The Blues Etudes
The blues is the language underneath everything I play: soul, funk, jazz, pop. This course teaches you to speak it on the piano, one 12-bar chorus at a time.
Like any language, you learn it in stages. For those stages I borrowed three names from the classical keyboard tradition and gave them a blues twist: the Blues Prelude, the Blues Etude and the Blues Toccata.
Blues Preludes: where it starts. The Blues Preludes are where you begin. In classical music a prelude was the short piece a player opened with, to warm up and get a feel for the instrument, and that is exactly their job here: one new thing at a time (a steady bass in the left hand, a riff in the right, the swing feel) until both hands play the blues together.
Blues Etudes: learning the language. The Blues Etudes are little songs in the language of blues piano. Like a classical etude, each one is written to practise something, yet it is music you want to play: it puts the idiom and grammar of the blues (scales, bass lines, patterns and licks) into a tune you'll want to play again.
Blues Toccatas: showing what your hands can do. The Blues Toccatas are where it all comes together. The name comes from the Italian toccare, “to touch”: in classical music, the keyboard piece that shows off a player’s touch. On the piano, touch is everything: from a whisper to a hammer blow, crushed grace notes, tremolos, a left hand that keeps rolling while the right hand takes off.
Every piece comes with sheet music that plays along with the video, and a PDF to print.
Start course Blues Etude #1
Beginner · Blues Preludes
Nothing here yet.