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KeyboardMag.com >> This Month >> Finesse The Blues
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Finesse The BluesThe secret to good blues piano playing involves unlearning some basic principles of “correct” playing. In modern jazz piano we’re taught to ease up on the left hand while playing rootless voicings to supply subtle accompaniment to the right hand. But in the blues, the left pumps out a rocking bass while the right slams out licks. Both hands are locked together in a heavy accented triplet feel. Check your classical technique at the door when you hammer and slide notes with your second finger while pounding out the top note with your pinky, as in the first couple of examples you see here. Then there’s “the lick.” It’s the one everyone wants to know, the one you’ve heard a million times. It comes from the New Orleans tradition, and Mack Rebbenack calls it the “Huey Smith riff” in his amazing DVD and book, Dr. John Teaches New Orleans Piano (Homespun Tapes), and it is used mostly as a turnaround figure. It doesn’t look good on paper and I’ve heard it played about 25 different ways, but it’s the kind of riff that is probably in your DNA already if you’ve been listening to roots and rock music. Reading it makes you glad that blues is an aural tradition! When you practice blues piano, use the metronome playing a slow quarter note. Make even triplet subdivisions of the beat your goal. Lock the hands together, keep the intensity up in the left while finessing the right. The strong beat accents are incredibly anti-classical; make the most of them by relaxing your wrist and your arm. Blues and rock piano is supposed to be strong and loud, more aggressive than we were taught. Relaxed hands, arms, and shoulders are essential. If you’re tight you won’t last five minutes. Get audio of this lesson at www.keyboardmag.com. |
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