I was interested in learning something about playing the blues, and in my search for a good book I found this one on Amazon. The reviews were excellent. Then I came here to PW and did a search to see if anyone was using it. I found several threads recommending it, and one in the Pianist Non-classical forum started by folks who were using it. That thread has more or less died out, but there was great enthusiasm for the book.

Then I listened to a series of contributions in the Piano Bar by an ABFer: Weiyan. I listened to his contributions from May to August and his progress was very clear - I was both inspired and convinced!

So... I ordered the book, and it arrived this past Saturday and I plunged into it with gusto!

I had already learned how to do the 12 bar walking bass, but in the very first lesson I learned a MUCH easier (and smoother) fingering for the pattern. What a great way to get started.

I've found that the theory is very clearly presented, easy to understand. There are assignments, suggestions on how to vary the exercises and encouragement to ad lib.

I also like the fact that Mr. Richards encourages you to clap out the beat. Normally I'm very good with managing beats and rhythms, but with the blues the rhythym can be syncopated and I do find it a bit harder.
He also encourages you to sing the notes outloud.

Now... I've really resisted the idea of solfegge when my teacher suggested it, but working with such different material.....I caved in and gave it a try. I was quite surprised at how much it helped.

One thing I found really interesting was singing the first five notes of 3 different scales. For the first time I consciously "heard" the half tones. I've known the pattern of tone tone semitone etc since grade nine, and I can figure it out at the keyboard or sounding out things by ear... but this was the first time I consciously heard and felt the half-tone as I was singing. It was an odd sort of "ah ha!" moment.

I think my biggest challenge (for starters) is going to be maintaining the left hand patterns while trying to play the right hand. I don't really think I'll be ready to do any serious improvising for a while, but I've already been delighted at seeing how certain sounds are easily achieved and I feel that this book is going to take me a long way.


All to say.....is anyone else using this book?
Do you care to chip in with advice, show off your progress as we work through the chapters? Offer encouragement in moments of frustration? Get crazy with enthusiasm with successes?

I really hope that some ABFers will join in and have fun with this book!

Thanks for the recommendation -- just yesterday I was at Amazon looking for something -- this book is now on my Wish List.

DinaP,

Hope your dream come true.

Before playing piano, I play classical guitar. Had learned blues but never success. Blues seems very simple. Had a standard format, just improvise. So reading books to learn improvisation theory. Finally I found the theory is useless until your finger is within your control.

What differentiated Tim's from from the rest is it has a system to develop your finger skill and blues sense.
There are a lot of progressive etudes for daily practice. My finger skill and music sense improving day by day.

I hope more blues enthusiasts join together. Share what you learned and encourage each other.

Cas, glad you have found this!

I suggest in addition that you listen to a lot of Blues. Lots of it!

Traditionally, Blues music has been learned / handed down by listening rather than thru notation, and listening is very helpful to ingraining the rhythms, and the leads (solos) that one plays. (Not that there is anything wrong with using Notation/books also)

A short list of good Blues pianists include: Otis Spann, Memphis Slim, Charles Brown, early Ray Charles, Maceo Merriweather.

Here are 2 links to Otis Spann playing with the Muddy Waters Blues Band (another suggestion to listen to):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G9DIFFwByk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a29PEkEUD_4

ps...also check out the hot link in my signature line to a Blues shuffle I did. Lots of piano in it.

Best Wishes!

Dina.... what great timing - I hope you get your book quickly!

Weiyan you're right - the TR book gives you a system for making sense of the blues. Already I am delighted to have discovered how certain specific sounds are achieved! It is really exciting.

Rocket88 thanks for the links, I'll check them out. We've got a fair amount of blues music in our CD collection - and I LOVE Memphis Slim!

I am listening to the link in your siggy as I type ...wow!!!! That is great! You're really rockin'!
I think to play music like this, one of the first things you've got to be able to do is to get your left hand going on autopilot ...which is going to be a challenge for me!

Just loved that piece ! (My husband just walked in the room and said, "That's sounds neat, what is it?" ...He's impressed too.

