St. James Infirmary Blues - piano tutorial

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St James Infirmary Blues is a very famous New Orleans blues based on an old English folk song. The video includes an examination of the blues' chord sequence (which is very different from a standard 12 bar), and some thoughts on the best blues scale to use to create improvisations in a minor key.

This is a great piece to help you practise your blues improvisation for a couple of reasons. First, it takes you beyond a traditional 12 bar blues structure. 12 bar is great, but it's kind of easy to get stuck in a rut with it. Here, you're dealing with a different type of progression, and in a minor key too. Second, it's still straightforward enough for you to be able to internalize the chord progression on the piano and start thinking about improvisation quickly, rather than having to spend hours learning a complicated sequence.

A couple of harmonic points: this version of St. James is in the key of D minor (which is probably the most common key you'll find it in). If you know a little theory, you'll know that D minor is the relative minor of F major. Therefore, you pretty much use the F blues scale as a starting point for your improvisation. Dm is generally a pretty easy key on the piano, so once you've got a hang of the chords you should haven't too many problems.

If you have any questions on this, or any other aspects of blues piano, don't hesitate to give me a shout. I'm going to keep posting tutorials, and you're more likely to get the ones you want if you ask for them :)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• blues piano tutorial
• piano blues tutorial
• st james infirmary blues piano
• james infirmary piano
• st james infirmary blues
• st james infirmary
• chords for st james infirmary

[bellyofthewhale138]

What's the best way to really learn chords? Obviously memorization and lots of practice, but do you know of any drills or resources?

[billhiltonbiz]

@bellyofthewhale138 All good points from @mrthomaskt there. In terms of resources, probably the best free one is the Piano World chord tool (Google it), which lays everything out plainly and simply. There's also a ton of stuff on chords in my earlier videos - check out my playlists to see the relevant tutorials in order.

And thanks for the comment - sorry it took me a while to notice it :)

[kokot235]

make tutorial of Hugh Laurie's St. James Informary, it 'll be cool :) :D

[PrincepsDinus]

Hey thanks a lot! I'm surely gonna try this. However i'm about to buy a new digital piano, and i was wondering: which is the one you're playing in these tutorials?

Thanks!

[Onbekend1980]

@kokot235 Agreeed That was what I was looking for!

[ThePeoplesGuru]

True blues has to be in minor.

[bradinside2]

thanks a lot, 'ill try it,

it's sound perfect ;)

[mrthomaskt]

@bellyofthewhale138 on piano it is more of a science havintg to do with music theory basicly a major chord is a root (the name ie c) the second note is a Major 3rd above (5 keys above) the third is a 5th above ( 8 above ) for a minor chord the second note is a minor 3rd above instead of a major an augmented is a major with a raised 5th and a diminished is a minor with a lowered fifth. 7 chords and 9 chords have an additional 7th or ninth above root or 3rd or 5th above the 5th of a chord