The Two-Note Trick That Plays an Entire 12-Bar Blues (+ 3 Blues Licks) | How to Play Blues Piano

Learn how to play blues piano with just two notes in your right hand — shell voicings, the Charleston rhythm and both blues scales over a 12-bar blues in E, with Jason Zac of Nathaniel School of Music. 🎹 A dominant seventh chord has four notes, and you only need two of them. Keep the third and the flat seventh — the two notes that make it a dominant — and throw the root and the fifth away. Your left hand covers the root anyway, and as Jason puts it, the fifth "isn't adding that much unique harmonic flavour" in the right hand, so give it to the left and it widens the whole thing out. That pair is a shell voicing, and it is what blues and jazz pianists have always actually played. We start on C7 — E and B flat — and then take it to E for the rest of the lesson. E7 is D and G sharp. A7 is C sharp and G. B7 is D sharp and A. Every one of those is a tritone, and here is the part nobody tells you: a tritone is its own inversion. Turn a perfect fourth upside down and you get a fifth; turn a major third upside down and you get a minor sixth; turn a tritone upside down and you get another tritone. That is why 3–♭7 and ♭7–3 are the same shape, and why your hand barely moves all the way round a blues. Then the rhythm. The Charleston is two hits, swung, and there is a displaced version that starts late and lands on the three. Combine them — Jason's own preference is the displaced one first, then the normal one, which is everywhere in rock and roll. Left hand keeps a steady root and fifth underneath. And the gap the Charleston leaves is not empty space: it is where your solo goes. For the solo, two scales, and both are simpler than they sound. The major blues is just the major pentatonic with a flat third added. The minor blues is the minor pentatonic with the blue note. Then three licks: E B D E, the longer B D B B flat A G that fits over B7, A7 and E7 without changing a note, and the A–B flat–B turnaround — the four, the tritone and the five — that sends you round again. Finish with what Jason calls "some masala": slide the whole tritone voicing down chromatically. Do that from B7 and you land on E7, then A7 — because the three chords of an E blues sit on three touching pairs of keys. 🏫 Courses, Workshops or Private lessons ➡️ https://forms.gle/fsbhFKSgJbZ5xZEr8 📹 Everything for Life Bundle ➡️ https://learn-music.nathanielschool.com/ 🎹 Piano Courses ➡️ https://piano.nathanielschool.com ▶️ RELATED LESSONS One Left Hand Pattern. Both Blues Scales. ➡️ https://youtu.be/DNod4Pke5gE Blues Scale Piano Workout: Major & Minor Blues Scales ➡️ https://youtu.be/p46g4HXjtj0 10 Piano Exercises on ONE Chord (E7) ➡️ https://youtu.be/22fTJTAE9WI The 12-Bar Blues Bassline Every Piano Left Hand Needs ➡️ https://youtu.be/u8dWiosMZd4 The Best Blues Piano Patterns for Both Hands ➡️ https://youtu.be/0lWwA6Kr9Mc 🎛️ FREE PRACTICE TOOLS Metronome with swing + a Charleston mode ➡️ https://metronome.nathanielschool.com Jazz Lab — play the form back at yourself ➡️ https://jazz.nathanielschool.com 🎓 https://nathanielschool.com 📚 All 1000+ lessons ➡️ https://learning-portal.nathanielschool.com 🆓 Free tutorials website — every lesson sorted by topic and level ➡️ https://free-music-lessons.nathanielschool.com ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Performance 00:27 - Lesson Preview: Blues Shell Improvisation 🎹 01:12 - Building C7 from 3 and b7 01:45 - Inverting the Shell: b7 and 3 01:55 - Expanding Shells with Chord Colours 02:18 - Creating Space for Right-Hand Improvisation 02:59 - The Left-Hand Root–Fifth Pattern 04:40 - Setting Up the 12-Bar Blues in E 06:55 - Shell Voicings in Both Inversions E7, A7 & B7 08:39 - Introducing the Charleston Rhythm 🥁 09:42 - The Displaced Charleston Pattern 10:18 - Combining Both Charleston Variations 11:50 - Passing, Walking and Ghost Bass Notes 12:22 - Using Rhythmic Gaps for Improvisation 12:33 - Lick 1: E–B–D–E 13:41 - Composing Licks from Blues Scales 15:12 - Lick 2: Sliding into B 15:58 - Turnaround Lick over B7–A7–E7 17:32 - Transposing the Pattern to Other Keys 17:55 - Lesson Recap: Shells, Rhythm and Licks 19:00 - Adding a Chromatic Downward Slide 19:40 - Final Practice Suggestions 💛 Support ➡️ https://geni.us/DonatePayPal 📸 Instagram ➡️ https://instagram.com/jasonzac 💬 WhatsApp ➡️ +91 77604 56847 ✉️ music@nathanielschool.com 🎧 Riffs ➡️ https://riffs.jasonzacmusic.com/ #PianoLessons #PianoTutorial #MusicTheory #BluesPiano