Fifteenth in Frank’s HUGE collection of killer blues piano licks to add to your bag… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…
Blues Piano Lick 015 (in the Key of G)
A two-bar idea that rocks back and forth between the descending G Minor Blues Scale on the downbeats and Do on the offbeats, kicked off with a bread and butter b3-3-5-6 pickup…
Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this (swing feel with a “1-3-5-6” walking bass at 130 bpm)…
Blues Piano Lick 015 Fingering Suggestion
Blues Piano Lick 015 Interpretation Suggestions
- Understate the pickups but phrase them rhythmically and dynamically to create a sense of momentum and anticipation into the target note G at the top.
- Bring out the line of “top” notes on the downbeats while understating the “bottom” notes (all Gs) on the off beats, except for the very last syncopated note which is a kind of musical exclamation point.
Choreography Tips
- Get to each key sooner, not faster.
- Use a liberal amount of lateral arm motion and arm rotations (see: Six Degrees of Freedom) that track the direction the music is going (up and down, in and out, left and right).
more like this… Blues Piano Licks