Authentic blues piano has a loose and

riffing right hand over a rock-solid and

grooving left-hand foundation. Whether its
a shuffle, a slow 12/8, a New Orleans
rhumba, or a country two-beat, blues is a
style where, though you only have to worry
about three chords and one scale, how you
link and lock your two hands is the key.
Some of the techniques are counter-intuitive.
For example, your hands may play essen-
tially in sync, but not always exactly
together. You have to push the left hand a
little harder than you might in more
refined improvised music. In fact, many
times your left hand will play a repeating
pattern while you solo freely with the right.
This is a style where feel conquers all,
and once you get it, you can play the
blues with anybody, anytime.
There are many ways to work on the
two-fisted style of blues piano. Check out
some of the greats like Otis Span or
Johnny Johnson, then get out the coffee
and the metronome, warm up with scales
and arpeggios, and go to work. Remember,
in the words of Howlin Wolf, you may not
like the blues, but you wrong.
PLAY I T! BLUES

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b) c)
TWO-FISTED
BLUES
by Scott Healy
Ex. 2. Think in triplets as you play off the beat with the right hand, maintaining the rocking bass pattern in your left hand. This shuffle rhythm should really swing, so
practice it slowly, and then move up to a medium shuffle groove. Moving to the IV chord in the second bar and back to the I on the third bar of a blues progression is
sometimes called a quick change or a quick four.
Ex. 1 Set up two-handed voicings using the root and fifth in the left hand and a rootless dominant 9th chord in the right hand. When you move to the IV chord, which is the
F9 in example 1a, the bottom three notes of the right hand move down. While the left hand does a simple bass pattern in 1b, play chords on the beat, slowly at first. Let your
arms provide weight, keep your wrists loose, and dont bang (yet). Move through the entire blues progression, and try to hear the triplet subdivision in your head.
In 1c, play triplets with the right hand, with a slight accent on the first, and no accent in the left hand. Your wrists and shoulders need to be loose, and try not to
rush (everybody does at first). This pattern is great for slow blues, and you can kick up the tempo to about 100bpm before it becomes overbearing. Try thinking of the
triplets in two ways: falling off the strong beat (one, two, three one, two, three) or leading up to the next strong beat (one two, three, one two, three). Self-aware-
ness of how you perceive and mentally subdivide the beat will influence your time and feel.
Ex. 3. Try the same right-hand triplet techniques with some different bass patterns, like the steady pumping figure in 3a, which is borrowed from our guitar-slinging
buddies. A walking bass figure like the one in 3b can be effective at faster tempos, giving more of a jump to the beat. A broken, walking New Orleans rumba pattern,
shown in 3c, gives a lilt to the first half of the bar; you feel the second beat, even when youre not playing it. At medium to fast tempos its common to break up the
guitar figure from 3a as shown in 3d. At slower tempos it should swing hard. At faster tempos, try accenting beats 2 and 4 with your left-hand thumb.
Show off your chops playing this lesson, or share your own
blues technique, on the forum at keyboardmag.com. Thoughts,
and links to your music and/or videos, are always welcome.
36 K E Y B O A R D 0 8 . 2 0 0 9
km0809_play_blues.dsg 6/19/09 3:26 PM Page 36

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Ex. 4. Put it all together in a slow blues with a quick change. This excerpt features a solid left hand with triplets in the right and a funky fill. Get ready for the explosive
fill in bars 3 and 4 by pumping your left hand hard to give your right hand a solid foundation. Both hands are locked together in time, but also paradoxically independent.
Thats the blues!
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1
PLAY I T!
Hear this lesson with audio examples
at keyboardmag.com/lessons.
w w w . k a w a i u s . c o m
The closest any digital piano
comes to the real thing.
The sense that Im playing an acoustic piano is uncanny.
For players who demand the very best action.
...a remarkably realistic feel.
...superb.
MP5 Professional Stage Piano
MP8II Professional Stage Piano
Keyboard Magazine
Domesticated Digitals
37 0 8 . 2 0 0 8 K E Y B O A R D
km0809_play_blues.dsg 6/19/09 3:26 PM Page 37

Riffs are the building blocks of funk
music. A riff can be a bass line, a horn
section figure, a guitar or keyboard lick,
or even a vocal hook, and a good riff can
drive an entire song. We keyboardists
need to be aware of the melodic and
rhythmic content of our funk riffs, and in
an ensemble situation, make sure that
we lock in with the other players without
cluttering the rhythm especially the
drums and guitar.
As you get into the groove and practice
riffing, keep in mind the familiar principles
passed down by generations of learned
funksters: Keep it simple, be aware of time
and feel, and play with a melodic purpose
and direction. Do this and youll be riffin
with the best.
PLAY I T! FUNK

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ii i i i
RIFF IT GOOD
by Scott Healy
Ex. 1. This groove is a slow four, with a shuffle or swing-sixteenth feel. Start by playing the simple riff in 1a. Articulation is the key: Play strong on the downbeat, and
make the shuffly sixteenths sound like doo-dat, or long-short. Using the same articulation and feel, repeat the riff in 1b. Anticipate the third beat with the D in 1c and
the groove jumps over the third beat. Then vary the second half (ii) and suddenly the whole riff goes somewhere. This two-part structure is key.
Ex. 2. Another example of a two-part riff is shown in 2a, this time with two full measures. In this example, ii seems to answer i, or at least to follow and complete it.
The two-part structure can be extended, as in 2b: Here, the first two measures of the previous example become the first part, and the next two measures answer and
complete them. Classical theorists call this periodicity. Funk musicians call this . . . well, they just play it.
Ex. 3. Grab a metronome, a drum loop, or a buddy, and practice jamming on the riff in 3a. One riff can be used over a few different chords, as shown in 3b. Notice the
lack of syncopation much funk and soul music is straighter than some might think, with a strong one and a solid backbeat.