Thanks! The tune is off my CD.

You are absolutely correct . . . LH Rhythmic independence is super important to playing this music. Unfortunately, it is one of the greater challenges.

Also, there is disagreement about working with a metronome, and that is a valid discussion regarding Classical music.

However, with Blues, a rock-steady rhythm is essential. I suggest using a metronome/drum machine and practicing LH rhythms daily. It will come, but takes time.

Rocket88, that's great! Makes me want to put Bach & Co. away for good

Thanks for the encouragement Rocket88 !

I practice daily anyway, so ...I'm used to that at least

You folks are very kind. Thank you.

Rocket88,

Thank you for your advice. Had listened your playing, it sounds great.

Was about to buy, but I only buy kindle books now, using the kindle app on my PC monitor to display scores etc.

Hopefully one day it will make it to a kindle version, then I'm buying.

Do kindle versions of sheet music books also come with MP3s instead of audio CDs, or is the kindle user just out of luck when it comes to the recordings that come with the paper books?

I think that's a question deserving of its own thread. Not everyone will be interested in this blues thread so I think not a lot of folks will see your question.

I'm curious too - but in an academic way. I can't imagine using the computer for reading music at the piano.

Why use Kindle? I use an iPad for sheet music. It is a lot easier to flip pages! I have apps that have my bands set list that allows me to bring up sheet music and lyric sheets for every song. There are teaching apps galore available for it. It fits right on a music stand and is readable in on a dark stage.

Doesn't have to be in kindle format as long as the books available for ereader sw that works on my pc (or PDF). Just that when I'm searching for a book, amazon is the place I mainly try and chances are if it hasn't made it from paperback to kindle format, it hasn't made it to any other ereader format either.

Not by my music setup at the moment, tomorrow will post a pic and you will understand why for me and my home setup, reading the score on the pc is the only viable option.

I do have an iPad and I also have the kindle app for it

TR's latest book Exploring Latin Piano has no Kindle version, there is no lucky with Blues book.

Kindle is not a suitable E-Book format for music, as most comments said. The music notation is a scanned image.

They don't (actually the basic Kindle reader doesn't even have sound), but with an iPad (or some other tablet, including the Kindle Fire I guess) you can look for recordings on YouTube without even moving away from the piano - plus you can google music theory stuff etc.

I am currently re-work on Blue Berry Hill. Use a metronome as suggested by Rocket88. Will post a record next week.

I think I might be being misunderstood. I'm not saying I have a kindle (my wife does though), I'm saying I use the kindle player for my purchased ebooks on both my ipad and my PC.

I also view PDF scores on them too.

Just like on the ipad, I can instantly google youtube etc on my PC without moving away from the piano.

Some sheet music may well be badly scanned, all the music books I've brought on Amazons Kindle store have been first class crystal clear quality except one, that's very very very slightly out of focus (many people wouldn't even notice), but on a large 24" monitor, it's still very very easy to read.

Many people own 88 key weighted keyboards of one description or another that use them in a computer orientated environment with a PC/mac based DAW. For a lot of them, Ebooks are the way forwards.

I have the ipad3 yes it's crystal clear, it's also 10" compared to my high end 24" monitor. So if I did use it to read my music on, I would be staring at a tiny screen in comparison to my PC screen.

If you look at the pic of my set-up, you can see I have an 88 note Korg Triton Extreme with a Korg M3M above it and my 24" monitor above that. There's no point mounting my ipad to the left when I get a bigger area right in front of my eyes.



This pic shows one of the pages from one of Alfreds books displayed on my main PC monitor, as you can see, perfectly clear.




My right hand monitor rotates and should I ever need to, as you can see form this pic, I can use that in portrait mode should I so wish.



My eyesight isn't all that good, I would have to have the ipad mounted 6" away from my eyes to make reading the score comfortable on that sized screen.

I fully understand that on-stage etc an Ipad would be brilliant, I'm just saying that for my music use, it's ebooks all the way on my PC.

