Champion Jack Dupree
If you're like me, you'll remember with fond affection the rhythm and blues bands of the 1960's who wrote songs starting with the words, 'Well I woke up this mornin'...' (Oh! the nostalgia of it all!) At the time, there was so much blues influenced music, but virtually no-one who could teach blues piano lessons.
How times have changed. Back then, blues music evaded most traditional musicians' understanding of musical form. It was seen as an artless music, devoid of grace, skill and discipline. The bands who were producing this amazing music struggled to get it heard, until pirate radio came along and the records they were producing started to be played.
And yet, slowly but surely during this time, the blues came to underpin just about every aspect of modern music.
Today it is still the life force of many modern styles of music, including jazz, gospel, country and rock. It's as if the struggle against poverty, degradation and lost love, all of which is at the very heart of the blues, strikes a chord with all of us in some way or other.
And perhaps it's also because the blues is such a simple form of music to play and listen to.
Yes, it really is this easy to understand:
At the centre of any piece of blues music is the simplest idea known anywhere in musical composition: 12 bars, or measures, consisting of just three chords. Learn to construct this simple 12 bar arrangement in one key and you can transpose it into any other. If you're not musically proficient it doesn't matter, because, with a little practice, you can still play it and make it sound reasonably impressive. If you are musically skilled, you can complement the basic chord structure with any number of embellishments to fill out the sound and amaze the most ardent critics of the music.
So what are the 3 chords? They are made up of the first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale. In C major, they are the chords of C, F and G. In G major they are the chords of G, C and D. In F major they are the chords of F, B flat and C and so on.
Assuming a 4/4 time signature, the first four bars in a C major blues would be an improvisation around the basic root position of the C chord. The next two bars would be an improvisation around the basic root position of the F major chord, before returning to the C major chord for the remaining two bars of the middle line. Finally, you'd go up to the G chord for one bar, down to the F chord for one bar, before returning to the C major chord for the last two bars.
Stick to this arrangement in any key and you've cracked the code for blues piano.
And the good news is, there's now so much more help available to teach you how to play blues piano.
As mentioned previously, not so long ago it was virtually impossible to find anyone to teach blues piano. It was seen as an informal and unstructured kind of music which didn't even count as an art form in its own right.
However, the huge cultural shifts that have taken place over the last 30 years or so have come to recognise the contribution 'the blues' has made to our musical landscape. In addition, the advance of technology and the arrival of multimedia forms of teaching and instruction mean there has never been a better time to find the kind of blues piano lessons that best fit your own musical tastes and abilities.
CONCLUSION
At its simplest, blues piano is easy to play. But don't let anyone tell you this applies to all blues. Some of the most renowned blues pianists can play some truly amazing things. People like Champion Jack Dupree, Dr. John and his greatest influence, Professor Longhair. And, of course, the master, Ray Charles. Listen to these bluesmen and be inspired, but don't lose hope. Remember, you can now find blues piano lessons that can teach you to play even the simplest forms of blues well and sound like a pro, if not quite like a master.
Tony Dunne has put together a complimentary report on piano lessons that will help you decide on all the issues, and much more besides, outlined in this short article. To download the report instantly visit http://www.doyouneedpianolessons.com.
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