How to Play James Booker Style Slow Blues - Paddy Milner

Play Authentic Slow Blues Piano with Paddy Milner full course: bit.ly/2huKdMf
Paddy Milner is a world-class blues pianist for the likes of Tom Jones & Jack Bruce. He is part of the MusicGurus community and has a number of courses on Blues piano playing on the site.
The aim of the course is to get better at improvising on a slow blues. In the course, Paddy starts by playing an authentic slow blues crammed with great ideas and riffs. He then breaks everything down, explaining what he's doing in detail, giving you plenty of creative ideas for you to use in your own playing.
In This Course:
- Downloadable sheet music & PDFs
- Special slow-motion and looping video player
More from MusicGurus:
All of Paddy's courses: bit.ly/3oPHcVj
Improvising Blues Piano with Tim Richards: bit.ly/3o3gtCH
About MusicGurus:
MusicGurus Ltd is an online learning platform that partners with the world’s best musicians to create interactive lessons to enable music lovers to “become the musician they’ve always wanted to be”.
Established in 2015 by Tom Rogers and Christopher Esclapez, MusicGurus is fast becoming the industry leader in online music education. The platform offers 1000s of high-quality on-demand lessons across a variety of different instruments, skills, styles and abilities.
Popular world-class ‘Gurus’ already teaching on the site include KT Tunstall, Paddy Milner (Tom Jones), Juliet Russell (The Voice UK) and industry brands including Rockschool.
Subscribe to this channel and keep in touch - visit us on www.musicgurus.com​
Instagram:@musicgurushq
Facebook: ​@musicgurushq
Twitter: @musicgurusHQ

[@Wfhii]

Wow !! Excellent talent James Booker is my absolute favorite pianist of all time

[@30mouse]

Same here!

[@GorZart]

Paddy, you are phenomenal. Please don't stop posting. I've learned a lot watching you. THANK YOU.

[@haden6713]

Absolutely gorgeous! What great ideas. This slow blues is balm to the soul. I need to absorb it. Thank you Paddy!

[@azguitar]

Fantastic, Paddy! I just bought your lesson series, and little by little I'm digesting all the great ideas and adding it to my playing. Thank you!

[@gakrom14]

Best blues lesson I've ever seen, thank you very much Paddy. Rate 5 stars!

[@clairekim5820]

This was simply amazing. Thank you sooooo much for offering a great lesson!

[@geralddurall9112]

Wow! You make it look so effortless! Very beautiful sounds

[@30mouse]

Truly excellent, thank you very much! It's really great to see a lesson on James Booker, one of my all time favorite musicians ever.

[@ldyoung7938]

Wow, I really enjoyed your playing! Thanks!

[@martialway100]

Nice playing, Paddy. Thanks for the tips.

[@Ricardo-Royco]

Thank you for this sharing. Very interesting !

[@andrewcampbell-bluespianop6741]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[@sijobarteam]

Man thank you so much !!! I've been playing tack piano since ten years, learning by listening Jerry Lee Lewis and other rock'n'roll and boogie players. I've only discovered James Booker last week and since I listen to these songs every day! This is an astonishing discovery to me and I was looking at videos to understand his style, because there are so few live from him. Your video is going to be a great help !!! Thanks again!

[@MusicGurus]

We're so glad you've learned something from this video! Why not try the full course? bit.ly/2XD3T2c

[@dirtylint]

thanks. i really enjoyed the playing!!

[@erickhaynie3708]

So good my friend!!!!

[@timothy1024_]

This is great stuff, Thank you!

[@paxwallacejazz]

Thank you thank you bro. Ima gonna see if I can apply this to some of my originals . I keep meaning to almost forgot.

[@beeware5303]

great playing sir and great teaching thanks for sharing 🎶🎶🎶🎶👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻suscribed

[@pitouonline]

Thank you !!!! Great lesson !

[@grberkh]

Your playing is inspiring

[@vfx7t]

Good job thank's for this tutorial you are 😎👍

[@macclift9956]

So good!!

[@anne-francoisetheret4981]

Magnifique ! 👍👍 Merci beaucoup !🙏

[@macclift9956]

You really are amazing!

[@isaacburdiss]

Thank you so much for this video! This is exactly the style of playing that I one day want to achieve. Booker was awesome. I also love the album "She" by HC Jr. And you do a great job defining the style!

[@TheSixfinger1]

That piano is awesome! What a tone!

[@skudlugs]

All I have is a Roland FP 30, keyboard, sounds nothing like this, bit dissapointed.

[@randolphjudy3485]

Great lesson.

[@smashhitley]

Wonderful!!! Thank you.

[@ismailaboulkacem5761]

Fantastique , MERCI

[@PIANOBYMAURICE]

Love this, thanks for posting.

[@leonardodangelo7981]

Isn't she lovely

[@forestmusic51]

Clear presentation! IS there a detailed list of topics covered in your NOLA piano stylings covering Booker,Mac,Prof Longhair + other in that tradition in your course?. Love this

[@lorenzoblanco43]

You made me fall in love with blues

[@harkerroland9750]

Thats a great left hand move brother... i will learn it now!

