano with both hands. First I'm going to do just half octaves
and then I'll to do full octaves. Listen now - I'll guide you through it. We're going to
start with the left hand, and we're going to do half octaves, here we go:
[ video here]
At this point, we are into college level musical techniques. You're playing both
hands on the keyboard as broken octave scales - this is pretty heavy duty stuff. At
first do what you can. If you can only do one hand, half of an octave, that's alright!
But eventually, you'll play things on the piano that you never thought you could breaking the musical barriers that you never thought you'd be going through.

Transcript from this piano lesson below:


This is section 4 of 4 taken from the introduction to Chapter 11 from the blues
piano lesson series titled "Blues for Piano and Keyboard".
[ piano intro playing here ]
Let's take a look at musical skill 6. This is called " The Turnaround Blues Scale".
And remember at this point, we are looking at some very advanced professional
techniques on the piano. Once again we're going to head to the video vault and
look for musical skill 6, the "Turnaround scale" and we're working in the key of A.
The turnaround scale is just like it sounds: there's a turnaround on the piano
right in the middle of the blues scale. Let me show you what it looks like and I'll
explain it. Here it is in the key of A with the right hand.
[ piano video lesson here ]
Did you see the ascending and descending turnarounds? There were a couple
turnarounds. Watch this:
[ piano video lesson here ]

See those turnarounds? Now I know you're thinking, "I was starting to get used to
that and now you're making it more complicated - what is the deal?!". The reason is
that once you add this turnaround to the blues sale in certain situations - especially
when you're taking solos, it becomes a very phat cool sound. Let me play it for you
on the piano up to speed... [ piano video lesson here ]

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
Isn't that turnaround nice? Sure it's a little something extra to learn, but then
you have another tool in your tool belt. You can pull out that funky
turnaround when you're taking a phat piano solo.
Okay we've looked at the right hand turnaround scale, Skill #6. Let's take a look
now at what it looks like in the left hand. Just for your information, I'm giving you
quick video examples of how to go through these piano skills.
Remember in the video vault, there are detailed videos of every musical skill for
both hands in every key, nice and slow. You can see every piano fingering,
everything is there for you to dig into. So these are quick musical examples that I'm
showing you. Remember the video vault is your main resource when you're
actually learning all these piano skills in both hands in all the different keys. You
can do it! Okay let's take a look at the left hand, skill #6.
Just like the right hand, the left hand has a blues turnaround. Here's what it looks
like.
[ piano video lesson here ]
Remember that you can study that in great detail and more depth in the video
vault. But just for an example, let me show you what it looks like in both hands
now.
[ piano video lesson here ]
Now again for example's sake I'm going to get the backing tracks out and I'm going
to play an example of the turnaround blues scale on the piano with the blues band
backing tracks. You'll see me play the right hand for 3 octaves on the piano, so I'm
going to have to zoom the video out. Then you'll see me play the left hand in 3
octaves and finally both hands together for 3 octaves using the turnaround scale.
Let me tell you again, these are advanced piano skills. This is something to really
shoot for, okay? This is what it looks like. We'll start with the right hand, here we
go...

[ piano video lesson here ]


Lots of piano notes and piano skills that you're learning here!. That's a fantastic
skill to learn - even if you only learn it in one key. If you learn this in one key
you'll realize, "Hey I've got something else I can do. I've got some new ideas on the
keyboard".
Now we're going to go to the very last skill that I'm going to teach you in Chapter
11. It's called "All Together", and it's just like it's name implies: it contains all the
skills on the piano together. They're all played right in a row, except for the very first
skill which is called "Half scales".
Half scales are just sort of a warm up, just to get you used to playing the blues
scales. So, skill 7 titled "All Together" is Skill #2 followed by Skill #3, Skill #4, Skill
#5, and Skill #6. All within 2 and a half minutes!
You'll see me do a full 1 octave scale, both hands. And then you'll see me do a 2
octave scale, both hands. Then you'll see me do... you've guessed it - A 3 octave
scale, both hands. Then both hands will do a broken octave scale on the piano and
finally, both hands will do a turn around scale for 3 octaves. This takes up the full 2
and one half minutes of the blues band backing tracks.
Skill 7 is the eventual goal for this entire blues piano lessons chapter. Once
you can play skill 7 in every key on the piano (just like you're about to see me play
in the key of A), then you will have this piano lesson mastered. But again - don't
beat yourself up with this. Start with a few simple keys. The key of A is a good
place to start because it doesn't have a whole lot of black notes.
Once you can play all of these musical skills on the piano in the key of A, try the
key of D and then the key of G. But for now, here's what it looks like in the key of A.
And just for fun, I'm doing to kick it up to the medium speed version. Remember
the blues band recorded each key at 3 different speeds - slow, medium and kickin',
right? Just for fun, let's play through it at the medium speed. So here we go - Blues
in A, Medium Tempo. Here's the right hand, 1 octave...
[ piano video lesson here ]

