Lesson Goal: To internalize some bread and butter Blues Piano Riffs… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
Basic music reading skills… basic scale, chord, and chord progression theory… basic technique… the LOVE of music… and the discipline to study and practice.
Study, Practice, & Performance Tips
- Never play mindlessly and mechanically. Always aspire to play musically.
- Your goal is not to merely memorize these, but to study and practice them until you internalize them using all four musical intelligences: ears, intellect, eyes, and muscles.
- Every time you practice something, you are programming your brain. So always play accurately.
- 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.
- Record Yourself. Always. Listen to the playback immediately. And ask yourself: Is that what you intended to play?”
- If anything feels tense or awkward, stop immediately and experiment with alternative fingerings or choreography.
- Play this 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!
- 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.
- All of this might sound like a lot of work, but it’s not nearly as much as you think. Because even though it takes time to talk about all these things, in practice they can all be done simultaneously!
back to… Table of Contents
Blues Piano Riff #1
A blues piano riff based on the commonly used idea of playing the minor third and major third of each chord side by side. The pattern is simple: A “b3-3-5” cell for each chord in pairs of yummy 1/8 note duplets…
Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this…
Note: Feel free to play any left hand pattern that suits you.
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Blues Piano Riff #2
This blues piano riff is all about “the b3” and “3″ of each chord played side by side. The pattern is simple: A “b3-3-1” cell for each chord in pairs of yummy 1/8 note duplets…
Listen to Frank illustrate one way to play this…
Note: Feel free to play any left hand pattern that suits you.
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Blues Piano Riff #3
This blues piano riff is all about the unappreciated blue note La. Notice that the exact same So-La-Do pattern played in shuffled duplets over all three chords…
listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this…
Note: Feel free to any left hand pattern that suits you.
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Blues Piano Riff #4
This riff is based on the concept of major-minor mixture… combining the major “3” and minor “b3” for each chord side by side.
The pattern is simple: A “b3-3-5” cell played in 1/8th note triplets over each chord…
Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this…
back to… Table of Contents
Blues Piano Riff #5
This blues piano riff is based on the concept of major-minor mixture… combining the major “3” and minor “b3” for each chord side by side. The pattern is simple: A “b3-3-1” cell played in 1/8th note triplets over each chord…
Technique Tips: (1) It’s okay to use your index finger on the b3 and slide the same finger onto the 3, (2) The leap from the 3 up to the 1 is easily played by using lateral and in/out hand/arm motion and circular playing.
Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this…
back to… Table of Contents
Blues Piano Riff #6
This blues piano riff is all about the unappreciated blue note La. The So-La-Do pattern played over all three chords is a great way to accompany a soloist…
Listen to Frank demonstrate one way to play this…
back to… Table of Contents
learn more… Blues Piano Lessons
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