If a publisher doesn't release some form of electronic version for a book I want, they loose out on a sale.

As a family we read many books a month, two years ago we were buying 4+ books a month in paper format, in the last year we haven't brought a single one and have no intention of cluttering up shelf space by doing so now. My wife has many friends who also read and have kindles, they no longer buy paper books either.

So if any publisher decides not to release an electronic version of their book, chances are, they will be loosing out on many many more sales than just mine.

Apologies for the off topic comment.

Nice setup!

What I meant is just that Kindle books don't have links or embedded mp3 inside them. So the device you use to read them doesn't really matter. Some iPad apps are interactive books with sounds and videos inside them and somebody might well devise a way to make a score and the actual music available together.

I don't understand why not publish ebook, for ebook is an intermediate product of modern printing. Why not send an email to Tim?

Ah,sorry for the misunderstanding.

I have a couple of Ipad app/mags that do exactly that.

I did buy one kindle book that I had to email them and they replied with mp3 files for the book I brought. Long winded way of doing it but it worked.

Maybe when it comes to lesson books the likes of Amazon should offer an additional download for say £1 or $1 to download the media to accompany it (only allowing such downloads to those that have brought the book).

I'm still on the first unit - though I have jumped ahead and noodled about abit with some of the later excercises. I find that I still have a lot of trouble being smooth in the transitions between the chords, but there are signs of progress.

I tried doing some improvisations with the right hand, but it sounded pretty lame, and I had trouble maintaining a smooth flow in the right.

I have my first lesson with my new teacher on Tuesday and I hope he'll have some suggestions... I am pretty sure though that the first thing I'll hear is that I need to do a lot of repetitions!

Weiyan I'm looking forward to hearing your new version of Blueberry Hill!

Well, I had a week of "disruptions" so to speak. I started with a new piano teacher on Tuesday and he asked me to work on some specific things, so I've been doing that rather than focusing on the Blues. He did say to go ahead with the blues book and we'll look at it at the next lesson, so I hope to get some tips on how to improve my skill at maintaining the smoothness of the bass line. I feel pretty hopeless at that. I can play it if that's all I'm doing, but as soon as I add in the right hand it becomes very irregular! grrr.

I think the answer is going to be "practice"! But at the same time I hope that there might be some help in terms of HOW to practice better for this technique!

I just got this (based on the recommendation here) and I am in love!

Learning to play a walking bass, with a cool efficient fingering.  Learning to play a turnaround.  Learning a rhythmic variation for the right hand.  Getting the idea of improvising in a basic chord position (and allowing it to be inverted).  And this is all in the first six pages.

I like technical exercises, and my brain is busy buzzing with ideas for exercises, and how to isolate and get better at each component, and then how to put them together.... I can see spending a long happy time refining and experimenting with just what I've learned so far.

Plus -- oh, this is so fantastic! -- I think I can use the CD for ear training.  For a long long long time I've felt like I needed simple music to practice my aural skills with, and twelve bar blues would be a great place to start because the chord changes are predictable.  Yes, even knowing in advance that the chord is going to change from I to IV, and exactly when, I still struggle to understand what it is I've just heard.  So here on the CD are 72 12-bar blues pieces, arranged in slowly progressive order of difficulty, and it even comes with an answer key! in the form of the book itself.  So instead pf reading the music, and then listening to the CD, I'm going to listen to the CD first and try to work each piece out by ear, and then use the score to see how close I have gotten.

Something about the book and the idea of the blues give me freedom to improvise, at the same time as there is a structure.  This is part of what makes the first six pages so rich for me, because they're not just about learning to play whole notes against a walking bass, or memorizing a syncopated melody by brute force.  Instead, they're a doorway into countless experiments and varied exercises (remember, I like exercises), and learning to play music by really understanding from the inside what you're trying to do with it.

casinitaly, I look forward to continuing to compare notes (oh dear, no pun intended) with you.

Pianostudent88, I'm delighted to see how happy you are with this book! I agree with you about how exciting the first few pages are - what a great intro indeed.

