Playing Blues Piano By Ear

Learning to play blues on the piano by ear opens the door for other variations of piano music such as jazz piano, rock and country. The basic components of learning blues piano music are scale progressions, chord progressions and other chords. Once these have been mastered, it is easy to move on to other types of piano music.

A blues piano lesson begins with the student grasping the comprehension of chords. To start, understand that chords are named after the intervals of musical notes utilized to play the music. All chords follow a scale progression with the primary chord being C. A C chord derives its name from the root, third, fifth and octave.

Blues piano music utilizes pentatonic progression which has you playing the starting note, the third note and moving up intervals. Continue by playing a third up from that new interval and move up and down the pentatonic scale. This would look something like this in musical note form: B-D-E-G-A-Bb-A-G-E-D-C-D. Blues piano music exhibits a slow swing rhythm. In this format, eighth notes are clipped to play shorter at every other note. The effect is a bluesy swing effect to the music.

Chord progressions and techniques in blues piano music is what makes it one of the more enjoyable musical formats to play. To master the art of playing blues music by ear on the piano it takes a little understanding of interval shifting techniques; chord changes and pentatonic scales. Once these skills have been polished, you are well on your way to becoming a great blues piano player. Start by perfecting the art of the 12 bar C-Scale and move on from there. Try out the various rhythms to create your own blues songs. Impress friends by going up and down the pentatonic scale. This creates a riff sound to the music which is common in blues music.

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