Chords for Advanced blues piano tutorial - playing blues in E

[E] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
OK, today I'm going to talk a little bit about playing blues [Gm] and sort of boogie and [Em] funky
rocky styles in the key of E. _
[Ab] OK?
If you're really, really new to [E] playing blues on the piano, now is probably a good [C] time
to check out my series on really basic blues because that deals with all the very elementary
concepts that I'm going to assume you know if you're watching this video.
You still might enjoy this, you might pick up a few things, but if you're absolutely new,
you don't know where to begin, check out my [F] playlist [E] on the basics, I'll include the links.
If you're playing a little bit of blues, [Em] then _ _ _ it's dead [C] easy to get trapped in certain keys,
[G] C, F and G particularly, because they're the white note keys that are really easy to _ play in. _
And indeed, most of the videos that I've included on the blues so far have been in one of those [Eb] keys
because it's simple to explain things.
[E] But why E?
And I mean anything you learn in this [A] video you can also apply to the key of A,
which is very similar.
[E] Why E?
E's a useful one to have because it's kind of rewarding in itself
to be able to play in a different key.
But if you're ever playing a band, you'll discover that [N] guitarists
absolutely love to play in E, OK?
Because if you play guitar you'll know it's just about the easiest
key to play in on the guitar, you know, all the chords [E] are quite open.
_ G's very easy as well, but E is particularly easy because it's easy to slide your bar chords on.
Anyway, E, great for guitarists, so worth getting to know. _
But you might think, oh my God, I seem to remember from my piano lessons that E,
unlike C which has no sharps and flats, E has four [Dbm] sharps.
_ You're absolutely right, that's how many sharps it does have.
That is the scale [Eb] of [E] E major. _
OK, four scary black notes, and [C] black notes of course are a problem because they make things fiddly.
If we're playing the blues in C, _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gm]
it doesn't [F] matter if our hand drops off the black notes onto [C] the white notes
because usually it's going to hit [Am] _ _ [G] _ a [C] note that [F] sounds fine.
_ _ _ [G] [E] But in E it's a different ballgame, a different kettle of fish. _
[Em] _ [Gm] OK, now, so how do we make it work?
How do we improvise a blues _ using all our favourite kind of riffs and [Abm] runs and so on
when we're going to take into account these record four sharps?
Well, _ _ a little trick that you can use enormously to your advantage is if you think about the blues scale of E,
rather than the major scale of E, think about the blues scale of E.
The four blues scale, which incorporates the blue notes and the pentatonic notes and everything,
would go something [E] like this.
E, _
[Gb] F sharp, _ _ [G] G natural, _ [Ab]
G sharp, _ [A] A, _ [Bb] B flat or A sharp, [B] B, _ [Db] C sharp, [D] D natural, [E] E.
[Db] _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] OK, [E] _ _ _ _ there are actually quite a lot of white notes in there.
So you can, if you're playing in E blues, you can play shapes which are similar to shapes you would play in the key of C,
but which work against E.
Let's look at a couple. _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ [Bbm] _
[Em] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Gb] _ [Em] _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [E] _ [Dbm] _ [G] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ OK, I'm not touching, well any black notes I'm touching there is that B flat, which is the [G] flattened fifth.
OK, I can do shapes like [Gm] this, [Em] barely using any black notes [E] at all and it sounds kind of cool. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ When I'm playing in [Bm] E by the way, I often play a slight variation on the 12 bar because I think it sounds cool.
I play that B minus [C] 7 followed by the A minus 7.
I've got an earlier video where I've done [Ab] this.
But anyway, it's [Bm] just what I'm doing, just so that you know.
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[E] _ OK, I'm getting a very, very distinctive sound.
Now I can still work in _ the, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
what I'd say, the black notes,
[G] but I don't have to use them.
I can work them in as and when they become convenient to play.
_ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
[Dbm] _ [E] _ OK, I'm still able to do that [G] thing [D] _
where I'm dropping down from the black notes [Db] onto the white notes.
_ [E] _ _ Now this doesn't work in every key, but it's convenient that it does work in E. _ _ _ _ _
What else to say?
Yeah, riffs.
[A] Riffs are a [C] little bit harder in E, but you can make them work.
One riff that's very popular in [G] C _ is this one.
_ [Cm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [C] OK, _ you've seen it before.
It's [E] difficult to make that work in E in exactly the same way, but something similar will [A] work.
[Bb] _ _ [G] But [C]
obviously you can't, when you're doing C, you're crushing [Cm] the [C] minor third to the major third [F] [C] and _ _ the flat fifth to the perfect [Cm] fifth. _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ OK, in E you just adapt it slightly.
And we are doing, this is something I tend to avoid, but it does work here, an [Ab] up-crush.
I think I've just invented a new technical term.
An up-crush, yeah, [E] cool, there we go.
_ [A] _
[E] _ _ [A] _ [E] _ _ _ [Dbm] _ _
_ [Abm] So you've got to kind of [E] rock it a little bit more.
It's a [A] little bit [E] more awkward.
_ [Bb] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ [E] _ _ OK, _ [C]
so it's not tonnes more difficult.
A lot of _ pianists [G] who know a bit of blues say, oh God, I don't want to play in E.
Or the worst thing of all, they've got a keyboard and they start fiddling with the transpose button.
That's just so wrong on so many levels, don't ever let me catch you doing that. _
_ It is actually quite easy to do.
[Gm] There's loads you can do in the key of E.
[Eb] _ _ Other keys can be surprisingly difficult.
So keys like E flat can be a real pain in the backside. _ _ _ _
_ _ That's when you are having to mess about _ with [Ab] _ _ [G] _ [N] a lot of black notes and it starts to get awkward and uncomfortable.
But E, which remember the guitarists love, is actually surprisingly easy.
So, _ top lesson of this video is don't get stuck into just improvising in C, F and G because you think keys like E and A are difficult because they're not as difficult as you might think.
OK, _ any questions about that, you know what to do, stick them in the comment thread _ _ under the video on YouTube and I will come back to you.
OK?
[E] _ I hope that's been useful.
By the way, [G] nobody's ever given me a video response so if you want to film yourself [N] playing one of these,
_ or you know, certainly help with better you are than me, or you want to ask a question or point out a problem, do so, that would be cool.
But otherwise, if you've got questions, stick them in the thread.
OK?
I hope that was useful. _