Blues Piano Courses & New Blues Lessons šŸ˜Ž

Hello Hayden ,Iā€™m working thru the F blues soloing course & looking thru these new lessons also that look very interesting. Please could we look at some Bebop Blues etudeā€™s in Bb sometime to pick up vocabulary in that key also?

Hey Hayden, I was wondering when we will get to see the Josh Paxton course.

Hey @TimD :wave:

Thanks for bumping this to my attention. I just last week finalised Jon Clearyā€™s course with the the final transcriptions and downloads. I also combined the lessons into a single course as I feel it fits together better that way:


This morning I brought in another editor to help with Joshā€™s course and started work with the transcriptions. It has my full attention now. I will hear back shortly on the transcriptions and editing, and I will share an ETA with you.

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Hi @niall :wave:- yes thatā€™s a great suggestion and something that we can definitely cover. I have added it to the upcoming lesson schedule.

I have planned out a beginner solo blues piano course as student feedback on the blues section is that more beginner level tutorials are needed.

To confirm, you would like the Bb course as solo piano? or with backing tracks similar to the F Blues improv course?

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Hi Hayden, yes with backing tracks similar to the F Blues improv course. If possible, to learn a solo over the full form of a Bb blues by using one(or more) of your improv techniques. That would be great thank you.

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Yes that is a great suggestion @niall - leave it with me :sunglasses:

Hey @TimD

I have just published 2 of Joshā€™s lessons, these are on the 8 bar blues form ā€œTipitinaā€, and a slow 12 bar blues in F - check out the links below.

The other 8 lessons - which are the main theme of the course - are in progress. Iā€™m waiting on the notation to be completed.

In the 2 lessons below, Josh uses a lot of 10th intervals in his left hand. On a related note I recently created a lesson on 10th intervals using the tune ā€œGeorgiaā€ - the lesson page is also included below.


and see here for a study on 10th intervals

more to follow.

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Hey Bluesy-Groovers :wave:

A couple more lessons have been published in Joshā€™s blues course. These lessons are more representative of the overall course contents and cover the unique piano style of James Booker:

The final 6 lessons in the course will be finished shortly. Thanks for your patience.

Some other great news is that Josh will be hosting a live seminar in September - the exact date to be confirmed later this month. This will coincide with the full course launch and give students the opportunity to ask additional questions and guidance on the course contents.

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I like that barber pole lick. Why is that chapter called Henry Butler and Dr. John? Is there another chapter coming soon?

Yes there is one final lesson on ā€œHenry Butler Stride Funk Styleā€ which will be added to the course today.

Yes I thought that was awesome too.

Here is the PDF notation for it:

There are a few other bits of notation which needs creating for the downloads. A student also asked for notation of the ā€œTipitinaā€ left and right hand rhythmic patterns. I should have the downloads and lesson pages finished tomorrow.

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@TimD - the final lesson on Henry Butler has been published:

The course downloads will be finalised shortly. Enjoy the lessons!

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Hi Hayden, the new Improv course for Misty is incredible :upside_down_face: so much great materialā€¦that must have been such a huge project to complete. Thank you so much!
No pressure intended ,I know there are a lot of courses both in the works, &, that youā€™re still completing, just curious if youā€™re still planning a course for the Bb BLUES , or more like next year etc ?

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Hi @niall thanks and Iā€™m glad you are enjoying the Misty cocktail piano course. Checkout the lesson on blues scale material which covers blues based material in the key of Eb Major. I recorded this lesson with your request in mind so I hope itā€™s useful.

Bb Blues Comping & Improvisation

For the Bb blues lessons I asked Tuomo to create a comping and improvisation lesson which I have just published, here is the link:

The full transcription can be downloaded in the download section of the page. There is lots of melodic ideas for blues licks and also how to incorporate bebop and minor pentatonic vocabulary. There are 4 choruses of improvised solo in the lesson above.

The exact same style of lesson on Eb Blues has also been created and will be added to the comping course this month.

For my own Bb Blues course I havenā€™t been able to start on this yet. Comping and improvising in this style is not a focus area for me, as you know I play more standards and ballads for solo piano.

I can certainly create these lessons Iā€™m just unsure if it would be the best use of my time and also whether the results would be better from our other teachers. Does the above lesson give you enough information and guidance to learn Bb blues material? or would you prefer that it is broken down in a more granular fashion?

Hi Hayden,

  1. yes, the Blues scale lesson you made ,in Eb, for Misty, where you break down & demonstrate licks individually, fingering, practice tips & reference points(e.g: @ 19" 35 ā€œIā€™m visualizing going into the major 3rdā€ ā€¦tricks like that on how to think about licks help lock them in the memory), is exactly the type of lesson I was looking for in Bb. (similar to youā€™re F Jazz Blues lesson)

2)re: the Bb Blues lesson with Tuomo (ā€˜Budā€™s Bluesā€™) GREAT to watch & Inspiring, I think advanced notation sight readers would breeze thru it. Iā€™d struggle getting thru that w/sheet music alone.
(The sheet music is essential addition though to all the lessons)

Iā€™ll try & grab some lines from it, dip in & take some ideas.

The lesson you made for Eb Blues licks, also the F HAMMOND Organ Blues course, works better (for me) with the level Iā€™m still at.

3)I can imagine how busy youā€™re lesson schedule is, so if, as you say, one of the other teachers can make a dedicated Bb Blues Improv lesson, that sounds good to me.
Maybe the Hammond Organ Teacher could make a Bb Blues etude, like He did for F Blues (?)

Hope that explains a little,

thanks again for the great new lessons,

Niall.

Awesome new lesson! I noticed Tuomos Georgia on my Mind hasnā€™t been added. Lots of good material in that one, wouldnā€™t want it to get lost in the forums :grin: Appreciate the hard work being put into the lessons

This is on my to-do-list. Apologies for the delay!

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For students interested in the blues materials, I have an update for 2023 live seminars:

Starting this month on February 17th, Jon will be hosting a bi-monthly blues stream throughout 2023.

The streams will follow a Q&A format and so please submit your questions via the page below for the upcoming stream on 17th February.

Any questions on blues, New Orleans piano, funk music, gospel, please submit them via the link above and Jon will cover them in the session later this month.

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Thanks @Hayden. Iā€™ve enjoyed the other additions to the improv/comping course so far :+1:

Hi Blues Fans :wave:

Jonā€™s February seminar is now fully edited with the light-up keyboard. Hereā€™s the link:

https://www.pianogroove.com/live-seminars/blues-funk-qa-session/

The overhead camera has been warped and re-exported so that the keyboard keys are perfectly straight and align perfectly with the light up keyboard.

If there are any sections of this video that you would like to be notated, and/or turned into a shorter lesson with in-video notation, just let me know.

Enjoy the session, there are some great insights shared!

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We had some technical issues for Jonā€™s JAM stream last week (the overhead camera fell off the tripod just as the stream started) and so we were forced to stop the stream and restart it which changed the stream URL.

Due to the last second URL change, many students couldnā€™t access the stream. I apologise for that. It was badly organised on my side.

Anyhow moving forwards, I have now tidied up the overhead shot to straighten the keyboard, and aligned it with the light-up keyboard. The recording can be found here:

The overhead camera still cuts of the bottom section of the piano. Hopefully this isnā€™t too much of an issue with the light-up keyboard in place.

Apologies again for everyone effected by the tech issues. I will try my best to ensure this doesnā€™t happen again.

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