Alfred's Teach Yourself to Play Blues at the Keyboard: Keyboard/Piano Book & Online Audio

Konowitz brings authentic jazz pedagogy to self-directed learning. Rather than treating blues as an isolated style, he builds understanding from the ground up through scales, progressions, and grace notes, then releases students into real jamming. The chord dictionary and play-along recordings mean students can work independently without losing guidance, making this a genuine teach-yourself tool rather than a workbook that pretends to substitute for instruction.

The blues voice emerges gradually under your fingers as you work through grace notes, tremolos, and the bent pitches that define the style. What begins as learning scales and progressions transforms into genuine improvisation, where the chord changes become a conversation and your hands find their own voice within the tradition.

This book serves pianists and keyboard players of all ages who want to add blues to their musical vocabulary without formal instruction or traditional method-based learning. Self-directed learners, adult hobbyists returning to music, and students in school ensemble settings will all benefit from its structured approach and built-in audio reinforcement.

• Listen through the recorded examples before playing them yourself. Hearing the piano in context with the background arrangements clarifies phrasing and interpretation that notation alone cannot convey.
• Practice the blues scales and progressions away from the page. Internalize the finger patterns so you can focus on touch, dynamics, and the subtle articulations that give blues its character.
• Start with the play-along tracks at a comfortable tempo, then gradually increase speed as your left hand progressions and right hand improvisation synchronize.
• Reference the chord dictionary while you play, not just during preparation. Building fluency with chord symbols in real time is central to blues keyboard work.

Introduce this to jazz ensemble students as a grounding text for understanding blues harmony and keyboard voicing before they tackle combo charts. Pianists preparing for jazz ensemble auditions or looking to expand their improvisational toolkit can work through it independently during their study time, bringing deeper harmonic awareness and stylistic confidence to rehearsals.

• Identifying and playing blue notes within major and minor contexts
• Constructing and recognizing 12-bar blues progressions and their common variations
• Reading and executing grace notes and tremolos on keyboard
• Interpreting chord symbols in real-time performance
• Building left-hand accompaniment patterns that support right-hand improvisation
• Improvising single-note and harmonic lines over repeating blues progressions