Fast Piano Lessons Blog

This was a paid request to help someone learn Ray Charles rendition of Everyday I have the blues. The song follows the 12 bar blues with a lot of really tasty ray charles fills and variations throughout the whole song. The first 30 seconds of the song just have Ray playing solo piano as an introduction. This video slows down the licks from the first 15 seconds of the video. SKIP AHEAD TO 1:10 IN THE VIDEO TO SEE MY TRANSCRIPTION OF RAY’S LICKS SLOWED DOWN.

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PART 2 of EVERYDAY I HAVE THE BLUES - RAY CHARlES - VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

TRANSPOSING:

Pick one or two of these licks and learn them really well then transpose it to the key of C so you can get even more use out of them by using them in a blues in C! Transposing it from the key of Bb to the key of C requires you to move every note up one whole step. This is because the keys Bb and C are one whole step apart. Stay tuned for more on this great song! We’ll be working on some good chord voicings for the 3 chords in a Bb blues: Bb7, Eb7 and F7.

Here is the famous piano crossover lick! It gets used a lot in blues, rock and country keyboard styles. Probably one of the most popular and common licks you’ll hear used on recordings. This can be used anytime you are improvising over a C chord.

You really should transpose this to other keys. Try and see how it is based around a C major triad and it will help you take it to new keys.

Click the music to blow it up!

Video outline:
The first half of the video is a different lick over a 2 5 1 progression. In this key the 2 is Dminor, the 5 is G7 and the 1 chord is Cmajor 7.
Right around :15 is where the lick demonstration gets slowed down.

In this blues lick exercise for piano, the trick to playing the grace notes is to slide your pinky off the first note and land on the next key–all in one action.

This is great to use in the first two bars, or sixth and seventh bars of the 12 bar blues where you’re going from C to F. It really highlights the change in harmony because there’s an E in C but an Eb in F7.

Click the music to enlarge it!

Grace notes are the tiny notes you see written in the example. Quickly slide your finger off the EDGE of the black key onto the white key.

Post a comment, let me know if the new digital keyboard (tiny one up top) is helpful!!!

Piano Video Outline:

:05 - An example of the lick

1:40 - This lick is shown over a blues and how to use some variations on the different chords, (C7 F7 G7).

2:20 - Changing harmony from C7 to F7 (watch out for the E natural going to E flat)

2:50 - A solo highlighting the change in harmony from C7 to F7.

Here is a good definition of a lick:
A lick is “a stock pattern or phrase” (Middleton 1990, p. 137). In other words, Its a short melody made of a small number of notes that you have rehearsed. You want to do this so you sound better prepared for playing solos or improvising.

I am constantly adding new licks to my musical vocabulary. Here are a few short ones to get started with as well as a short explanation of fingering for the blues scale:

This lesson starts off covering two different easy blues scale licks at :04

Then we cover the two hand positions at :15
Make sure to learn the scale from both hand positions. Otherwise your limiting your creative possibilities. If you just start improvising from the C note every single time, what should be “improvising” will fall into becoming very routine.

I show you the fingering for the blues scale at :40
There are two different options for fingering the C blues scale:
You could use 1212121. (Thumb, Pointer, Thumber Pointer Etc)
Or 1234123 (Thumb = 1, Pointer = 2, Middle = 3, Ring Finger = 4).
Its good to be comfortable playing both fingerings.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions by posting a comment!

Scales and Licks aka Runs are great because they give you a fingering puzzle. The puzzle is how to use your five fingers to play 8 or so notes in the smoothest way possible. HINT: Using your index finger over and over is not the answer!

1. The quickest way to play a specific run really fast:
   Practice the specific as many times as you can in 5-10min each day for a week.
   By the end of the week you’ll really notice an improvement in speed.
2. Starting off slowly is very important. If you try and play it faster than your fingers are ready for, you will make mistakes. And practicing mistakes doesn’t help. Each time you play something the wrong way, you are practicing a mistake.
3. As far as exercises that prepare you to play faster and smoother in general, I would recommend scales. Scales will help your fingers become quicker! Practice ALL the blues scales and a few of the major or minor scales that you want to learn. It will be even more helpful to practice with a metronome.

Great question Lisa!