Playing 1st Chord of G Major Blues Scale on Piano

Series Summary

The instrumental and vocal style of music commonly known as 'the blues' is actually derived from a repetitive 12 bar pattern and the blue notes. It was born in the slave camps of the United States in the form of hymnals, gospel tunes and spirituals, and evolved into a highly influential genre that has inspired everything from jazz to rock 'n roll to hip hop. Blues guitar is one of the purest forms of the genre, since slaves were typically allowed to have guitars or homemade banjos. The beginnings of blues music are steeped in tradition and at their purest when combined with stringed instruments.

In this series of free instructional music videos you'll learn how to play the blues piano in the key of G major. Expert Ryan Larson shows you his special 12 key method to help you understand the techniques used by blues musicians through the ages, including the music theory behind 12 chord blues song structure, walking bass & rhythm lines, as well as 7th chords. You'll learn how to hit the important notes that will give your playing a unique sound, and tips for improvisational blues piano playing. Watch these free blues piano lessons, practice your scales, and you'll be able to improv your way though any blues jam!

Video Transcript

"The first key we're going to start with is the key of G and you're going to do a G blues. So we are going to start right on G and play our G seven scale. The blues is compressed with all seven scales so all the scales we're going to learn is our seven scales. We start on G two, three, four, five, six, seven, one. Notice all the way notes very easy and we're just going to go for a bass line. One, three, five, seven, right, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, that way we can know what notes we're actually playing when I say one, three, five, seven. Also when we go to the four chord we are playing the forth scale so our C is our four chord and our five chord will be our D. So there is your scale, we are also going to learn the blue scale out of G which is (playing). So you have G and B flat C D flat D and then the F at the top (playing). That's blues works over all of our three chords and all of our three minor chords as well, it's a pretty universal chord that we are going to use throughout the whole piece. We are going to start by playing a one, three, five, seven and G and doing a little blues with my right. (playing) That's your G blues one chord, G."