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 12 Overview


Once again, we're digging into some fresh material in this online piano lesson. In
chapter 12, we'll be taking apart a Rhythm and Blues Gospel song, note for note,
analyze all the blues riffs and music theory, and then figure out how to put it all
together on YOUR keyboard.
This lesson is jam packed with over 20 new blues piano riffs riffs - when you learn
this many new blues riffs all at once, it can really be a challenge. However, when
you learn them in the context of a song, it turns into just pure fun!

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)

Because this video is an overview of some of the


highlights of chapter 12, I'll be playing a few
different sample sections from the piano lesson:

First, we'll take a look at a video of the full song used in this piano lesson - you'll be
able to see all of the blues riffs that we'll be studying. In addition, you'll be able to
see the solo section where we're going to be studying how to put together a
keyboard solo to really rip it up when it's your turn to shine!

In the full version of this lesson, there is a super-slow motion video version of the
full song so you can really see exactly what's going on. And remember, once we
get to the section of the lesson where we're looking at each of the blues riffs in
detail, we'll study every single note in up-close slow motion. In addition, we'll study
all of the music theory behind these riffs - there's lots to dig into here!

In the next video contained within this quick piano lessons overview - we'll take a
look at the section where we go through all of the chords used in the song. In this
section, we won't be looking at any of the blues riffs - that will come later in the
lesson. This section simply goes through every chord used so that we have a solid
foundation on which we can build all these fantastic blues piano riffs.

Finally, we'll look at some video footage from the section of the piano lesson where
we zero in on the individual blues piano riffs. This is the nitty-gritty study section,
but because you're getting a ton of funky blues riffs under your hands, it's totally a
blast! Enjoy...

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 13 Overview


In this edition of the online piano lessons blues course, we're going to
be looking at something called "Straight Eighths". This refers to an
underlying Rock beat - which is totally different from previous editions of
this blues piano course. (Earlier chapters were based on an underlying
Swing beat).
This underlying rock beat isn't just a little different - it completely changes
the character of the music and gives it a rock flavor. Jam-packed with new
musical information, this lesson details 12 new blues piano riffs for your
right hand... lots of stuff to chew on!
The left hand is going to study something called the "offbeat push":
learning to interject offbeat rhythms into the music to really kick up the
intensity of the music. Are you looking for some new uptempo techniques

for your left hand on the piano? Everybody is. This is a piano lesson
you've got to go through.

Here's a twist - as we go through this online piano


lesson, all of the blues riffs and techniques will be
based on the same blues piano scale that we've
studied in previous chapters.
However, now we're going to look at it with a Rock beat, using the
concept of "Straight Eighths". Again, this is a completely different animal
from the swing beat.
This online piano lesson will also be detailing some "phat" chords! F#7-5,
F13, E7+5, C7#11... but wait a minute: what are all these phat jazz piano
chords doing in the context of a rock piano lesson? Here's the kicker when you merge these phat jazz piano chords with the straight eighths
of the rock beat, you've created a fantastic new style called "Fusion".
Maybe you've heard of it - it's a fusion of rock music and jazz music
that combines the best elements of each style on the piano.

