Improvising Blues Piano part 2: Playing authentically
with Tim Richards
Intermediate
40 lessons (2h 12m)
Sheet music included
Mobile, Tablet + Desktop
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Course Trailer
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Sample Lesson
Free
- Shuffle with II-V-I
- Reviewing II-V-I basslines
- 'Medium Jump' (performance)
- Walkthrough of Medium Jump
- II-V walking bass lines
- 'Medium Jump' (performance)
- The Left-Hand Shuffle
- 'Blues with Pickups' (performance)
- The left-hand shuffle with On-Off chords and the ‘famous lick’
- Double thirds in triplets
- 'Bouncy Boogie' (performance)
- Key of D and right-hand ideas
- Thirds improvisation ideas
- 'Bouncy Boogie' (Medley performance)
- The Blue Third/Sixth Combination
- The five-finger position in thirds
- 'Slow Blues in D' (performance)
- A Syncopated Bass Line
- Straight eighth-notes in both hands
- 'Happy Blues' (performance with improv)
- Sixths in the Right Hand
- Inverting right-hand thirds ideas to play them in sixths
- 'Syncopated Boogie' (performance)
- Expanding the Five-Finger Position
- Adding chromaticism - the b3 and b5
- 'Sad Blues' (performance)
- 'The Rocks' Left Hand
- The Blue 3rd and 5th with a new left-hand boogie pattern
- 'Blue Fifth Boogie' (performance with improv)
- Slow Blues Comping with 9th chords
- The ninth in left- and right-hand chords
- 'Slow Guitar Blues' (performance)
- Rootless ninth shapes in the right hand
- The 3579 shape, turnarounds and endings
- 'Ninth Blues' (performance)
- Triplet Comping with Ninth Chords
- A classic blues turnaround and ending
- 'Slow 12/8 Blues' (performance)
- Using sustain pedal with stretch voicings and left-hand tenths
- James Booker style left-hand patterns
- More Sixths
- 'Blues for Booker' (performance)
- 'Blues for Booker' (performance with improv)
- Minor and eight-bar blues
- Blues scale and top harmony
- 'Ain't No Sunshine' (performance)
- Chicago Blues
- 'Got My Mojo Workin' (performance)
- The key of E, turnaround/ending and R57R bass line
- Blues scale improvisation
- Up-tempo Boogie
- Some new left-hand boogie patterns
- 'Rockaboogie' (performance)
- Four-bar intro breaks and some new right-hand licks
- Two choruses of improv over a syncopated boogie in F
Lesson plan (2h 12m)
Welcome to Part 2 of the ‘Improvising Blues Piano’ course (you can find part 1 here).
Tim Richards has been playing the blues since the 1980s and this online blues piano course draws on his experience touring and recording with UK and US legends such as Otis Grand, Earl Green, Dana Gillespie, Larry Garner, Joe Louis Walker and many many more. Tim composed all pieces in this course except where otherwise indicated.
If you’ve completed Part 1 of Tim’s series of online blues piano lessons, you’ll already be playing blues in C, F and G and have a small repertoire of left-hand bass patterns and right-hand ideas. In Part 2, we’ll take things to the next level, exploring a few new keys and chords, and some more challenging left-hand patterns.
Many of the pieces and examples in this course are taken from Tim's best-selling book "Improvising Blues Piano" which has helped tens of thousands of pianists.
“I highly recommend the book... It's the best I've seen yet."
BLUES REVUE (USA)
and feedback from people who have the book:
"Without a close second, the best instruction book ever!"
READER’S COMMENT (SS, USA)
Let’s start by revisiting a style we looked at briefly in Part 1 – the two-handed SHUFFLE… and see what else we can learn from there.
So take the next step today and continue on your improvising blues piano journey.
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