Blues Piano Lessons - Chapter 13 Overview

In this edition of the online piano lessons blues course, we're going to be looking at something called "Straight Eighths". This refers to an underlying Rock beat - which is totally different from previous editions of this blues piano course. (Earlier chapters were based on an underlying Swing beat).

This underlying rock beat isn't just a little different - it completely changes the character of the music and gives it a rock flavor. Jam-packed with new musical information, this lesson details 12 new blues piano riffs for your right hand... lots of stuff to chew on!

The left hand is going to study something called the "offbeat push": learning to interject offbeat rhythms into the music to really kick up the intensity of the music. Are you looking for some new uptempo techniques for your left hand on the piano? Everybody is. This is a piano lesson you've got to go through. 

Here's a twist - as we go through this online piano lesson, all of the blues riffs and techniques will be based on the same blues piano scale that we've studied in previous chapters.

However, now we're going to look at it with a Rock beat, using the concept of "Straight Eighths". Again, this is a completely different animal from the swing beat.

This online piano lesson will also be detailing some "phat" chords! F#7-5, F13, E7+5, C7#11... but wait a minute: what are all these phat jazz piano chords doing in the context of a rock piano lesson? Here's the kicker - when you merge these phat jazz piano chords with the straight eighths of the rock beat, you've created a fantastic new style called "Fusion". Maybe you've heard of it - it's a fusion of rock music and jazz music that combines the best elements of each style on the piano.

Transcript of Chapter 13 below:

This video is a quick overview of some of the highlights from "Blues for Piano and Keyboard", Chapter 13.

[ piano music playing ]

Welcome back! This is David Sprunger from playpianotoday.com. In this edition of the blues piano lesson course, we're going to be looking at something called "Straight 8ths". This refers to an underlying rock beat which is totally different from the previous chapter of the blues course which has an underlying swing beat. This underlying rock beat isn't just a little different, it completely changes the character of the music and gives it a rock piano flavor.

Jam-packed with new musical information, this lesson details twelve new blues piano riffs from the right hand. Twelve of them! Lots of stuff to chew on. Now the left hand is going to study something called the "Offbeat Push". We'll be learning to interject off-beat rhythms into the music to really kick up the intensity of the rhythm. Are you looking for new uptempo techniques for your left hand on the piano? Everybody is! This is the piano lesson you've got to go through.

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

[ piano music playing ]

Here's a twist - as we go through this online piano lesson, all of the blues riffs and techniques will be based on the same blues piano scale that we've studied in previous chapters. But now, we're going to look at it with a Rock beat, using the concept of "Straight Eighths". Again, this is a completely different animal from the swing beat.

This lesson will also be detailing some fat "phat" chords! F#7-5, F13, E7+5, C7#11... but wait a minute: what are all these phat chords doing in the context of a rock piano lesson? Here's the kicker - when you merge these phat jazz piano chords with the straight eighths of the rock beat, you've created a fantastic new style called "Fusion". Maybe you've heard of it - it's a fusion of rock music and jazz music that combines the best elements of each style on the piano.

If you're looking for new sounds under your fingers on the piano, this piano lesson is a whole new buffet of delicious ideas to chew on!

[ piano music playing ]

Now for those of you that want to go deeper, don't quit yet! There's more heavy duty stuff. For instance, we'll be studying the awesome sound of the minimalist tri-tone comp chord. Now this is the same tritone comp chord that we've studied in earlier chapters. But now, we're going to use it to create something called "Suspended Chords". You've heard of suspended chords before, but when you create it with this minimalist tritone comp chord, it's very very phat!

[ piano music playing ]

Finally, one extra tidbit we're going to study is the #11 chord. This goes right along with the fusion technique. This particular chord adds what's called "Polytonal" sounds in your music. Now I know polytonal sounds like a big-headed concept. But polytonal simply means "Many different tones" We'll merge different tones from different chords to come up with new phat fusion sounds. This is a fantastic technique, and you'll hear new sounds coming out of your keyboard.

Don't miss this lesson. These concepts will change the way you play the piano! Really, it will change they way you think about music.

Now let's take a look at the full song used in this lesson as a vehicle to teach all these blues riffs and techniques. Here it is up to tempo.

[ piano lessons video here]

The full lesson also contains an ultra slow motion version of that piano song.

[ piano lessons video here]

Now in the full lesson, we go through each one of those blues riffs and techniques in note for note detailed study as well as the music theory that they're based on. But for now I just want to hit some highlights. Let's take a look at a short sample of where we're studying just the chords being used.

The verse - A minor 7, and moving on third measure C7, and C7 #11. Ohhhh! That's a nice polytonal chord. We're going to study that and see how that brings out some neat stuff later in the lesson. Now, it is the raised version of this note, 1,2,3,4. Why don't I call it call it C7#4? Well, the truth is, I'd sound mighty uneducated; and you don't want to sound that way. :) But more importantly, it sorts a lot of things when you get to complex chords if you call the second, the fourth and the sixth by their higher extension names. When their when the 7th is present.

Oh my goodness! What did I just say? When the 7th is present, call the 2nd, the 4th, and the 6th by their higher extension names anytime that 7th is present. Well what are their higher extension names? Well let's go up an octave!

[ piano lessons video here]

Alright unto the fun stuff. In the upcoming videos, we're going to look at samples taken from the sections where we're studying through each one of the twelve individual blues riffs. For instance, here is a sample taken from riff #3. Riff #3, a really fun riff to play that sounds like this.

[ piano music playing ]

Nice and slow sounds like this

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You see why I'm putting in the accents? Accents where notes are louder than others really make a line come alive or else everything seems kind of lifeless. I can play without accents like this...

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Right? The sounds just like ... like tissue paper, you've got to make those things jump out.

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Now it's based on a blues scale, the lead sheet says C7 but there's an additional note that shows up in there. That A. How does that A jive with the C blues scale? Well, it's a higher extension. That's the 13th of C.

[ piano lessons video here]

Alright let's jump ahead. Here's a sample taken from where we're studying through riff #9. Riff #9 is a doozy!

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Lot of stuff going on there, you know where the excitement comes in? It's in the unexpected twist and turns of the music...

[ piano lessons video here]

Most of that riff is based on the A blues scale. You know that from Chapter 11 right? A lot of great things in this world are built on that little, tiny scale! The only note that shows up that's not a part of that is that little passing note there... watch for it!

[ piano lessons video here]

Isn't that amazing! This has just been a sample of some of the video highlights for "Blues for Piano and Keyboard" Chapter 13. If you like to see more, come on over to keyboardblues.com

In this website, there's a wealth of online piano and keyboard lessons that you can dig in and play including this lesson.

[ piano music playing until fade ]

If you're looking for new sounds under your fingers on the piano, this piano lesson is a whole new buffet of delicious ideas to chew on! Enjoy...