Transcript of Chapter 13 below:


This video is a quick overview of some of the highlights from "Blues for Piano and
Keyboard", Chapter 13.
[ piano music playing ]
Welcome back! This is David Sprunger from playpianotoday.com. In this edition of
the blues piano lesson course, we're going to be looking at something called
"Straight 8ths". This refers to an underlying rock beat which is totally different from
the previous chapter of the blues course which has an underlying swing beat. This
underlying rock beat isn't just a little different, it completely changes the
character of the music and gives it a rock piano flavor.
Jam-packed with new musical information, this lesson details twelve new blues
piano riffs from the right hand. Twelve of them! Lots of stuff to chew on. Now the
left hand is going to study something called the "Offbeat Push". We'll be learning to
interject off-beat rhythms into the music to really kick up the intensity of the rhythm.
Are you looking for new uptempo techniques for your left hand on the piano?
Everybody is! This is the piano lesson you've got to go through.

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
[ piano music playing ]
Here's a twist - as we go through this online piano lesson, all of the blues riffs and
techniques will be based on the same blues piano scale that we've studied in
previous chapters. But now, we're going to look at it with a Rock beat, using the
concept of "Straight Eighths". Again, this is a completely different animal from the
swing beat.
This lesson will also be detailing some fat "phat" chords! F#7-5, F13, E7+5,
C7#11... but wait a minute: what are all these phat chords doing in the context of a
rock piano lesson? Here's the kicker - when you merge these phat jazz piano
chords with the straight eighths of the rock beat, you've created a fantastic
new style called "Fusion". Maybe you've heard of it - it's a fusion of rock music
and jazz music that combines the best elements of each style on the piano.
If you're looking for new sounds under your fingers on the piano, this piano lesson
is a whole new buffet of delicious ideas to chew on!
[ piano music playing ]
Now for those of you that want to go deeper, don't quit yet! There's more heavy
duty stuff. For instance, we'll be studying the awesome sound of the minimalist tritone comp chord. Now this is the same tritone comp chord that we've studied in
earlier chapters. But now, we're going to use it to create something called
"Suspended Chords". You've heard of suspended chords before, but when you
create it with this minimalist tritone comp chord, it's very very phat!
[ piano music playing ]
Finally, one extra tidbit we're going to study is the #11 chord. This goes right along
with the fusion technique. This particular chord adds what's called "Polytonal"
sounds in your music. Now I know polytonal sounds like a big-headed concept. But
polytonal simply means "Many different tones" We'll merge different tones from
different chords to come up with new phat fusion sounds. This is a fantastic
technique, and you'll hear new sounds coming out of your keyboard.
Don't miss this lesson. These concepts will change the way you play the piano!
Really, it will change they way you think about music.
Now let's take a look at the full song used in this lesson as a vehicle to teach all
these blues riffs and techniques. Here it is up to tempo.

[ piano lessons video here]


The full lesson also contains an ultra slow motion version of that piano song.
[ piano lessons video here]
Now in the full lesson, we go through each one of those blues riffs and
techniques in note for note detailed study as well as the music theory that
they're based on. But for now I just want to hit some highlights. Let's take a look
at a short sample of where we're studying just the chords being used.
The verse - A minor 7, and moving on third measure C7, and C7 #11. Ohhhh!
That's a nice polytonal chord. We're going to study that and see how that brings
out some neat stuff later in the lesson. Now, it is the raised version of this note,
1,2,3,4. Why don't I call it call it C7#4? Well, the truth is, I'd sound mighty
uneducated; and you don't want to sound that way. :) But more importantly, it sorts
a lot of things when you get to complex chords if you call the second, the fourth
and the sixth by their higher extension names. When their when the 7th is present.
Oh my goodness! What did I just say? When the 7th is present, call the 2nd, the
4th, and the 6th by their higher extension names anytime that 7th is present. Well
what are their higher extension names? Well let's go up an octave!
[ piano lessons video here]
Alright unto the fun stuff. In the upcoming videos, we're going to look at
samples taken from the sections where we're studying through each one of
the twelve individual blues riffs. For instance, here is a sample taken from riff
#3. Riff #3, a really fun riff to play that sounds like this.
[ piano music playing ]
Nice and slow sounds like this
[ piano music playing ]
You see why I'm putting in the accents? Accents where notes are louder than
others really make a line come alive or else everything seems kind of lifeless. I can
play without accents like this...
[ piano music playing ]
Right? The sounds just like ... like tissue paper, you've got to make those things
jump out.
[ piano music playing ]

