Blues Scale & Licks Piano Lesson - Hit The Road Jack By Ray Charles
In this intermediate-advanced piano lesson we are just using the song Hit the Road Jack as a set of chords to practice our blues scale on. If you a beginner, you still need to watch the video to learn the correct fingering for the D blues scale and get an idea for how to use it! You’ll be surprised at how much you can pick up!
CHORDS:
There are only 4 chords in Hit The Road Jack. The chords are: Dm, C, Bb and A
You can use power chord voicings in your left hand by using these notes:
Dm = (D,A). C = (C,G). Bb = (Bb,F). A=(A,E).
BLUES SCALE:
BUT The D minor blues scale will work over all those chords!
The notes in the D blues scale are D F G G# A C D.
THREE LICKS:
I show you three very cool sounding licks in this video that are based on the D blues scale. Then we put them all back to back. You should practice performing the three licks in a different sequences to create a different solo each time.
Trills:
One of the licks is a trill. THESE SOUND AWESOME! ..so practice them 
When you’re playing a trill, make sure your wrist is the muscle that is doing all the work, not your fingers. If you use only your fingers to play a trill you will probably hurt yourself!
Hi Marx,
I very appreciate your lesson
I’m a beginner on piano
It is possible for you to make a midifile or pdf shet
of this bossa nova - (Austin powers):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Ce7l5N0Vo
thanks
Andrea
thanks thats nice
ANDREA!
I just learned the “Soul Bossa Nova” I think I could do a quick video lesson on it just to show you the basics. Its really for a full orchestra but we can try to re-create the same feeling of it on piano.
Thank you for the suggestion!
CHRIS MARX
could you name the chords you use in bothleft an right hand as you move it is hard to see from vedieo thnak you
Hi Robert,
The chords are listed in the post along with other good information.
Be sure to read the post for some other helpful hints.
“There are only 4 chords in Hit The Road Jack. The chords are: Dm, C, Bb and A”
Bonjour
It’s a good lesson for me
Have you others lessons ?
Thank you
Wow that was really awesome. you’re good.
Do you know how to play the Girl from Ipanema?
Hey Joel!
We could do a lesson on that!
There is a line forming for requests
It would be good for jazz and bossa nova fanatics though
I thank you so much. I played (hit the road jack) for my friends and they were amazed. I am 14 and found your teaching easy to follow along and am very happy there are people with a love of music like you.
I was wondering if you could teach more Michael Jackson songs, I am pretty open, so you can see which one you like better. I have searched far and wide, and before I discovered you could only find the easy way to play “beat it”.
Thanks again Chris,
Gian
Hey Gian!
I just learned thriller,
so we’ll probably be doing that one soon.
Check your email for the rest of the message!
Any other MJ songs I would have to learn, which would take much longer.
Thank you
-CHRIS MARRRRRX
Hi Chris,
I was wondering if that was the whole song?
Also, if you stated that the wrist was meant to do the work for the trills. I found it pretty hard to use my wrist for trills because it wasn’t relaxed enough. Could you cover some wrist exercises?
That’ll be great, I’m sure it’ll help others as well as me.
Thank-you
That was one of the most useful piano lessons - thanks!
Hi Marx
The viedo is great but with what we’ve learned we can make some solo’s but for the beginning your fingers are too fast to see how your playing..
Hi Philippe!
Ususally the first part is just a preview of what is to come… in its final fast form.
The first part of the video is fast, the same patterns are then showed slowly later on in the video.
Good luck!
hey thanx for the lesson but you arnt teaching slow enough owell i guess i should catch up.
thanx Puppylover1
Hi PuppyLover,
This is an intermediate/advanced lesson. Try some of the easier ones first!
Thanks
Chris Marx
Evening Chris,
I love this piece Karl! Thank you for posting the scale and the three licks!!
I would adore it if you could send a .pdf file of it or a link of it posted on Adobe Reader so I would be able to view it. And if you do have it already posted, then would you mind puttin a link of it here or in an email?
Many Thanks! [=
-Bob
Hi Bob!
I have a collection of licks that I give to my private piano students. These are some of them. I’m working on updating the chords 101 course and I’ll put some of the licks in there on pdf!
Thanks,
Chris Marx
Hey, do you think you would be able to do a slow lesson on ‘Hit the road Jack’ and just go once through it but slowly please? I would love to learn it and I think your version is the best on youtube! Thank you.
Hi Chris.
Thank you for all these video lessons you do they are really great, I am a intermediate player after spending many years having lessons this was many years ago, I think this aproach you use for learning different tunes and different styles is marvelous, do you have these lessons on DVD for an intermediate player like myself if so how do I go about purchasing one.
Peter Hill
Hi Chris.
I really appreciate your lesson
and I really like to play “Hit The Road Jack”
It is possible for you to make a midifile or pdf shet
of “Hit The Road Jack”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAnzzfUYoIM
Thank you Chris
Hi Chris
I really appreciate all the video lessons.
I saw the Hit the road jack-Ray Charles video
I would love to have a music sheet.
and if you have any blues duet song
can you send them to me too?
Thank you Chris
that some of the staff I want to be good at.