Hello! This is Kent D. Smith of ReadPianoMusicNow.com (this website). Welcome to my most popular online course, which I call A Study in Blues Piano – Focusing on Twelve “Power Licks.”
FYI: This course, plus all other videos and posts on this website, are free to all visitors: I used to sell this course, and several others, online. My formerly commercial brand name is “Piano With Kent” (R). But now, in the spirit of free education (partly supported by my sales of “sheet music with letters”), I am currently able to keep this website alive and growing as a free resource to all, with no 3rd-party ads.
PLEASE NOTE: The videos in this course each include a reference to my older website, pianowithkent.com. About two years ago, I retired that site, because I was unhappy with the overall design. Anyone who now tries to visit this older site will be automatically redirected to this site, ReadPianoMusicNow.com.
COURSE VIDEOS – ALL TWELVE LESSONS
A full course description, including a summary of course prerequisites (that is, the basic music concepts and playing skills that you should ideally have, in order to get maximum benefit from this class), is at the bottom of this page. >>
COURSE TRAILER/INTRO
The following twelve videos make up the complete course:
Blues Power Lick No. 1 of 12
Nickname: “Energy”
Blues Power Lick No. 2 of 12
Nickname: “Da-boo-da Boo-dee-ooo”
Blues Power Lick No. 3 of 12
Nickname: “Boogie House”
Blues Power Lick No. 4 of 12
Nickname: “You Gimme the Run Around (baby)!”
Blues Power Lick No. 5 of 12
Nickname: “Da-boo-dee-you Bop”
Blues Power Lick No. 6 of 12
Nickname: “Two-Fisted Blues”
Blues Power Lick No. 7 of 12
Nickname: “Flat-Three to Five”
Blues Power Lick No. 8 of 12
Nickname: “The Doodly-At”
Blues Power Lick No. 9 of 12
Nickname: “Turn Around and Come Back (baby!)”
Blues Power Lick No. 10 of 12
Nickname: “Twelve Bars Tonight”
Blues Power Lick No. 11 of 12
Nickname: “The Pad”
Blues Power Lick No. 12 of 12
Nickname: “Le Cliché”
YOU’VE REACHED THE END OF THIS COURSE – CONGRATULATIONS!
>> Note, I have listed all the course videos first (above), before this course description (below), so that those who are navigating the course will have quicker access to each video.
Course Description
This is a twelve lesson, video-based “master class,” on the topic of Blues piano improvisation.
This course is all about empowering and enriching your own improvised Blues piano solos. As such, I highly recommend that you don’t just memorize these twelve licks, note-for-note. These licks should be seen as raw material–not merely a set of fixed notes–this is because, the origin, the heart and soul, of traditional Blues music is Musical and Vocal Improvisation.
I call this a “master class,” because I’ve made a few important assumptions here, about your prior piano playing experience, and also some assumptions about your basic knowledge of music theory (not mandatory, but helpful), improvisation, piano playing, and blues music in general.
Overall, an absolute beginner at piano will likely not get much from this class, I regret to say. (But you never know!)
I’m assuming you have prior experience in:
- The physical “technique” necessary to play piano in general, at an intermediate to fairly advanced level. Note: Each lick CAN be simplified, but that task of simplification would be up to you.
- A basic knowledge of the 12-bar Blues form.
- The commonly called “Minor Blues Scale,” and its variants.
- Optional, but very helpful: A general, basic understanding of certain music theory concepts is necessary for certain sections of each video. Especially, when I talk about transposing these licks into other keys, and related things, I refer to intervals pretty often. Examples of the intervals that I most often refer to here are: half-steps, whole-steps, thirds, fourths, fifths, and octaves. You should also (ideally) know about how chords and scales are constructed, using the aforementioned intervals. I say this stuff is “optional,” because you can still acquire a lot from this class without any knowledge of music theory—especially if you have a good ear!
- It is NOT necessary to read music for this class. (Blues was born, and still thrives today, without any need of formal music training and/or sheet music — however, the ability to understand chord symbols, and/or their associated spoken names, is very helpful to any blues, jazz, or pop musician–think of a singing guitar player here.)