Now it's based on a blues scale, the lead sheet says C7 but there's an additional
note that shows up in there. That A. How does that A jive with the C blues scale?
Well, it's a higher extension. That's the 13th of C.
[ piano lessons video here]
Alright let's jump ahead. Here's a sample taken from where we're studying through
riff #9. Riff #9 is a doozy!
[ piano music playing ]
Lot of stuff going on there, you know where the excitement comes in? It's in the
unexpected twist and turns of the music...
[ piano lessons video here]
Most of that riff is based on the A blues scale. You know that from Chapter 11 right?
A lot of great things in this world are built on that little, tiny scale! The only note that
shows up that's not a part of that is that little passing note there... watch for it!
[ piano lessons video here]
Isn't that amazing! This has just been a sample of some of the video highlights for
"Blues for Piano and Keyboard" Chapter 13. If you like to see more, come on over
to keyboardblues.com
In this website, there's a wealth of online piano and keyboard lessons that you can
dig in and play including this lesson.
[ piano music playing until fade ]

If you're looking for new sounds under your fingers on the piano, this
piano lesson is a whole new buffet of delicious ideas to chew on!
Enjoy...

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 14 Overview (Part 1 of 2)


Almost too much to list - this is a very in-depth blues piano lesson!
We'll cover advanced topics such as:

The "Tri-tone" Chord Substitution


This very advanced concept is the root of all super-"phat" chord
substitutions. Tired of playing what's on the chord chart? Throw the Tri-tone
substitution into your tunes and get a handle on some brand new sounds.

Piano "Shell Chords"


This minimalist approach to playing left-hand comp chords is an ideal way to
lay down a solid foundation underneath a piano solo.

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this


page)

Alternate Piano Blues Chords and Chord Voicings


There's always more - that's what makes music so beautiful. We'll dig into
some alternate blues chords and chord voicings to bring new life to the
keyboard.
The "Half-step" push!
Born in the Texas and Chicago Blues Clubs, this simple technique is an
ideal way to really push the beat of the music when you don't have a whole
lot else to do!
Alternate Blues endings
Every blues and jazz player is looking for something new - check out these
alternate chords to give the ending a new twist. We'll pull some ideas from
our study in tri-tones here.
The classic blues "Trash Can" ending
You've heard this a thousand times - the classic trash can ending comes
alive when all the players wrap up the tune and throw it in the can with a big
old bang. Check this out - you'll recognize it immediately, and now you'll
know how it's played!

Partial transcript from this piano lesson below:


Here we go, Blues 14... In this video you'll see the entire song we're
studying in this piano lesson. On the screen, you'll see all the blues riffs as
well as all the advanced techniques that we're going to dig into. They'll be
detailed in slow motion video sections later in this lesson. But here's the
whole song up to tempo:

[ piano video lesson here ]


Today, I hope you got a lot of sleep because we're going to spend a lot of
energy going through quite a few advanced piano concepts. Some of the
advanced musical concepts in this chapter include the "Tri-tone
Substitution". Now if you're a fan of the blues, and you've gone through our
earlier blues lesson chapters, that really may have caught your attention.
You know we talk about the tri-tone a lot, but this really is the first time we've
talked about the "Tri-tone Substitution". The tri-tone is a nifty little music
building block that's really essential to the blues and to black gospel music.
Without it you wouldn't have any nitty-gritty good chords - you'd just have
stereotypical white bread stuff!
The tri-tone substitution also serves a brand new purpose: learning to
create substitute chords to create a brand new sound in what you're
playing on the keyboard. We're going to also talk about "Shell Chords".
Shell chords are really minimalist chords that just use a couple of
notes on the piano, but they end up creating great sounds.
Another topic that's really a broad area of musical study and that shows up
quite a bit in this advanced piano lesson course is alternate chords and
voicings. Learning as much as you can is really essential to becoming a
great musician. Dig in to this section of alternate chords and voicings.
Another powerful technique that we're going to study is called the "Half-step
push". Born in the Texas and Chicago Blues clubs, this half-step push is a
fantastic tool to use when there's not a lot of activity in the chords of a song.
If you have to sit on one chord for a while, you may wonder, "What can I do
here to add some excitement?" This half-step push adds instant energy to
your piano playing.
Because musicians are always looking for something new to add,
we're going to look at an alternate blues ending in this lesson. Just
when you think the song is done, boom! there's a whole new alternate
ending, doing something completely different - it gives the song new life
again, just when it's almost over. And right at the end of the piano lesson,
we're going to add something called the classic "Blues Trash Can Ending".
You've heard this many times if you're a fan of the blues. Just like it sounds,
the Trash Can ending wraps up the tune, picks it up, and throws it in the can
with a big old bang - it sounds fantastic.
The complete version of this piano lesson contains over an hour of zoomedin video showing each riff and technique in detail. In fact, we've posted a
second video in this site, it's Part 2 of 2 from Blues 14. It shows quite a bit
of the actual lesson footage where we're detailing and taking apart each
piano riff up close, zoomed-in, and in slow motion.

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 14 Overview (Part 2 of 2)

In part 2 of this blues piano lessons video overview from chapter 14,
we'll take a look at some of the up-close video that details all of the
blues riffs, tricks and techniques used in this lesson.
This blues lesson contains quite a few advanced musical
concepts - make sure you go through the original piano lessons
course titled "Pattern Piano and Keyboard" as well as the previous
chapters in this blues piano lesson course. Enjoy!

Partial transcript from this piano lesson below:


This video is Part 2 of 2 in an overview of "Blues for Piano and
Keyboard", Chapter 14.

[ piano intro playing here ]


In this video overview of Blues for Piano and Keyboard, Chapter 14,
part 2 of 2, we're going to take a look at some detailed note for note
studies of the blues riffs and the techniques that are used in this
piano lesson. The full version of this lesson is actually an hour long
but this short video will give you a good sample of what's included.
Also in this sample clip, you'll hear me referring to a printable chord
chart that comes with the full music lesson.
Also - because this is Chapter 14, the concepts that we study are
really quite advanced. They assume that you've gone through the
earlier chapters of this series on playing the blues. If you like to check
those earlier chapters, simply go to keyboardblues.com.
To begin, here's a clip from the lesson where we're studying through
Blues Riff #1. Enjoy...
[ piano video lesson here ]

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of


this page)
We've talked about this Minor-Major interaction in the blues quite a bit
and you'll see that in a lot of these blues piano riffs. I'll state it again:
The blues, just like any good story or good movie, is full of
some tension.
One of the ways you can build musical tension is to have a fight
between Major and Minor scale modes happening at the same
time. This can occur with your right hand sliding from the minor third
to the major third, or it can occur when your right hand is playing the
major third while your left hand is introducing a minor third. That's a
lot of tension! Tension or musical "dissonance" gives the blues that
"grit" that we really gravitate towards and like so much - watch out for
that in a lot of these blues piano riffs. Minor versus Major, it's actually
a great thing.
Let's jump ahead in the blues lesson to where we're studying Blues
Riff #4. We're going to take a look at about half of the Blues Riff #4
section - specifically, we'll examine the section where we're looking at
what the left hand is doing. Here it is:

[ piano video lesson here ]


