Piano for Beginners 6th ED - 2016 UK

Play in the style of...

A

s a genre, blues music has been around

for a long time (well over a century now)

and the piano has been a huge part of

its sound for the duration. While it has a

lot of sub-genres – some well known, like boogie

woogie and delta blues, others not so well known –

there are a few components that remain consistent

among songs of this genre, appearing time and

time again.

The first of these components is blue notes. These

notes give the blues genre its distinctive sound.

While these notes don’t fit into any major scale, they

are still notes that can be found on the piano or

keyboard. For example, they will usually present as

flattened third, flattened fifth/sharpened fourth and

flattened seventh notes of a scale. So in a C major

scale, the blue notes would be Eb-Gb/F#-Bb. The Eb

and Bb are already flattened on the minor scale. So

it may help you remember a natural minor scale and

only flatten the fifth. On other instruments these

notes may be tuned down even further, and if your

keyboard supports microtonal tuning you may want

to experiment.

The second component that defines the blues

genre – through all its variations – is its form. Many

songs of the blues genre use an I-IV-V progression

across 12 or 16 bars. If you were to play an E blues

(a common blues for a guitarist), it would feature

E-A-B – the first, fourth and fifth degrees of the E

major scale.

Improvisational solos are also a big part of blues

piano playing. However, the good news is that you

can stick to the corresponding blues scale’s notes;

use these and your solos should sound great.

A broad genre with a few defining characteristics,

blues is bound to have something for you

Blues

Inspirational works

The Honeydripper

Artist: Roosevelt Sykes

Year : 1961 Label: Bluesville

Roosevelt Sykes is renowned for his

top-tapping, boogie-woogie piano

as well as his risqué lyrics. This album

remains one of the greats from a true

legend of the genre, who dominated

the blues piano scene for well over

six decades.

Tas t y B lu e s

Artist: Little Brother Montgomery

Year : 1961 Label: Prestige /

Bluesville 1012

One of the most versatile pianists

of the 2 0th century, and this aptly

named album showcases his

Chicago-style blues to perfection.

He is renowned for keeping the true

heritage of blues music at the heart.

Eagle Rock Rag

Artist: Lead Belly

Year : 2015 Label: Sandrew Metronome

This record is a great example of

raw ragtime blues. Written in 2 /4

or 4/4 time, with a characteristic

left hand pattern of bass notes on

odd-numbered beats and chords

on even-numbered beats, with a

syncopated right hand blues melody.

Boogie-woogie trilogy

Artist: Silvan Zingg Trio

Year : 2008 Label: CD Baby

Silvan Zingg loves boogie-woogie

blues so much, he founded an

international festival to celebrate

it. This album sees Zingg’s smooth

blues piano alongside the equally

talented Nuno Alexandre on double

bass and Valerio Felice on drums.

Some of the greatest piano blues records

“Improvisational solos

are a big part of blues

piano playing”

©

Svein

M

Agnalt

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