Beginner's Blues Tutorial

Hi everybody,

I am recovering from my surgery, I still can't really sit up so I am not quite able to do this the way I wanted with piano recordings as examples for each step along the way.  However, I can give an example of something I recorded a while ago, so that you can generally know what all of this adds up to.  This is in F, while the tutorial will be in A, but nonetheless here is an example.

 F'ing Blues by Malcolm81

I think everyone should learn the blues for a couple reasons, first it is very influential and well known.  Any one in the U.S. will instantly recognize a blues riff as a blues riff, and they will have heard something similar being played in the style of music that they listen to most.  I not too well versed in modern music, e.g. new music written for a classical orchestra, but if they aren't using any blues then they are not speaking in the full musical vocabulary of their audience.

Second, it is an excellent entry point into improvisational music.  This is essentially because there is relatively little theory to keep track of, but also because the leads in the blues are generally very riffy, and when you are in the groove you can find yourself improvising the lead over the blues in much the same way you would play a drum.  It is easier to get into the groove in blues than jazz for these reasons, and if you are going to learn to improvise, you have to come to grips with the fact that it is not really an intellectual exercise, your consciousness should receed somewhat from the immediate playing while still being engaged in the music, thinking about things like your spot in the chord progression, how many more cycles through before the song break, etc.  I think it easier to get to that point in the context of the blues than in jazz.

Fundamentals

While they're isn't much theory in the blues, there is some.  Remember, music theory is there to make it easier for musicians to make music, and for music critics to discuss music.  When you are good, and in the groove, it won't be your job to explain why your music is good.  While you are beginning, however, it is a useful guide in limiting the possibilities, thereby reducing the number of bad notes that you will play, helping you get a feel for the music.

Rhythm 

In blues you almost never play straight eighth notes (though that is common in closely related styles like blues based rock).  Swing rhythm is common in jazz as well as the blues, but since in the blues it is common to play triplets as well, it is easiest to explain blues rhythm as really being in 12/8 time.

When playing this, remember to emphasize the first note of the triplet, or another way to theink about it is the note on the beat.  Also, remember that this feel is going to be the same even if the time signature is 4/4, and in many cases even if it is 4/4 are notated with just two eight notes, it is played as if the first note is two thirds of a triplet, and the second one one third.  That's the same as swing rhythm in jazz.

Also, in blues the emphasized beats are the 1 and the 3, and in general in the blues unless you are the drummer or the bassists, it's better to find a spot off the beat to play, without allowing the syncopation to make it too funky. But if you are playing by yourself finding a way to emphasize the one and the three is definitely a good idea.

Scale

Since this is a piano blog, what I give here is what I think is the easiest way to play the blues on a keyboard.  Different instruments will of course play more easily in other keys.  But I think overall it is easiest to learn to play the blues on the piano in the key of A.

Ok,don't freak out, this scale is actually pretty easy, I will explain it note for note and it won't take long.  First of all the key signature is that of A major -- that is a matter of convention, a convention which does not make particularly good sense to me either, but will make somewhat more sense when you see the chords that are used.  Second of all,these are all white keys except for Eb, which is as easy as it gets.

Anyhow, the first note is the root, A.  The second note is a minor third, which has a flat accidental, because the key signature is A major.  Then there is a perfect fourth.  Then, there is a flat fifth.  This flat fifth is something of a defining note of the blues scale--especially over the I chord, it has the effect of providing dissonance with the fifth in the chord.  In other words, it sounds out of tune in a blue way, being just under neath a chord tone.  The minor third is similar in this respect, but somewhat less definitively bluesy.  Next is the perfect fifth.  While a perfect fifth is really nothing super fancy, it is a good note, you will use it a lot.  What is noteworthy here though is that there are three chromatic notes in a row -- the fourth, the flat fifth, and the fifth.  I know of no other scale, other than the chromatic scale, which has this.  Last is the minor seventh.  This tone actually doesn't always sound out of tune, but sometimes it emphasizes the flattened nature of the seventh in the chord.

Actually they are all good notes, and you will play them all a lot.  Since there are only six of them, and one of them is really there twice (the fifth), all of the notes get a lot of use.  Hopefully your fingers will get to know them quickly, that's one of the reasons I think the blues is a good way to learn to improvise.

Chords

The chords used in the blues are major dominent seventh chords.  Playing what is essentially a minor scale over major chords is what gives the blues it's out of tune feel.  These get played with your left hand, to free your right hand up for the lead.  If someone else is playing the lead, these in your right hand with a bass note from the chord in your left is an option, but maybe not the best one.

I usually play these an octave lower than I wrote them here, but that's a matter of taste since it can sound muddy.  Anyhow, these are very straight forward voicings.  One of the advantages of the key of A is that these voicings are all the same shape-- you can just set your hand and move them up and down the keyboard, and they should land on the right keys if you match up the root note.  Also, I feel like it's best to play all the notes of the dominant seventh chord until you have your own feel for it, a lot of the blues is based off of the dischord you get from playing the blues scale over these chords, so it is easiest to just play them and not worry about some notes being implied or extra notes softening it or anything like that.