I haven't done a lot on this as I'm getting into the groove with my new teacher, but I am practcing the walking basse and turn around in different keys to get my left hand well trained!

I'm not quite ready to dive too far in to this book yet. But bought it for the future, as they have a habit of going out of print.
Glad it's so good and look forward to getting to grips with it in the future.

Interesting lessons from listening to the CD, on loop:

* first step is hearing that there is a difference when the chords change. I pass! Yay! (This was not a given.)

* actually, the real first step might be hearing that the sound is the same when the chord does not change. I pass on this too! Yay!

* there are other things like hearing that all the notes of the walking bass in a measure belong to one chord, but because I know that these are straight 12-bar blues (for the most part, at least), I don't have to worry about detecting that. Instead I can focus in learning "all these sounds belong together as one chord/harmony).

* the first pieces all use V V I I in the last line, and I could hear the difference when they started using V IV I I. And I didn't even know they were going to switch to that. Yay! (I was primed by being more familiar with the V IV I I form, and wondering if it would show up. Otherwise I wouldn't have known what the second chord was, and I probably would have even doubted my ears that I was hearing a change.)

* I've learned to ignore the melody and listen to the LH. Yay! (I have usually found harmony/accompaniment/chords really hard to hear. Some later time I'll practice listening to the melody and hearing how it fits with the harmony. But not yet.)

* Interestingly, I don't hear the I-IV change as "up a fourth.". I do hear it as "up", and then later when they start playing it as "down a fifth" I do hear it as "down", but again, have no idea by how much, apart from music theory telling me the answer. My ears don't tell me the answer, and they don't think that it sounds like any of the reference songs I've tried to learn for intervals. So this is interesting to me. I can distinguish up from down, so: Yay!

* Similarly, I do hear the I-V change as "up" (or "down", when they start playing it down), but I don't hear it as "up a fifth" or "down a fourth.". And I hear the V-IV change as "down", but not as "down a whole step". I think you could convince me it's down by anything from a half-step to a fifth. But at least Yay! for being able to hear a change as small as what I know from theory is a whole step.

* I hear the I-IV change as different than the I-V change, and that the V target is higher than the IV target, at least when the changes go up. (Haven't paid attention yet for down changes.) This is major Yay! to be able to hear the difference between two events four measures apart. Yay! Yay! Yay!

I'm trying to write about this to show the kinds of component skills that can go into something that might seem as basic as recognizing a chord progression, or recognizing an interval, neither of which I'm very good at in the conventional kinds of ways that I think of for being able to test for these things.

There are other things I can think of to do, like play and record some progressions that are almost twelve bar blues, but not quite: change a chord here or there. Also record some twelve bar blues progressions. Then shuffle them and see if I can tell which are the twelve bar blues. That would tell me that I'm actually recognizing the IV and V as such, even though they don't make me think "fourth" or "fifth.". Or whether all I'm hearing is "up" or "down", and III and VI (for example) could be substituted without me detecting the difference. That's the kind of thing I think of as an unconventional way of testing for being able to hear an interval or a progression.

I'm very happy with all the things I've discovered I can hear. It wasn't in any way a given that I'd be able to hear them, even with being given the chord progression on a silver platter.

Blues is wonderful music, and I hope that all you folks do well with this book.

I would suggest that, if you are not doing it, add to your studies a steady diet of listening to good Blues music.

I prefer the older artists, such as Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Otis Spann, Howling Wolf, early Ray Charles, Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim, etc.

Listening is key to grasping this music; It is often said that Blues is "caught" rather than "taught", i.e. you internalize it by listening.

Also, as you listen, try to zone in on one instrument, such as the Bass, or the Drums, etc. Study what that instrument is doing...try to map it out.

One reason why the old masters is preferable here is because the modern players learned by listening to the old guys, so IMO I would rather go to the source, rather than a second or third generation removed.

Thanks rocket88. I have done without adding music to my smartphone for several years, but blues music has inspired me to change that.

It is very helpful to have a list of musicians to listen to. I like going back to the source.