Chords for Blues Piano - Riff demonstration - Glen Rose

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_ _ Now, in this video we're going to learn seven new right hand licks, or figures, that we
can use against that steady left hand line.
What I'll do now before we get started is I'll play the blues down twice.
I'll play 12 bars three or two different times.
And I'm going to limit _ myself to just these new blues licks that we're going to learn
in addition to the cliche and the scale we learned in Blues Video Number One.
_ So you'll hear me doing nine different things, really, with my right hand.
_ _ So it's not going to be necessary to look at my left hand.
The left hand is going to be doing the walking line that we learned in the first video.
It's just going to be playing those four notes over and over.
And the right hand is going to do all the action.
And this is what we hope to do.
We hope to accomplish a steady left hand _ _ so you can have fun, be free, and creative with
the right hand. _
I'll subtitle _ where each of the right hand figures are as I'm going by.
So you'll be able to see on the bottom where they are.
And you'll be able to understand that there is clear definition in the things that we're
about to study. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ [E] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ [A#] _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _
_ _ _ [Cm] _ _ [C#] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I want to start out by showing you what I call some basic framework from which you can
play a lot of different blues licks with.
First, I'll play it real straight.
And then _ we'll see how we can vary it every time to play it [B] slightly differently.
_ I'm going to refer to this as a framework lick as we go through the video.
_ Even though I might be playing it slightly differently, I think you'll be able to hear
that it's coming from the [C] same framework when I play it. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ We're going to build our framework from the outline of a major chord.
We're in the key of C.
So we're going to take a C major chord.
_ C, E, and G.
Double the little finger up here. _ _
So we're always going to think of a major chord _ when we're starting to build these licks.
_ We're going to take away our thumb and take away the third finger, leaving us with the
little finger up here _ _ _ and the E here. _
_ And [E] now what we're going to do is move this [Fm] E up _ _ [F#] _
_ _ [Gm] successively until we get to the G. _
[Em] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [G] _ _ _
And we're going to strike [C] the C with it up here every time.
[F] If _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ you want, you can use a different finger and whatever suits your hand.
I see a lot of players do this with their thumb down here and the little finger here. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ And now let's go back down the same way.
_ [F#] _ _ [Fm] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ From this framework, we're going to find a tremendous amount of variations to make a
lot of interesting and fun, _ popular _ blues licks and phrases, cliches, that we can use
in our playing and get a lot of use out of them.
_ _ _ Let's take a look at the different ways we can use this framework. _
Let's play a C in our left hand to pin down our tonality.
I'm going to play a C octave.
You can just play one note if you want.
_ _ _ And now _ come _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ back down. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ How about hitting each one twice? _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Let's hit them all three times.
_ [Fm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Let's talk [D] about sliding notes. _
We can always slide in from our third.
And here's our major third.
That means we can slide in from the minor [E] third _ _ _ and get this sliding smear tone. _ _
_ _ _ Now we used this [D#] in the first cliche that we learned in _ video number one _ _ [Em] when we did this.
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ It's the same idea here.
[C] _ [F] _ _ [Em] _ _
[Cm] What we're going to do is _ play the slider as we move up _ the notes.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ Back down. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ So when I come to the E down here, I'm sliding into it.
_ _ _ [Cm] _ _ [C] _ _
And you can use any finger in your wallet.
I'll use my thumb. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Sliding from the minor third to the major third is a very typical blues sound,
very bluesy cliche sound _ to get that slide there.
_ It's similar to what a guitar player does when he bends his note.
Now anywhere we can find a black note to slide into a white, we can experiment with it
in the blues and see if it [A#] sounds good.
If it sounds good, go with it.
In the key of C, it's laid out quite well that [Em] we get the slide from the black note
to the white note.
There's some keys that that's not going to be so convenient and we don't have a black
sliding into a white.
And it can be quite the opposite, say, in the key of [F#] G flat up here.
_ This is the third.
And so to get that same sound, _ you've got to use two fingers and slide up like that.
It's not a very easy move to make in the blues.
_ We usually try to _ put the blues in a key where we can slide from black to white.
_ [G]
If we're in control of the key, and as the pianist playing alone, you're in control of it.
If you're playing with a band and the necessities are to play in another key, then you're stuck
with what you've got to work with.
_ _ Where else can we take a black note and move it into the white note?
Up here on the fifth.
_ _ C, E, G is 1, 3, 5.
This is the fifth.
_ And we can slide here.
_ Really typical _ _ sound in the blues, making blues licks.
_ _ Coming off the [D#] fifth, coming off the third.
_ [Em] _ So we get this [G#] sound.
_ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _
Sliding both on the third.
[C] _ _ [Fm] Take it up, [G#] _ _ [C] _ _ _ slide it there.
Let's come back the same way.
_ [F#] _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _ _