How to Play the Blues

This article is intended as a tutorial – so to speak, for beginning musicians of most instruments. I am a self taught piano player, and I have been playing around with keyboard instruments for a while now (since 1975). I really think more schools should teach music in this country. Not just how to play it, but the history of it as well.

I wrote an article on Triond not too long ago about how to improvise. The instrument you play doesn’t matter, as music is a constant. There are rules, and certain things work, and others won’t. Of course that also depends on your perception of what sounds good. For instance if you were to play a chord on a bass guitar, you might find it more pleasing to your ear if you play it in the higher range.(If you have a bass try it, you’ll know what I mean). If you play a chord on the lower pitched strings, you may find it sounds more like thunder instead of music. Again, that depends. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

I always had an appreciation for the blues, so I’ll cover the basics. You will find that a lot of simple blues theory works in other styles, like rock, country, and even classical. Yes even the great composer Bach, was actually a jazz composer. He just didn’t know it. If you like to look things up, just take a listen to his “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” It should be easy to find, and there are a lot of different versions of it. (Most are played WAY too fast). I would play it and put it on loudio, but it’s not my own composition. (But I love playing it).

For starters, most typical blues songs have a pattern commonly referred to as “12 bar blues.” I am talking basics here. I have an example