Blues Piano Free Resource Roundup

This month at group lessons piano students learned more about blues style and the 12 Bar Blues Pattern as we improvised melodies using some of the resources below.

Piano Blues Free Printable Resources

Teach Piano Today Summertime Blues Improv - By adding a little swing to the summertime blues improv rhythm card patterns and using a shorter version of the blues scale by selecting just a few notes from the jazz scale pictured above even elementary-level students can have fun creating bluesy music.

 At group lessons I had students take turns improvising 1-measure round-robin blues melodies while their peers guessed the rhythm pattern they chose. Then we played Surf's Up round robin style with the students improvising rhythm cards while I played the in-between measures from Teach Piano Today's Surf's Up Composing. for a fill-in-the-blank style composing activity. This helped ease them into creating blues patterns so they could finish up their improv or composition on their own at home.

Color in My Piano 12 Bar Blues in C -  I love how the blues scale is shown both on the staff and on the keys for this free printable. This is paired with several left options including simple whole notes,  "railroad" alternating 5ths and 6ths, walking bass, or extended walking bass patterns.

Chrissy Ricker 12 Bar Blues Black Key Improv -This multi-level activity for improvising a bluesy piece on the black keys includes a teacher or student duet. The 5th, 6th, 7th 6th pattern on the black keys can be played by the teacher or an intermediate level student, while any student can try creating bluesy melodies on the black keys.

Chrissy Ricker Create Your Own C Major 12 Bar Blues - This free printable includes a simple melody line and 3 options for the 12 Bar Bass line for varying levels of difficulty.

Jazz Piano Blues Video Tutorials

Create First Heart and Soul Blues Improv - Watch the sample improv video to learn how to create a bluesy melody to pair with  the classic I-vi-IV-V Heart and Soul chord pattern.

Pianote 12 Bar Blues Piano Tutorial Students can watch this tutorial video in snippets and then pause to try out some of the ideas he presents with increasing levels of complexity.