Play the Blues.
Blues piano is built from surprisingly simple ingredients: a few chords, a familiar form, some great patterns, and a whole lot of attitude. Learn the vocabulary — then start making it your own.
Simple Form. Endless Possibilities.
One of the beautiful things about the blues is how much music can come from a small amount of material. Learn the form, understand the chords, develop a few patterns, and suddenly you have a playground for improvisation.
You'll work with the 12-bar blues, dominant chords, bass lines, blues scales, shapes, tremolos, endings, and complete solos — but don't forget the point: eventually you're supposed to play.
Start With the Big Three
You can wander anywhere on this page, but these three ideas will help everything else make a lot more sense.
12-Bar Blues
Learn the most common blues form so you always know where you are in the music.
Start in C →Blues Chords
Major triads are nice. Dominant 7ths and 9ths are where things start getting greasy.
Learn Blues 7ths →Blues Scale
Get the notes under your fingers and start discovering riffs, fills, and solos.
Learn the Scale →Blues Tricks, History & Other Good Stuff
Some things are foundational. Some things are useful. Some things are just too cool not to know.
A Quick History of the Blues
Turn up the volume, meet some blues heroes, and hear where this music came from.
Explore Blues History →Bag of Tricks
Grab one, try it at the piano, and look slightly cooler than you did five minutes ago.
Blues Basics
Rhythms, pedal, sounds, noodling, survival strategies, and some big-picture ideas that help everything else work.
Build Your Blues Chops
Work through the pieces individually or jump directly to the skill you want. Many topics include Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced versions.
Blues Form
The notes can get wild. The form shouldn't.
12-Bar Blues
The most common blues progression. Learn this form and you'll start recognizing it everywhere.
8-Bar Blues
Because apparently twelve bars weren't the only option. Learn another common blues form.
Chords & Right-Hand Patterns
Build the harmony first — then start making it move.
Blues Piano Chords
Move from dominant 7ths to 9ths and eventually into more flexible chord inversions.
The Blues Pattern
Get the basic movement under your fingers, then turn it into more advanced pattern tricks.
Blues Left Hand
Your right hand gets to show off. Your left hand has to keep the whole operation from falling apart.
Build the Left Hand
Start simple and work toward a bass line that can keep going while your right hand solos.
Other Bass Lines
More left-hand vocabulary for when one bass pattern just isn't enough.
Using the Blues Scale
Learn the scale, then stop thinking of it as a scale and start turning it into shapes, riffs, patterns, and musical ideas.
The Blues Scale
1 – ♭3 – 4 – ♯4 – 5 – ♭7. A handful of notes with a suspicious amount of personality.
Shape & Drone
Use the sound of the blues scale without mentally spelling every note while you play.
Two Shapes
Move between shapes and start traveling around the keyboard instead of being trapped in one little box.
Mixolydian & Tremolos
Yes, “Mixolydian” sounds like something requiring a wizard hat. It isn't. Keep playing.
Mixolydian Ideas
Think major scale with a lowered 7th, then use that sound for intervals and shapes.
Tremolos
Because sometimes playing the notes once simply isn't dramatic enough.
If Your Face Still Looks Normal...
You may be concentrating too hard. Relax your shoulders, lean into the groove, and allow the appropriate amount of blues-induced facial distortion to occur naturally.
Blues Endings
A great ending makes everyone think you knew exactly what you were doing the entire time.
Put One in Your Bag of Tricks
Learn several levels of endings in C and A, then start dropping them into your own playing.
Enough Ingredients. Make Some Music.
Chords. Form. Bass lines. Scales. Shapes. Patterns. Endings. None of those are the final goal by themselves. Now combine them, listen to how the pieces interact, and start building an actual blues solo.