moving from Classical to Blues

[mderksen]

If this is not the most appropriate forum, I welcome recommendations.

I played the standard Classical from age 5 to 19.  Never great, but competant.  Now I'm 37, and played almost not at all in that time.  Last night I picked up a Yamaha P60, broke out the old scores and had a great time "remembering" how to play.  LOTS of work to do. 
My brother-in-law plays in a blues band, and says I can sit in, and even take lead on a few songs once I learn to play the fake sheets.  That, plus, my church needs someone to play back-up keyboard (strings etc.) from chord charts. 
I want to work off the rust by balancing classical pieces, both new and old, and learning to jam chords.  In my life, music is FUN, not a truly serious venture. 
The questions:
First, though many dispise drill books, I have obviously lost a considerable amount of control and strength in my fingers.  Would doing scales and some Hanon exercises be of value, at least at first?
Second, without going for lessons, (other than Joey coming over to give tips and jam) how to I transition from pulling music out of pieces "as written" to pulling music out of my soul while only being given the chords (think Mustang Sally).  This second question it seems might benefit from a blues forum, so if you know of any........
Side note on the P60:  the pedal effect is deplorable, and playing pp is challenging, however the headphone option and space considerations are very nice in a family enviorment.
Thanks for you feedback,
Michael Derksen

[brahmsian]

I think doing Hanon and such would be worthwile at first, just to get your technique back in shape.

With regards to the blues stuff...

I would say learn some basic jazz or blues scales, then just fool around with chord progressions and improvise with them. Eventually you will figure out what works and what doesn't.

[shoshin]

I would say learn some basic jazz or blues scales, then just fool around with chord progressions and improvise with them. Eventually you will figure out what works and what doesn't.

Any blues players know what are some popular Keys to play blues in?

[mderksen]

Any blues players know what are some popular Keys to play blues in?

To admit my newbie-ness, what IS a blues scale....LOL
Maybe the best thing is a recommended book?  Believe me, I'm taking ALL suggestions.
Michael

[shoshin]

To admit my newbie-ness, what IS a blues scale....LOL
Maybe the best thing is a recommended book?  Believe me, I'm taking ALL suggestions.
Michael

Its weird. I think it's like a minor pentatonic scale with a note added to it.

[rc]

Hmmmm... It's been a while since I've been into this sort of thing, in the rock-guitar world blues is a conerstone and the most common place a guitarist begins.

Major pentatonic scale = major scale minus 4th and 7th degree. CDEGAC.
Minor pentatonic scale = minor scale minus 2nd and 6th degree. ACDEGA.
...Or you could look at the minor pentatonic as beginning on the 6th degree (diatonically), same relation as normal major <-> minor.

Blues scale = minor pentatonic with a note added between perfect 4th and perfect 5th, the tritone. ACDEbEGA.

12-bar blues progression: 4 bars of the tonic(I), 2 bars subdominant(IV), 2 bars tonic(I), 1 bar dominant(V), 1 bar subdominant(IV), 2 bars tonic(I).

Most blues doesn't modulate at all, so all you really have to do is improvise over a pentatonic or the blues scale in the tonic. Listen to some blues improv to get the feel, notice how important rhythm is.

I hope this is useful and makes sense for you, lemme know if anything here's unclear. Knowing these scales and that progression should be good preparation for you. When you jam with your brother-in-law he should be able to get ya up to speed in no time. It's fun stuff, enjoy!

[mderksen]

Blues scale = minor pentatonic with a note added between perfect 4th and perfect 5th, the tritone. ACDEbEGA.

12-bar blues progression: 4 bars of the tonic(I), 2 bars subdominant(IV), 2 bars tonic(I), 1 bar dominant(V), 1 bar subdominant(IV), 2 bars tonic(I).


Okay, I just played this and "sounds" EXACTLY like what I'm looking for!!  I think you're onto something that is workin' for me here.  Let me ask the follow-up.....
In the tonic, (talkin' left hand only for right now), let's say that I want to play BASIC chords in the left, (possibly inverted after I get the idea) and plan to improvise in the right.  I'm going to pound the tonic on quarter beats for 4 bars.  What notes comprise that?
Then, I move to the IV, which would be Eb, right? (assumeing that I'm playing in the key of A.
I know I'm starting BASIC here, but better to get solid foundation early on.
I'll worry about adding in the 7th on the V at some point, but for now, could you please just give me a SIMPLE set of chords that I would play in this progression? 

From there, as homework, I'll try to do the same thing in a different key.
Thanks in advance
Michael

[rc]

Okay, I just played this and "sounds" EXACTLY like what I'm looking for!!  I think you're onto something that is workin' for me here.  Let me ask the follow-up.....
In the tonic, (talkin' left hand only for right now), let's say that I want to play BASIC chords in the left, (possibly inverted after I get the idea) and plan to improvise in the right.  I'm going to pound the tonic on quarter beats for 4 bars.  What notes comprise that?
Then, I move to the IV, which would be Eb, right? (assumeing that I'm playing in the key of A.
I know I'm starting BASIC here, but better to get solid foundation early on.
I'll worry about adding in the 7th on the V at some point, but for now, could you please just give me a SIMPLE set of chords that I would play in this progression? 

From there, as homework, I'll try to do the same thing in a different key.
Thanks in advance
Michael

The IV and V are perfect intervals, so it's not the 4th degree of the blues scale but a perfect 4th - the fourth degree of the diatonic major. Same goes for the 5th.

So using C as the tonic, F is the IV, and G is the V. It will actually sound good if you make every chord a dominant 7th chord (major chord w. minor 7th). So here are the chords for C:

I - C7: C, E, G, Bb
IV - F7: F, A, C, Eb
V - G7: G, B, D, F

I had an easier time voicing (inverting) them all to fall into the same octave. Then improvise with the RH in the C blues scale. This makes no sense to my classical-mind having the LH playing a major 3rd while the RH is using a minor 3rd, but it sounds right when I play it.

I have a few other notes from my first piano teacher (who was teaching me jazz while I was interested in classical , so it didn't go too far...). In jazz, playing the LH harmony is called comping, which means complimenting, as in being in the background supporting the soloist, which if it's just you would mean your RH. The less is more principle applies in comping. He has two rhythms written down for me in comping: playing the chord once every two bars, and something he called 'Charleston' rhythm:

||1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +|1 ... (playing on the orange beats)

Swing rhythm: accent on 2nd and 4th beats. Contrary to classical rhythm. This will apply more to your RH, since LH will be comping. Swing 8th notes, easier understood as 'triplet feel', treating two eighth notes as if they were two quarter-note triplets. This is hard to explain in words, let's try this:

if you have a row of 4 eighth notes:
1 + 2 +

You can play it like:
1 + + 2 + +

It will sound more interesting and 'bluesy'. Swung notes are all over the place, it's an important rhythm.

...

Try not to comp more than an octave below middle C. Chords sound mushy down there, and especially if there's a bassist - that's his territory. If no bassist, you can take over the bass and play a walking bassline, which is basically to arpeggiate the chords (you can have fun with the rhythm and also add non-chord tones, experiment, listen to recordings). Also if there's a bassist, you can omit the 1 and the 5 from any of your chords (playing just the 3rd and b7), because the bassist will usually make the 1 and 5 very clear. This is groovy and gives a more spacey feel.

Well, that's a lot of ideas to play around with. Enjoy!

[brahmsian]

Pick up a copy of Blues Hanon. There are some great ideas and they really go over the basics of blues scales, techniques, and progressions.

[prometheus]

Blues Hanon? Is it me or is this forum full of unintended oxymorons today?