There's lot's of stuff going on in both hands on the piano. Let's start
out by looking at what happens in both hands.
The C7#9 is played like this in the left hand, [musical demonstration]
and this is actually a very common voicing on the piano for the blues.
This has got a really nice sound, but what's missing is the root of the
chord.
You've got the 3rd, the 7th and the #9. The normal 9 would be here,
[example] right? The root of the chord would sound like this...
The #9 is really gritty because of the interaction between the major
third of the chord and the minor third (actually the sharp 9th) of the
chord. You could say that chord includes the major and the minor,
right?
It's really a #9, but it sound like major against minor. Sure does to
me! So you've got C7#9... really get that one under your hands. That
is a very useful chord voicing in the right hand. Next, it moves to a
shell voicing of F7.
Now a shell voicing is nothing more than a chord that includes
the 3rd and the dominant 7. Here's F7... [example] What's missing?
Almost everything except for the 3rd and the dominant 7th of the
chord!
There's the full F7 chord [example] but we're going to play a shell
voicing. Here's the 3rd which is an A, along with the dominant 7 which
is an E flat. It's called a shell voicing because it only contains the
outer shell of the chord with nothing inside. Normally at this point,
the lesson would go to the right hand, studying that piano riff, but for
the sake of time I would like to show you a little something else from
the piano lesson video.
Let's jump ahead now to piano riff #9. Like a big old fat cookie jar,
piano riff #9 has got some good things to dig into. It sounds like this...
[ piano video lesson here ]
Let's take a look at what's going on with this blues piano riff.
We're going to first study the left hand tri-tone substitution. Let's look
at the last two measures of the introduction - A flat, G and C. Now the
A flat is red because it's a point where I'm trying to indicate that you
can play the tri-tone substitution. We've studied this tri-tone earlier,

but to recap: the tri-tone from A flat is D, so instead of F to A flat then


G to C, we'll do F - D - G - C, okay? So let's see if that works with the
right hand piano riff.
[ piano video lesson here ]
So the A flat and the D are interchangeable. In fact let's go further.
Let's do full chords on the piano...
[ piano video lesson here ]
So my point is this - those tri-tone chord substitutions are
interchangeable!
How about the right hand? Let's play that thing nice and slow so we
can get that piano riff...
[ piano video lesson here ]

Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 15 Overview


In this edition of the online piano lessons course titled "Blues for Piano and
Keyboards", we're finally breaking down the blues piano introduction that is posted
at the beginning of every lesson!
Covering many new advanced keyboard blues concepts as well as 18 brand
new blues piano riffs, this lesson is a wealth of information for those who
really want to dig in!
Using the blues introduction posted at the beginning of many of our lesson videos
as a vehicle for study, this lesson goes through each riff in ultra slow motion, upclose video. You'll see each finger placement and chord voicing in detail.
In addition to learning the specific notes and fingerings of each riff, we'll also
explore the music theory behind them. You'll dig into such concepts as:
"Anchor Points":
Learning how to lock down the rhythms of very difficult asymmetric phrases.
"Parallel" vs. "Contrary" harmony:
This little used-secret can bring a brand new sound to your playing!
"Advanced chord extensions and voicings"

"An expansion of concepts presented in earlier chapters"


After going through the previous 14 chapters of this course, you'll be ready for all of
the riffs and concepts presented in this advanced lesson - Enjoy!

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)
Partial Transcript from this Piano Lesson:
Welcome, to KeyboardBlues.com. This video is a quick overview of some of the
highlights from the piano lessons series titled "Blues For Piano and Keyboard"
Blues Piano Lessons Chapter 15. There is a lot of stuff to study in this keyboard
lesson. We're going to study 18 brand new blues piano riffs.
These are really advanced riffs. Riffs that build on everything in the previous blues
chapters I've taught. So if you've gone through and nailed down the concepts in
chapters 1 through 14, you're ready for everything in this piano lesson.
In addition to learning 18 brand new blues riffs, we're going to explore some
concepts that we haven't even touched on yet. Specifically, we're going to look at
something called "anchor points". This is the best way to lock down some really
difficult phrases on the piano. If you ever get to the point where you wonder, "How
am I ever going to get my hands together on this?" or, "How am I going to make
this phrase fall right rock solid in the rhythm"? - Once you get the concept of
learning to use anchor points, your confidence, as well as your piano playing will
improve dramatically.
To begin, let's go through the song that we're going to use in this piano lesson.
Now you're going to recognize this. When I play this up to speed with the full Blues
band, you're going to say "Hey, that's the introduction video that you use on all your
piano lessons." True, but, I've never used it in a lesson because the blues riffs in
here are really quite advanced. But we're going to nail em' note for note in this
lesson.
I'm going to play through this a couple times and I'll play through the full song up to
speed with the band. Then we'll slow it down and give the band a break and I'll
strip it down to just piano at about half speed. So you'll see the whole thing isolated
on the piano nice and slow, the second time. First, here's the whole thing up to
speed with the band.
[Piano Music Playing]

