Another important element of funk music is chord progressions. While some tunes can stay on just one or two chords for minutes, others feature characteristic harmonic movements. These are often in the domain of the keyboard, piano or organ player. A very common movement in …
Read MoreA Funk Bassline
Funk, more than most other musical styles, is based on rhythm and groove. Any good funk tune will make you want to get up and dance! It is hard to listen to the likes of James Brown, Sly Stone or Stevie Wonder without tapping your …
Read MoreFunk Rhythm Exercise
Funk is a very riff-based style, where a certain motive is played repeatedly, sometimes throughout the whole song. On the piano it can be both challenging and fun to play funk in a solo setting. All parts that would otherwise be played by the bass …
Read MoreBlues Beginnings
One way to make the basic blues sound more interesting and musical, is to start with a beginning before you play your repeated 12 bar blues scheme. Below are two blues beginning examples in the key of F which you can try and practice. Both …
Read MoreHow to read Piano Sheet Music 4
More symbols Here are some more musical symbols, which are used to notate more detailed variations of written music. Lines The final barline indicates the end of the piece. The repeat sign indicates that a section of the music should be repeated (think brackets). …
Read MoreHow to read Piano Sheet Music 3
Counting and rhythm To structure the movement of music in time, the staff is divided into measures or bars by bar lines. The length of the bars or measures depends on the time signature. A 4/4 time signature tells you that each bar has the …
Read MoreHow to read Piano Sheet Music 2
The Bass Clef The bass clef is a stylized ‘F’ which sits on the second line from the top of the staff. It is also called the F-clef. The note it surrounds is an F. The notes written in the bass clef are usually played …
Read MoreHow to read Piano Sheet Music 1
Are you having trouble reading piano sheet music? Or are you a beginner piano player wanting to learn how to read the notes? Reading sheet music is easier than you think. The naming of notes follows the order of the alphabet from A to G …
Read MoreBlues Soloing
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’ …
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