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Learn Blues Piano
December 9, 2009
When you are interested in learning to play the piano, you will find that for the most part, all you need is time, patience and a certain amount resources. The piano is an instrument that lends itself to styles ranging from classical, to pop, to jazz to alternative and no matter what music you love, there is a good chance that you can play it on the piano.
What exactly is blues piano? It is a music style and once you learn to play it on the piano you will have fewer troubles in learning to play other music styles. Keep on reading and by the end of this article, you will know a great deal about blues music and playing it on the piano.
To start with, you must know 12-bar blues. This is a very common progression if you want to do blues piano playing. To play this particular blues form, most pianists make use of seventh chords. A song is usually broken into 3 sets. Each of the sets consists of 4 bars. Start by playing the song on the C key. Use ‘I’ to illustrate the tone (C) in the C key. The IV tone is F and the V tone is G.
This means that the initial set is going to be played as I, I, I, I. After that, you have the next set played with IV, IV, I, I. Finally, you will have V, IV, I, I. You will use your right hand to play these three sets, and get used to mastering the seventh chord.
For your left hand, follow the 8-note pattern. The pattern is like this: I-III-V-VI-VIIb-VI-V-III. When playing the C chord with the use of your right hand, the notes played will be C-E-G-A-Bb-A-G-E. While for the chord F, you will be playing F-A-C-D-Eb-D-C-A. For the chord G, you will be playing G-B-D-E-F-E-D-B.
Try to examine the chords and notes played both by the left and right hand. If you already know the different piano chords and notes, learning blues piano can be very easy. Before anything else, you will have to master 12-bar blues in the key C. Once you’ve mastered it, you can try playing it using other keys.
When you are interested in putting together a good foundation for the piano, begin by learning to play the blues. You will find that some pianists start by playing the blues and then they begin to make their way into playing other styles that they love as well. Consider what a strong foundation you can create when you are looking at moving forward with your blues skills and you will find that it can be something that will serve you well in your career to come. What kind of performance do you think you can draw?
When you are looking into how to play blues piano, make sure that you find a good teacher. If you cannot travel for lessons, look into CD or DVD programs that can get you where you need to go. Online piano lessons or a piano guide book can help you along as well. When you want to master your lessons, take some time to look into what you can invest in learning about it.
You see, it takes some time before you can play really good. It might even take years of learning and constant practice. By exerting enough effort, time, and money, you can be a very good pianist.