Transcript from this piano lesson below:

This is section 4 of 4 taken from the introduction to Chapter 11 from the blues piano lesson series titled "Blues for Piano and Keyboard".

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Let's take a look at musical skill 6. This is called " The Turnaround Blues Scale". And remember at this point, we are looking at some very advanced professional techniques on the piano. Once again we're going to head to the video vault and look for musical skill 6, the "Turnaround scale" and we're working in the key of A.

The turnaround scale is just like it sounds: there's a turnaround on the piano right in the middle of the blues scale. Let me show you what it looks like and I'll explain it. Here it is in the key of A with the right hand.

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Did you see the ascending and descending turnarounds? There were a couple turnarounds. Watch this:

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See those turnarounds? Now I know you're thinking, "I was starting to get used to that and now you're making it more complicated - what is the deal?!". The reason is that once you add this turnaround to the blues sale in certain situations - especially when you're taking solos, it becomes a very phat cool sound. Let me play it for you on the piano up to speed... [ piano video lesson here ]

Watch the Video Version of this piano lesson (top of this page)

Isn't that turnaround nice? Sure it's a little something extra to learn, but then you have another tool in your tool belt. You can pull out that funky turnaround when you're taking a phat piano solo.

Okay we've looked at the right hand turnaround scale, Skill #6. Let's take a look now at what it looks like in the left hand. Just for your information, I'm giving you quick video examples of how to go through these piano skills.

Remember in the video vault, there are detailed videos of every musical skill for both hands in every key, nice and slow. You can see every piano fingering, everything is there for you to dig into. So these are quick musical examples that I'm showing you. Remember the video vault is your main resource when you're actually learning all these piano skills in both hands in all the different keys. You can do it! Okay let's take a look at the left hand, skill #6.

Just like the right hand, the left hand has a blues turnaround. Here's what it looks like.

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Remember that you can study that in great detail and more depth in the video vault. But just for an example, let me show you what it looks like in both hands now.

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Now again for example's sake I'm going to get the backing tracks out and I'm going to play an example of the turnaround blues scale on the piano with the blues band backing tracks. You'll see me play the right hand for 3 octaves on the piano, so I'm going to have to zoom the video out. Then you'll see me play the left hand in 3 octaves and finally both hands together for 3 octaves using the turnaround scale. Let me tell you again, these are advanced piano skills. This is something to really shoot for, okay? This is what it looks like. We'll start with the right hand, here we go...

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Lots of piano notes and piano skills that you're learning here!. That's a fantastic skill to learn - even if you only learn it in one key. If you learn this in one key you'll realize, "Hey I've got something else I can do. I've got some new ideas on the keyboard".

Now we're going to go to the very last skill that I'm going to teach you in Chapter 11. It's called "All Together", and it's just like it's name implies: it contains all the skills on the piano together. They're all played right in a row, except for the very first skill which is called "Half scales".

Half scales are just sort of a warm up, just to get you used to playing the blues scales. So, skill 7 titled "All Together" is Skill #2 followed by Skill #3, Skill #4, Skill #5, and Skill #6. All within 2 and a half minutes!

You'll see me do a full 1 octave scale, both hands. And then you'll see me do a 2 octave scale, both hands. Then you'll see me do... you've guessed it - A 3 octave scale, both hands. Then both hands will do a broken octave scale on the piano and finally, both hands will do a turn around scale for 3 octaves. This takes up the full 2 and one half minutes of the blues band backing tracks.

Skill 7 is the eventual goal for this entire blues piano lessons chapter. Once you can play skill 7 in every key on the piano (just like you're about to see me play in the key of A), then you will have this piano lesson mastered. But again - don't beat yourself up with this. Start with a few simple keys. The key of A is a good place to start because it doesn't have a whole lot of black notes.

Once you can play all of these musical skills on the piano in the key of A, try the key of D and then the key of G. But for now, here's what it looks like in the key of A. And just for fun, I'm doing to kick it up to the medium speed version. Remember the blues band recorded each key at 3 different speeds - slow, medium and kickin', right? Just for fun, let's play through it at the medium speed. So here we go - Blues in A, Medium Tempo. Here's the right hand, 1 octave...

[ piano video lesson here ]