Exploring different avenues in piano music will introduce you to various and interesting techniques. Basic piano skills are necessary to successfully accomplish tasks such as licks.
You will need to practice licks over and over again in order to fully understand their function in piano music. Patience and hard work are essential as it can be difficult to fully understand piano licks.
If you require further assistance while perfecting the use of blues licks on piano, you will need to refer to further information available online or at your local community centre. Licks will prove to be beneficial when playing piano, do not skip the required steps in order to fully understand and comprehend licks.
Print and download in PDF or MIDI 30 must have blues piano licks. Jonathon Wilson collected these 30 blues licks, and by putting them on Musescore you can transpose them into any key you want. Have a nice time checking 'em out! In this piano lesson, you are going to learn how to play 3 Blues Piano Fire Licks and Riffs so that you can take your blues piano improv to a whole new level. What is a Blues Piano Fire Lick? A Blues Piano Fire Lick is a highly energetic, repetitive lick that you play in the very high register of the piano.
Licks are often short pattern of notes that are often used in melodies and solos. Genres such as rock and jazz often rely on the use of licks to create their overall effects. In rock and roll, they are often used as formulas.
In jazz, they are often used while improvising. They can also be used during a solitary solo breaks or in accompanying a solo chorus. If licks are used correctly in jazz, they are short and can be played over a song’s varying harmonic progression.
To properly apply piano licks to either rock and roll or jazz you will need to practice. Viewing online videos on websites such as YouTube will surely help you in better understanding licks.
Many people confuse licks with riffs. They are different from one another and should never be considered as the same concept; however, they do possess similar qualities. Riffs are repetitions of chord progressions, while licks are only used for single-notes.
Either one can be used for an entire song and are both are essential when you are playing blues music. They are also very useful when improvising as they repeat patterns and are comfort zones for many pianist.
Once you are comfortable with improvisation, you will learn the importance and necessity of licks and riffs in your ability to create stylish sounds. Amazing and popular jazz songs have developed through the use of improvisation, it is therefore a great way to let creative juices flow.
Once you have experimented with blues licks for piano, you will surely enjoy discovering new sounds and structures. There are many ways to practice piano licks. First, listen to piano music and try to identify and transcribe the licks used by pianists.
This will allow your ears and mind to recognize different uses and techniques when playing licks. By listening closely to other piano players, you will be able to improve your existing techniques and discover new ones. Licks are a powerful tool used by all pianists in various genres of piano music.
With a combination of practice and listening to others play, you will quickly understand when licks are used and why they are so useful. They will help you to create different ideas and techniques, ultimately leading you in creating your own style. Do not shy away from licks, the more you practice, the better you will become.
<< Prev: Lesson 4 - How to Apply Blues Scales | Next: Lesson 6 - Blues Piano Improvisation >> |
|
Boogie-Woogie Riffs & Licks
Welcome to lesson 5 in this course on boogie-woogie piano. In the previous lessons, we have explored the history, style, basslines, voicings, rhythms, & turnarounds.
In this lesson, we will examine the right-hand riffs and licks that make the boogie-woogie style so infectious.
Boogie-Woogie Scales & Improvisation
Besides the standard major and minor scales, there are two scales that are more common to playing blues and boogie-woogie; the blues scale and the pentatonic scale.
Within a particular boogie-woogie piano piece, you will find yourself using elements from both of these scales. Although in boogie-woogie, the pentatonic scale more is more widely used.
Using The ‘Blue Note’
If we take the basic major pentatonic scale, we have the following notes of the related major scale: 1-2-3-4-5-6
We can extend this basic major pentatonic scale to include the ‘blue notes’. The blue notes are minor 3rd, and the flat 5, and this give it that kind of hard, gritty, bluesy sound.
In boogie-woogie, the blue notes in the blues scale are used, but they are used more as chromatic passing tones when moving to primary chord tones which we aim for as ‘landing points’.
The Pentatonic Scale & The I6 Chord Voicing
You will notice that the major pentatonic scale contains the primary notes of the I6 chord voicing we have explored in previous lessons. This means that many of the same principles can be applied to right-hand licks.
In particular, we can utilise the chromatic element when we move the notes up or down a half step to achieve interesting tension and release.
Licks Using 3rd & 6th Intervals
In boogie-woogie music, the RH licks are often made up of 3rds and 6ths intervals moving chromatically up or down the keyboard. This is a characteristic sound of the music and one that you will hear in countless recordings.
Boogie-Woogie Slurs & Slide-Offs
One stylistic device that gets used a lot is a quick slur through a number of notes, often outlining the shape of an arpeggio. We already explored this concept in the turnarounds examples in the previous lesson. We will now look at more specific examples and demonstrations.
![Licks Licks](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126511564/849763174.png)
The slide-off is a similar concept to the slur, and the demonstrations in this lesson will help you to understand this concept and its use in boogie-woogie music.
Boogie-Woogie Trills
Trills get used all over the place in boogie-woogie music. They can be used in intros like in the intro to Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie. They also get used very often within the verses, like in the verse from The 'Boogie-Woogie Prayer' that will will arrange later in this course.
Lesson Downloads
- Boogie Woogie Riffs & LicksFile Type: pdf
Related Lessons
Using the tune “Georgia” – we will also explore the concept of the major blues scale and how to apply this to major 251 progressions.
Advanced12:16