Learning to play on the blues is a lot of fun and is a wonderful gateway into jazz improvisation. The Blues is a style of African American music that came into popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some important figures are Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, John Lee Hooker as well as Buddy Guy and B. B. King.

Singing and playing the blues is very expressive, as the style was created to express sad and frustrating feelings through music.

The blues shows up heavily in jazz and is widely known to have been the precursor to rock and roll and R&B.

Understanding the blues not only gives you a snapshot into this important musical style, but it also provides a structure for deeply satisfying improvisations. In this quick tutorial you will learn

1. The 12 bar blues form
2. How to play the chords
3. How to walk a bass line
4. How to improvise on a blues

Easy to understand and addictively fun to play – and you learned it in under 15 minutes!

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro
00:14 What you need to know about the Blues
00:59 Piano demonstration of a Blues progression
02:06 Simple way to outline a harmony and walk a bass line
02:42 Outlining a harmony to walk a bass line while playing a chord
03:36 Outlining a harmony to walk a bass line while playing a comping rhythm
03:49 Piano demonstration of outlining a harmony to walk a bass line while playing a comping rhythm
05:07 Creating an environment to improvise to play Blues
06:00 Solo piano shell voicings
07:37 How to get started improvising around the entire structure of the Blues
08:34 Piano demonstration of improvising one chorus using half notes to learn how to play Blues
09:29 Piano demonstration of improvising one chorus using quarter notes to learn how to play Blues
10:25 Piano demonstration of improvising one chorus using any rhythm to learn how to play Blues
11:24 How to practice to learn to play a Blues on piano
11:44 Video recap
12:04 Outro