Seventeenth in Frank’s HUGE collection of killer blues piano licks to add to your bag… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…
Blues Piano Lick 017 (in the Key of D Minor)
A classic minor two-bar blues vamp, similar to “Hit the Road Jack”, played in straight time. The bass line uses the top four notes of the D Descending Minor Scale (Do–Te–Le–So) played on all the down beats with a three note pickup on the last beat using a piece of the D Ascending Minor Scale (So–La–Ti) back to the top. The right hand is the tonic minor triad played on all the up beats except for V chord on the last beat…
Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this (straight feel at 88 bpm)…
Blues Piano Lick 017 Practice Tips
- Sing the Solfege syllables as you play the bass line (Do–Te–Le–So, etc)
- Scat the entire rhythm in both hands as you play and play it the way you scat it.
- You’re playing with a rhythm track, right?
Blues Piano Lick 017 Choreography Tip
Playing staccato like a pro isn’t typically about attacking the keys from above the key surface. A clean, crisp, controlled staccato is about starting with your fingertips on the key surface and doing a controlled “pushing off” with a dynamically balanced “wrist hinge technique”. (Schedule a lesson with Frank and he will show you the way).
more like this… Blues Piano Licks