Blues Shuffle Piano Comping

Lesson Goal: To add some tasty Blues Shuffle Piano comping styles to your bag… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…

Table of Contents

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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.

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Study, Practice, & Performance Tips

1. 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!
2. Your goal is not to merely memorize this, but to study and practice it until you internalize it 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 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!
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.

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Comping Pattern #1

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern is an opportunity to get familiar with some chord voicings for the “big three” chords (I-IV-V) and to work on your left-right coordination. The left hand here is sometimes called the “chop”…

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Comping Pattern #2

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern is a bouncy, two-fisted groove that works great at medium to fast tempos…

The combination of the walking bass in relentless quarter notes while your right hand plays the chords on all the in-between, offbeats in shuffle rhythm.

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Comping Pattern #3

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern combines a walking bass in the left hand with a syncopated two-bar pattern in the right hand. Don’t forget to shuffle the eighth notes!

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Comping Pattern #4

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern is a double-pump version of “the chop” from Comping Pattern #1…

Don’t forget to shuffle the eighth notes!

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Comping Pattern #5

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern combines the “single chop” left hand with lots of bluesy minor third versus major third action and that 6-4 neighbor chord thing in the right…

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Comping Pattern #6

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern combines broken triads bouncing in the left hand with lots of syncopation in the right that outlines each chord in 6ths, all the while emphasizing the La…

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Comping Pattern #7

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern introduces you to a more complex left hand based on playfully bouncing around the primary chord tones with emphasis on that bluesy b3 against major 3 thing… and getting the 6 in on beat 4 in order to generate some forward motion into the next bar…

Technique Tip: For each pair of repeated notes, it’s okay to release the first one “early” in order to prepare to play the second.

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Comping Pattern #8

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern is harmonically and rhythmically a bit more sophisticated: Double-pump bass line with some colorful and syncopated harmonic action employing 6ths and 9ths in the right hand…

Technique Tip: For each pair of repeated notes, it’s okay to release the first one “early” in order to prepare to play the second.

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Comping Pattern #9

This blues shuffle piano comping pattern, a double-pump bass line, a la “Further on Down the Road”…

Technique Tip: For each pair of repeated notes, it’s okay to release the first one “early” in order to prepare to play the second.

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Practice Tracks: Blues Shuffle Drums

The most basic Blues Shuffle Rhythm–kick on 1 & 3, snare on 2 & 4, while hi-hat shuffles…

Listen to a sample at 140 bpm…

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Blues Shuffle Drums (MP3s)

Downloadable drum tracks for jamming along and tightening up your Blues Shuffle Rhythm… 11 MP3s, each long enough to wear you out, tempos ranging from 80 to 160 bpm in 10 bpm increments…

The benefits of playing along with a click track at various tempos cannot be overstated: very slowly at first to have enough time to “think about everything”, then fast enough to be forced to “play without thinking”.

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 80 bpm…

Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 90 bpm…

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 100 bpm…

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 110 bpm…

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 120 bpm…

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 130 bpm…

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 140 bpm…

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 150 bpm…

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Play Along Shuffle Drums @ 160 bpm…

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For a donation to the website (Donations Page) Frank would be happy to send you his entire library of Blues Piano Comping Patterns and Drum Tracks produced to date… accessible by a direct link to four sets of downloadable zip files that include high res PDF music scores and full length MP3 drum tracks for slow triple-feel, slow straight, shuffle, and swing.

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learn more… Blues Piano Lessons