Blues piano tutorial, part two - the left hand

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The first thing to master if you aim to learn blues piano is how to play a steady left-hand pattern. Making your two hands work together can be challenging, so this video explains how to develop a simple left-hand pattern and offers a blues exercise that should help you to start playing simple right-hand patterns over the top.

Playing the blues with two hands is actually pretty simple once you've had some practice. The reason for this is that the left hand often follows what a classical musician might call an ostinato or figured bass - a very simple, repetitive sequence that backs up the right hand with bass, rhythm and harmony. If you think of your piano as a whole blues band, the left hand is the rhythm section and the bass while your right is doing the melodic stuff.

The secret with this - as with any kind of piano improvisation - is to practise and practise and practise until the conventions of the blues form and these repeated left hand patterns really become part of your subsconscious.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• blues piano left hand
• play blues piano
• blues piano
• blues piano basics
• 12 bar blues
• blues piano tutorial

[Arturostunes]

Wow you were so much help man, I appreciate this video so much; You have no idea. My right hand is more than fast and swift...And my scales are out of control. Improvisation is really not a problem, honestly i rather improvise and have someone else do the beat on the left XDD. I am really going to try to stick with these exercises to improve that though. I just recently caught that "swiftyness" with practice, now i need coordination desperatey. Wish to dominate it like you have somday. Cheers:).

[billhiltonbiz]

@Arturostunes Glad you like it! Keep practising, and remember when it feels like *really* hard work, that's when you're making the best progress :)

[youtabj]

Bill, what I've seen so far is great; I have a question though. I'm mainly self-taught so I may have some bad habits (sure that I do). On the left hand, you use the pinky (#5) for the I, and the index (#2) for the IV, and the thumb (#1) for the V. I find myself using just two fingers - pinky for I, and alternating the thumb between IV and V. The index is not used. Is this an acceptable alternative, or should I make an effort to break this habit? Not sure if it will cause problems later.

[billhiltonbiz]

@youtabj If you're playing slow to medium blues, it shouldn't cause any problems at all - as long as you remain comfortable with it and you can do it accurately. If you try playing faster rock'n'roll style stuff, you might find that using the thumb/index combo makes things smoother. If you can, learn to do both - flexibility is everything, and one of the problems of self-teaching is that you can develop "weak" and "strong" fingers (so maybe learn and practise some scales if you don't already..)

[billhiltonbiz]

@youtabj .....hope that makes sense. BTW, those notes are actually I, V and VI, not I, IV and V; i.e., C, G and A on a C chord or F, C and D on an F chord. Sorry to be nitpicky - I'm just mentioning if for the benefit of anyone else reading who's gotten confused :)

[ChickityChoice]

Hey Bill... When I'm playing 12 bar blues and improvising... should I be soloing with the blues scale for each respective chord, or simply with the blues scale for the key that I'm in... For example, if my progression is CCCCFFCCGFCC, do I use C blues scale only? or C F and G? Thanks,

~Jason

[youtabj]

@billhiltonbiz Yes, I caught that - too late to edit my first post but you'll see my second one about the pattern. Not nitpicky at all; I didn't want to confuse anyone either, but afaik, you can't edit these things once posted. You can just go "oops!". Thanks for the quick response above (below), 'preciate it.

[youtabj]

@billhiltonbiz - correction, not I, IV, V, but what... I, V, VI in the pattern? Anyway, question about fingering still applies.

[rocketrich25]

great video thank you

[muffeCx]

VERY helpful! :D My hands are now soo much easier to coordinate.