Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Tim Richards: Improvising Blues Piano

Great 12 bar blues lesson by Adam Gussow.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAD55C6BAE3ADB91C

I just purchased a course on musicgurus.com that looks like a way to navigate through this Tim Richards book ,..,., Improvising Blues Piano.

It does not follow the book page by page but seems to move along and demonstrate tunes using the concepts and showing performances using those same principles.

Looks good to me.

Good videos.

Until your post, I had never heard Of the "Metaphors for Musicians" book. I see that it gets great reviews on Amazon, but the sample provided has me a bit confused. Is it more of a "reading" (prose) book, in which case I'd probably prefer a hard-copy? Or is it more of an "exercises" book, (in which case I'd probably prefer the Kindle version to use on my iPad Pro)?

Can anyone help me out with these questions?

Thanks.

I used to have it but cannot locate it at the moment. My recollection is that it is a sort of "fairytale" using characters in the "story" to represent various aspects of music theory. It attempts to explain relationships between scales, chords, keys, etc …. using these metaphors (characters).


I remember losing interest and moving on.

I cannot recommend the book.


BTW …. Did you notice that you are responding to a posting from AUDITOR that is over 2 years old ?


I checked his profile and the last time he was here was September of 2016.

So …. I am guessing …. THE BOOK was not a raving success for him.

I picked up this book years ago and meant to do more, but now I think I'm going to make the commitment. I am excited that I found this thread. Most of what I've done on the piano has been classical, but I want to be able to create more. I look forward to going through the thread.

Wow, this thread is just like the Blues itself and refuses to die (and that's a good thing),

I have this book and was talking to my teacher just before the lockdown saying that I want to use it as my main method book.

My only problem with the book is that I'd like it to do some more contemporary rock type blues stuff. Things like the Allman Brothers, Clapton, Led Zepp, the Stones etc..I love the repertoire in the book, but would like a few things I could show off in public with.

My thoughts exactly. Such a good book, a rare book. But boogie-woogie is only part of the blue improv style I'd like to learn. But maybe there is another such book out there that I can blend with this one that will let me mess around in a more prog-rock manner--blues underpinnings but with some crayons of different colors.

There is a Rock Piano book in the same series, though it's not by the same author:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Discovering-Rock-Piano-Jrgen-Moser/9781847610270

I have another blues piano book, called...err let me think....oh yes..."Blues Piano", which is by Hal Leonard and written by Mark Harrison.

It's also good book and takes a slightly different approach covering a bit more theory at the start going through all the Major scales and chords, modes and the Pentatonic and Blues scales before moving into seventh and ninth chords.It then covers blues progressions, left hand patterns and right hand patterns before looking at styles. There's a few different styles including some Chicago blues and a more rock/ blues style similar to a Rolling Stones (Chuck Leavell) style.

All in all, it probably covers a lot of similar material as the Tim Richards book but seems to assume a slightly higher starting point, and doesn't go as far. If you're looking for something to use as well as the Richards book it'd make a good choice.

I went down a bit of an improv rabbit hole last night, looking for good books that cover either genre/style or improvisation in general. Looks like the Mark Levine book on Jazz is well-regarded, and there are a few others out there. Then I ended up reading this article about how Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, etc., combined some blues and jazz concepts...there's a lot to figure out to get to this destination I have in mind--it's kind of like blues-based fun with no limits.

Here's the article I found, https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/deep-progressive-rock

Thanks for the article!!



Long ago (when I was I a kid) I got into classical guitar because I read somewhere some of my fav heavy metal guitar gods learned classical guitar first. Even knowing just a few Bach tunes it was easy to see where some of the better guitar solos came from. Then of course I found out Jimmy Page stole a lot from the old blues men.

I’m only on page 15 of this book. I cant seem to do much with the right hand, yet without messing up the baseline in my left. Ive spend a fair amount of time just plodding away slowing with the left baseline and a metronome, adding just the chord on the 1st. Just this week I can now do the on - off, not at the 120bpm though only at like 100bpm.

Any time I try to improvise even with only 2 or 3 notes my let hand starts doing weird [censored]. LOL I tried doing triplets in the right, even at a snails pace and again my left goes wonky. I start either holding down or hammering on the second note. The E in a C chord, or as the book notes it the 3 in the R353R baseline.
hehe

The Mark Levine Book is mostly about chords and associated scales. It doesn’t give much advice on improvising with those tools.

Ok.

Richard's book is the only book I've found that makes improvisation intuitive, as it should be--an invitation. We all have been improvising since birth, you'd think there would be more books that encourage such an approach.

M. Levine simply excludes the word "improvisation"; instead, he talks about scales, licks, and patterns. I agree that he does not speak about melodic intonation or musical syntax at all; but many jazz tutorials have this lack .

Did you like the Levine book?

My jazz piano teacher, a seasoned pro on the faculty of a university, thinks very highly of the book. Indeed, she still finds new ideas and inspiration in the book for her own playing. It is important to understand, however, that the goal of the book is to break down what jazz pianists do to make the sounds they make. It is not designed to be a method book where you sit down and go from lesson #1 to lesson #2. It is more of a reference work. If you're working on rootless voicings, study the chapter on rootlless left-handed voicings. As Levine says in the Intro "This [book] will help guide to while you study with a good teacher, listen to as much live and recorded jazz as you can, transcribe solos....."

Oh yeah; but as an enriching material in the field of “How to achieve real jazz sound in different directions, starting from the period of the 50s (not including neo-bop).” Clearly, this should complement the lessons with the teacher, book books with other concepts and ideas; for example, "Improvised Jazz" by Jerry Cocker, or the books of Bert Ligon.

I see. Thank you for the detailed response.

I keep going back and forth on the Levine books. There is the Jazz Theory book and the Jazz Piano book. Considering I’m at fetal stages of improv I think Ill hold off a little longer. I tried to read though my moms college Tonal Harmony book (by Allen Forte) before I was ready and it turned me off of music theory for months. LOL

Pretty sure I saw a the recommendation from someone on here (Piano World) for Jazz Theory and Practice by Lawn/Hellmer a while back. I was hoping to start it on my own then go through it with a teacher, but we moved... Ive barely cracked it open.

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Practice-Jeffrey-Hellmer/dp/0882847228