Blues Piano Breaks

Lesson Goal: To quickly internalize some bread and butter Blues Piano Breaks… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…

Table of Contents

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Prerequisites

Basic music reading skills… the LOVE of music… and the discipline to study and practice.

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Study, Practice, & Performance Tips

1. Never play these mindlessly and mechanically. Always aspire to play them musically.
2. Your goal is not to merely memorize them, but to study and practice until you internalize them using all four musical intelligences: ears, intellect, eyes, and muscles.
3. Every time you practice something, you are programming your brain. So always play accurately.
4. Practice with a Click Track or a Rhythm Track. Doing so will give you immediate feedback on any rhythmic misconceptions or places where your timing gets sloppy.
5. Record Yourself. Always. Listen to the playback immediately. And ask yourself: Is that what you intended to play?”
6. If anything feels tense or awkward, stop immediately and experiment with alternative fingerings or choreography.
7. Play the keepers in other keys you expect to play in. By the way, once you see the patterns (which is guaranteed if you know your scales and chords) finding the notes in other keys will be a piece of cake!
8. If you feel stuck or overwhelmed, realize that anything can and will be mastered if you slow things down or break things down to small enough pieces.
9. Although it take time to talk about all the above practice habits, practicing them takes almost no time at all because they can all be done simultaneously!
10. Mastering all this takes no special talent. All it takes is a wee bit of knowledge and the discipline to employ a very short list of productive study and practice habits.

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Blues Piano Break #1

Comprised of a two-note pickup that lands one “the 1” on the strong beat four times over, then continuing with a tasty walk up to the 4 chord…

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Let Frank know if you’d like to hear to hear him play something cool with the above.

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Blues Piano Break #2

Based on the gospel idea of pairing each of the “big 3” chords (I, IV, V) with its IV neighbor chord…

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Let Frank know if you’d like to hear him play some fills for the above.

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Blues Piano Break #3

Based on approaching Do from above and below using a variety of syncopated rhythms…

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Let Frank know if you’d like to hear him play some fills for the above

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learn more… Blues Piano Lessons