Also, note that the same blues scale is played over all of these notes.  I think jazz people and others who like to think vertically secretly think of their being 3 different modes of the blues scale, one for each of these chords, even though I honestly have never really seen it expressed that way. Additionally, the root note, in this case A, retains some significance as the root even when the other chords are being played.

Progression

The main progression in the blues is the 12 bar blues structure.  A great many songs are just this, with a modification or two to make it a little more interesting.  Ok, without further ado, the basic 12 bar progression is:

Playing

Ok, the plan was that I was going to be including recordings along the way, and especially in this section.  However, I can't play the piano, because my leg still has to be elevated from the surgery, or else it starts to hurt. With these exercises, I recomment not learning them in all the keys as you go along, but rather learn to play in A first, or some other key, if you prefer, but I think A is easiest, and then transpose around the keys, skipping the exercises that you don't feel like you need to do in each key.  I also see a lot of jazz books recomment that you take all of your licks that you like, and transpose them around all the keys.  I am not entirely sure I agree with this advice--if the layout of a particular key makes a lick easy to play in that key, I say go for it.  There will be other licks unique to other keys that you can play on them.  But I do think there should be some stock licks that you can use over anything, for when you are out of ideas (having a "bag of tricks" is a part of improvisational technique that is not talked about too much, but is definitely part of improv.)

Exercise 1

Play the blues scale, using blues rhythms, trying to make interesting riffs. A metronome might be useful here.  Try to make them more dance rhythm like, and then more head dancing like, and then more melodic, and then more dancy again.  Get the feel of a blues lead.

Exercise 2

Learn the first chord, the A7 if you are using the A blues scale, as recommended.  Find a bluesy rhtyhm with it.  Groove a while with it.  In preparation for putting the lead and the rhythm together, use your left hand for this.  Then, make something really simple that still sounds kind of bluesy--I recommend a short duration on the one and the three as an idea.  If you are playing slower, try playing softer on the one and the three, but holding the chord down.  This feels like you are kind of pumping in harmony like it's a fluid.

Exercise 3

Play the blues scale licks from 1 in your right hand over your simple rhythms from exercise 2 in your left. Just do one chord at a time.  Feel free to really jam with this.  I've seen rock musicians on stage eseentially do this exercise for 10 minutes at a time, on stage, in front of crowds--so this is the exercise where all the magic should start to happen.  Don't be afraid to get repetitive.  Don't be afraid to play without any structure at all.  Just jam.  Enjoy yourself.  Get to the point where you are able to entertain yourself with this, not because your playing the piano, but because the music your playing is interestiong to yourself.

Do this over the different chords, just jamming over each one.  Notice how the scale feels a little different over each one.  Also, at this point you might start to get a little bored of A, feel free to get a head start exploring other key signatures.

Exercise 4

Put it together into a twelve bar!  This step is actually a little tougher than it sounds, feel free to use a metronome, and don't get down on yourself for counting wrong--it's really not simple.  Part of the problem is that you were probably using all of your attention on playing, now you have to find some more consciousness somewhere.  I think the best way to think about it is that you have to learn to see ahead to the next chord.  There might be a little more to it than that, but if you can anticipate the chord changes one at a time you are well on your way to jamming over a 12 bar, getting experience that way.

Another part of the problem is that the end of the twelve bar has 2 measures of A7, and the start has 4, for a total of 6.  That can be a little high to count to measure for measure.  The best solution, in a straght ahead 12 bar, is to think of the chord changes two measures at a time -- it's easier to count to three than to six.  Another way, if you're in control of the chord progression (playing by yourself or with accomadating people) is to add a measure of D7 as the second bar -- this is called an "anticipation" and is fairly common. The result is 2 meausures of A7 from the end, one measure at the beginning, for a total of 3.  Then the bar of D7, then 2 more of A7. Breaking it up like this can really help.

Exercise 5

Transpose this around the cycle of fourths (from A to D, to G, to C, to F, to Bb, etc), and learn to play in all 12 keyes.  Oh come on, you knew this was coming.

Next Steps

You can now play 12 Bar blues, so feel free to try to find other poeple to jam with.  Also you can learn the melodies of a lot of tunes, where the solo sections will either be 12 bar or very similar.  Additionaly you can write your own tunes, either over the 12 bar prgression, a modified 12 bar progression, or you can make an 8 bar progression also.

Now that you have a feel for playing through staying withing the blues scale, it's worth realizing that no blues players really do that.  So feel free to add notes.  And I have two recommendations for beginning the expansion of notes: adding chord tones when you want to sound more harmonic, and adding chromatic phrases when you want to be more out of tune.  Most blues players use both of these devices.  I will maybe include some more stuff later on, and I will be adding some recordings to use as examples, so feel free to check this blog in the future.