Blues piano music is a genre of piano playing which originated in the plantation fields of Southern U.S.A. with the African American workers' "field hollers". Blues music is founded on 'blue' notes and often has a repetitive pattern usually following a 12 bar structure.
Melodically, blues music is categorized by the flattening of the 3rd, 5th, and 7th notes of the associated major scale. "Blue notes" are musical notes played or sung at a lower pitch than the major scale. The alteration is usually less than a semitone. By flattening the 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the scale, the major scale is turned into a blue scale by the presence of those blue notes. The blues scale is almost always used in all 8 bar and 12 bar blues pieces. During the birth of the blues , the flattened 3rd and flattened 7th were the mostly used blue notes.
The first blues song ever recorded was "Laughing Song" by George W. Johnson in 1895.
Boogie-Woogie is probably the most well-known form of piano blues. Rag-time piano playing is also closely related to piano blues and came into being at about the same era.
Would you like to extend your piano playing reportoire so as you sound like Ray Charles belting away on those ivories? Well, even if you can't play the piano at all, or are a little rusty, or your piano teacher only liked Beethoven, there is hope for you!
No, you don't have to find yourself a blues piano teacher, just hop online and start searching.
Blues piano lessons are now available online. To make it a little easier for you, this article is going to review a few of the better sites offering blue piano lessons:
Musicianuniversity.com appeared to be an excellent site. This site covered blue chords, scales, and possibly most importantly, the tips and tricks needed to ensure that you sound like you were born in New Orleans. Great bonuses of free blues scales and chord dictionaries were also up for offer at the time of writing.
Bluespianolessonsonline was another inspiring site. Press the "begin" button and you too will be tapping away with your fingers. This program features left hand, right hand, chords, 12 bar arrangements, and the tips and tricks of authentic blues music. This site was well laid out and very easy to use. Highly recommended.
Freeonlinepianolessons really is a free site! This site actually does have free blues piano lessons. The page was jam packed full of technical advice and theory, explained well. Obviously this page was aimed at the musician who has had some piano training but the theory was excellent, and free.
Playpiano.com on the other hand, bills itself as a free blues piano lesson site, but the actual blues and boogie section certainly was not free. There were piano lessons for beginners on the site that were free, but as I said, the specific blues/boogie program was not as stated initially, ie:free.
Enroll yourself in these online blues piano lessons, and you too will soon be playing "Georgia on my Mind" or "Ball and Chain" like a blues piano expert!