That's absolutely so much fun to play. Let's go right into the lesson now. You've
already seen me play the entire song with the band up to speed and that's so much
fun. But now let's start to break it down. I'm going to give the band a break and I'm
just going to play only piano at about half speed. So you'll see it all the way through
nice and slow. For the remainder of the hour We'll go through all 8 (FADES OUT)
Since this piano lessons video is just an overview of the highlights from chapter 15,
I'm going to jump ahead in the piano lesson now. I'm going to jump to the portion of
the video where we're going through each of the riffs, there's eighteen of them in
here, all quite advanced. But, we go through all of them up close and personal.
Nice and slow, and we detail not only the riffs, but the theory and the concepts
behind them. Here's a couple video samples from those sections. Riff number
three, two hands nice and slow. The left hand is going to have to be played up an
octave, because you can't see it. Normally, it's here. So I'm going to play it up here
where you can see it, but nice and slow. Now it starts pretty simple, right? One,
two. Some slidin' or some grace notes going' on in the right hand you're familiar
with that. But for the remainder of the riff the right hand is squeezing in a lot of
notes in between the beats like this. To really help facilitate, get the timing down I'm
going to show you something called "Anchor Points"
Anchor points are where the right or the left hand hit together. Now since the left
hand is panning out the quarter notes. Wherever the right hand hits with those
quarter notes, will be the anchor points. Meaning, the hands play together. Let me'
show you.
[Piano Lessons Video Playing]
Here's the first anchor point. Here's the next. Riff number 6 up to speed sounds like
this. Kind of an interesting little riff. A lot of chords are going through there look at
that. Gm Em-5, A7+5, and D7#9 sounds like a calculus equation. Let's take a look
at it, in detail.
The right hand has an entrance of seven squished little baby notes. Then there's
an anchor point there, right? And, in the last measure there lots of hands together.
And then, a classic shake. Borrowed from all the silent movies of the past.
Riff number nine is the old Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire riff . Which was
setting us up for riff number 9, which is over C. Immediately, the left hand grabs
this fat comp chord. What is that? It's a C13, minus the root. You've got the third,
the thirteenth, the seventh, the dominant seventh and a ninth. Minus the root. Then
it does a little move up, to another chord. Which is a D flat. Nine chord 3, 7, 9, and
back. We studied that, in a previous blues chapter It's called the half step push.
Here it is with the root. In context, you're not really changing the chord of the whole
measure to a Db, you're just passing back and forth.
That's actually my favorite little spot in the whole thing. It's kind of an angular little
phrase with that A7+5 down on there. And it ends with a D7 sharp nine, since the

left hand is just sitting and holding that D7#9. The right hand doesn't really have an
anchor point, or a point where both hands play together very much. So it's really
easy to get lost in your rhythm. Here's just a, just a reminder. If you ever find your
in a situation where primarily just one hand is playing and you've got to play a lot of
notes and fit them in and get the rhythm just right, and you don't have any anchor
points where you're hands play together to lock the rhythm to, here's the trick: Pick
out an accented note to head for. Make that your goal. Watch this. So in between
there, there's lots of little notes with lots of little rhythms. But I don't have to think
about that I just know where I'm headed, that's my goal. If I place that F in the
rhythmic spot of the piano music where I want it to, the rhythm of all those internal
notes will take care of themselves.
This has just been a quick overview of some of the highlights taken from the piano
lessons series titled "Blues For Piano and Keyboard, Chapter 15" You can
download the entire lesson at "KeyboardBlues.com"

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