a)
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b) c)

Ex. 4. Practice creating a two-part riff as in 4a, first by emphasizing the strong beats of the bar. Keep the accents subtle and play in time; the staccato shouldnt be too
short. If you anticipate the third beat in 4b, the beat jumps. The accents keep you on time, so as you repeat this riff, concentrate on the accent pattern. Create another
measure that answers, as in 4c, and you have a two-bar riff. Here, the accent pattern is the same; rhythmic continuity provides structure and purpose.
Can you funk out on this riff? Got one that's even
funkier? Post your audio or video link on the forum
at keyboardmag.com. It's easy and free!
38 K E Y B O A R D 0 8 . 2 0 0 9
km0809_play_funk.dsg 6/19/09 12:30 PM Page 38

When you think of jazz pianists who
can burn, the names Art Tatum, Bud
Powell, Oscar Peterson, Phineas Newborn
Jr., Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Michel
Camilo, Joey Calderazzo, Gonzalo Rubal-
caba, Geoff Keezer, and Eldar all come to
mind. Covering many styles and genera-
tions, they all have one thing in common:
They can play fast and clean. Theres no
question of rhythmic clarity when theyre
flying through a set of changes. Every note
is perfectly placed and articulated.
If you want to play fast effectively, and
effortlessly, countless hours of
concentrated practice is essential. But
what to practice? Technical exercises by
Czerny and Hanon, as well as accelerated
four-octave scales, certainly help build
chops and endurance. But that type of
practice wont be much help when youre
called upon to rip through a set of changes
at a breakneck tempo. For that you need to
amass a backlog of jazz vocabulary that
you can call upon at a moments notice.
That is not to imply that you need to be on
autopilot. On the contrary having a strong
vocabulary will enhance your ideas, and
enable you to quickly negotiate a set of
changes without running out of notes.
As you can see from the examples, you
need the technical prowess as well as
enough good notes to fill the harmonic
space. At faster tempos, start to feel a
longer pulse first just concentrate on
feeling beats 1 and 3, then just beat 1 of
each measure. Additionally, the faster you
play, the less swing there is, until the
notes gradually become even. When play-
ing fast, relax the hand, use more wrist
motion, and play with a lighter touch.
Practice hard and unleash your inner
speed demon!
PLAY I T! JAZZ


4
4
4
4
Dm7

G7 Gm7 C7


4
4
4
4

Dm7 G7 Gm7 C7
PLAY REALLY,
REALLY FAST
by Andy LaVerne
Ex. 1. To play fast, start slow. This quarter-note line over the changes of the first four bars of Lover Man is a good place to start. The line is composed of chord tones,
passing tones, and one chromatic tone, the #11 in the final measure. In situations like this, rootless voicings played on the first beat of the measure are common and
sound good. Experiment with placing them on different beats, and play them with both long and short rhythmic values. Use a metronome set at 60 beats per minute and
gradually increase the tempo. When you get it up to 120bpm, move on to the next example.
Ex. 2. You can take the same phrase and halve the note value (quarter to eighth). As you can see, each chord gets two beats now, instead of four.
Start your metronome at 90bpm. Gradually tick that up to 145bpm, then move on to Example 3.
Miles Davis:
Four & More
(Sony)
Michel Camilo:
Spirit of the Moment
(Telarc)
Phineas Newborn, Jr.:
The Great Jazz Piano of
Phineas Newborn, Jr.
(Original Jazz Classics/
Contemporary Records)
Hear what Andys teaching on recordings by these
outstanding artists:
Can you play this lesson really, really fast? Record or
video yourself, join the forum at keyboardmag.com,
and post a link. You could wind up in the magazine or
featured on our website!
40 K E Y B O A R D 0 8 . 2 0 0 9
km0809_play_jazz.dsg 6/19/09 12:31 PM Page 40

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Ex. 3. To get back to our original harmonic rhythm and still play eighth-notes, we need more notes. The second and fourth measures introduce a new melodic compo-
nent, which fills the space with scale tones arranged as an enclosure of the third, which resolves down to the root. Start the metronome at 110bpm, and gradually
take it up to 150.
Ex. 4. Using the same principle, we now move to sixteenth-notes. Once again, the harmonic rhythm is cut in half. Start the metronome at 80bpm. In small increments,
increase the tempo to 100. Now youre playing fast! Keep up the momentum and move on to the next example.
Ex. 5. Again, to get us back to our original harmonic rhythm while playing sixteenth-notes, we need more notes! Measure 5a shows another bop-oriented phrase to play
over these changes, still two beats apiece. Set your metronome with a quarter note at 80bpm and gradually move up to 100. Next try this similar phrase in 5b, with the
addition of an ascending arpeggio. Again, start the metronome at 80bpm and move up to 100.
Ex. 6. By combining all the melodic elements youve been practicing, you now have enough notes to play a continuous sixteenth-note line through the original harmonic
rhythm. Start at 70bpm and gradually increase until youve reached your personal limit.
PLAY I T!
41 0 8 . 2 0 0 8 K E Y B O A R D
km0809_play_jazz.dsg 6/19/09 12:31 PM Page 41