In addition to playing blues licks, being able to apply the blues scale and play it fluently over a left-hand pattern is essential for your blues soloing. As a first step, familiarize yourself with the blues scale. It consists of the root, minor third, fourth, …
Read MoreBlues with Seventh Chords
To enhance the basic blues, you can play seventh chords instead of just major triads. Dominant seventh chords are an essential ingredient to blues, gospel or jazz. To do this, the minor seventh is added to the notes of the major triad. This very ‘bluesy’ …
Read MoreBlues Licks and Soloing
To be able to play blues licks is a great skill to have as a piano player. Or even better, to be able to come up with original licks on the spot. The blues scale is quite simple to learn, and is a great scale …
Read MorePlay with others
– This article is an exerpt from the Piano Shortcuts book. – One reason why the piano is such a popular instrument is the fact that it can be played as a solo instrument without any accompaniment and still create full arrangements and complete pieces …
Read MoreChord Essentials 2: From Intervals to Chords
– This article is an exerpt from the Playing Piano with Chords book. – Chords are basically a number of tones in certain intervals stacked upon each other. The different intervals between the chord tones create different types of chords, which makes for different sounds …
Read MoreChord Essentials 1: Intervals
– This article is an exerpt from the Playing Piano with Chords book. – To understand chords you will need a little bit of theory, but we’ll try to keep it as simple as possible. Don’t worry if you don’t understand all of it at …
Read MoreBlues Basics
Playing blues on the piano is a great way to learn soloing for other styles such as rock, jazz, funk, soul and neo soul. Because all these styles sprung from the blues, it also gives you a great foundation to understand their basic patterns. It’s …
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