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"Playing Blues, Boogie, & R&B"
What a great
course! If you've ever wanted to play "the blues",
or any variation of the blues, such as boogie, R&B (rhythm and blues), Kansas
City rhythms, Chicago Blues, and some forms of rock, then you absolutely MUST
latch onto this course!
The 12-bar blues is all-American. It
developed right here, and until the last few years, it's main
musicians were right here in the US. I had the privilege not
long ago of standing on the corner of Bourbon St. and listening
to the musicians in Preservation Hall play some of the most
authentic blues I've heard.
You simply play 12 measures
of the same chord progression over and over, each time
improvising some different melody on top of those changes. And
those changes are:
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The 12
Bar Blues Chord Progression
4 bars
of the I chord
2 bars
of the IV chord
2 bars
of the I chord
1 bar
of the V chord
1 bar
of the IV chord
2 bars
of the I chord |
The 7th is usually added to each chord
-- so if the I chord is F, you would usually play F7 -- that is
kind of assumed in the blues.
The
structure of the 12 bar blues is very simple. And since it is
fun, play it over and over again until you get the sounds you
want!
The "melody" of the 12-bar blues is something that each
musician makes up as he/she goes along. It is based on the blues
scale, which is a bit different than the regular diatonic scale
we all grew up with -- it includes all those "regular" notes,
but also uses the flat 3rd, the flat 5th, and the flat 7th
degrees of the scale.
Here is the blues scale in the key of C:
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The
"blues scale" is really a combination of the major
diatonic scale (the "regular" scale we all grew up with)
plus three
additional notes:
The
flatted 3rd;
The
flatted 5th (or sharp 4th -- same thing);
The
flatted 7th;
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So the blues scale really contains 11 notes --
the 8 of the normal diatonic scale -- and the 3 "blue notes".
These are used
in
various combinations, as we shall see, to create a "bluesy
sound".
The blues
started not as a piano style, but as a vocal style, and of
course the human voice can sing "in the cracks" between the
notes on the keyboard. So when we play blues on the keyboard,
we try to imitate the human voice by playing BOTH the 3rd and
the flat 3rd -- BOTH the 5th and the flat 5th -- BOTH the 7th
and the flat 7th. We would play in the cracks if we could, but
we can't, so we do the best we can by combining the intervals
to imitate the quarter steps that a human voice can sing.
(Certain instruments can do that too -- for example, the
trombone. Since it has a slide, it can hit an infinite number
of tones between any two keyboard notes.)
In this course you'll learn how the
12-Bar Blues
is formed. Then you'll play along with Duane as he plays a blues bass
line for you. Rhythm & blues is next. Then you'll learn about the old
"barrel-house" styles, and work through a basis boogie-woogie pattern. Then
you'll learn some specific techniques used in blues playing, and by the end of
the course you'll be jamming on some blues riffs. Great piano course!
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