[@ianmul4]

Booker is a legend, so good.

[@ianmul4]

And after watching the rest of this video: loved it! Thanks!

[@Dan-wq8id]

Nice one bud great vid thanks

[@ryker6richard]

Great stuff man.....

[@mark.lawrence]

this guy is fantastic.

[@ilonajeanpassino608]

Love the Blues series, believe its in my blood.

[@dylanmoir2320]

please more of booker!

[@jamescheetham8516]

Good job Paddy

[@joshlawrence8091]

Outstanding. No-bullshit lesson...please do more!!!

[@Regulus3333]

dope.....your lessons are great, thanks.....getting the tempo of the left and right is still hard though, any lesson on that would be great

[@F5S7N9]

lovely : ), cheers.

[@naturesparks]

hey Paddy I love your lessons I am so glad i bought your courses !

[@ayokay123]

Yeah, real easy if you have giant octopus hands with 10-12 key reach.

[@mvmmotovlogmusic2815]

I must practice.

[@megacrocosaurus]

thanks!

[@axs203]

Thanks Paddy very useful trying to learn James B. If you have time to do a Juno Partner or Goodnight Irene that would be most appreciated as I've been struggling for years with it. You are so good at it.

[@MusicGurus]

Hi Paddy is giving away a free 1 on 1 tutoring session, so you could ask him directly via that. Enter here musicgurus.leadpages.co/tutoring-competition-paddy-milner/

[@enricolongo242]

thanx!!!

[@nino0057]

Blues lesson from Sean Bean. Awesome.

[@Bullwinkel]

Anything Booker is amazing. And holy shit you're amazing! Thanks for this

[@adamcheong3626]

Amazing dude thanks for Sharing and ignore the negativity below

[@timbertimmer]

great job Paddy .. :0)

[@algarvemike]

Great playing, perhaps future videos you could describe what your going to play BEFORE playing it, and break it down into smaller chunks. I’m sure you’d have a lot more success, more subscribers/views this way. Anyway, thanks for a very enjoyable video, your playing and feel are fantastic. 1 new subscriber here!

[@bellad.3435]

Love this, Paddy; it's beautiful! I've been looking for some slow JB tutorials. Unfortunately, I can't reach a 10th. Any suggestions?

[@MusicGurus]

Hi Bella - drop Paddy a message on MusicGurus. I'm sure he will get back to you. Also.. note we're producing a new course on hand dexterity soon (with GeNIA - grand-daughter of Vladamir Horowitz). We'll let you know when it's ready! - The MG team

[@mrkey1003]

At some point in life i hope to grab a lesson at some point mate!

[@shantellek2443]

Do any of you have the piano number patterns for these? I'm confused lol

[@dutchhoke6555]

Good news. Developed stride styles contain an abundance of elements apart from hitting a simultaneous 10th. Frequently the 10ths are inverted anyway, for ALL chord types, rendering somewhat smaller intervals ( one example) Then it's MIND over matter (hand size ), and the adventure begins...check it out- I 'm sure teachers are covering this.

[@Jackrabbit710]

Thanks for the video! Very informative Couldn’t help but notice your hammers are hitting the practice pedal felt! Needs adjusting or it affects the hammer throws and response

[@wouterdeheus3626]

Hammer throws? This piano is not Thor!

[@Jack-fs2im]

cool

[@crazypianolady]

I’m in awe ! Where are you based?

[@davidfarmer2049]

Nice use of the top camera....... very good.

[@nunyabidnss9094]

David Farmer top camera is worst angle for showing which keys are played. Useless camera angle!!

[@evapettersson3933]

This is great music! Thank you! I wish you would slow down your right hand a bit so it would be easier to follow.

[@rodrigosantosmedeiros5625]

Qual o nome dessa levada

[@johncowburn4444]

Paddy, I presume that to even start to learn this stuff you need to be able to play some simple blues? No good just being able to find your way round the piano? I love it but when you start to talk about what you could try instead I'm lost! Any suggestions on how to start? I played classical piano for about 7 years in my teens (a long time ago) but apart from being able to do some left hand boogie riffs I'm stuck. It's the slow blues I really love not boogie so much.

[@1mataleo1]

“Blues Piano” by Mark Harrison (i believe it is published by Hal Leonard) is an excellent book. Especially if you want to understand how to derive the right hand licks from the progressions. Tons of examples, and it comes with an audio CD with all the examples. Good luck

[@DEE_SHORE]

❤

[@neilshaba9186]

Have you written a book about playing these styles or is there a teaching dvd please?

[@MusicGurus]

Hi Neil, head to musicgurus.com and you can find all of Paddy's online music courses!

[@SaturnsOuterRing]

Paddy, can you offer an alternate approach to reaching the 10th's ? I feel lucky be able to reach an octave.

[@Clodhopping]

Rolling tenth. Play the bass root note with finger 5 then extend finger 1 to play the tenth on its own. Some tenths are impossible unless you have gigantic hands so rolling tenths are used. All the best 👍

[@hirohikonishikawa4851]

Very nice I love James Booker. The man they took to show it maybe got some alcohol issues too but it is probably what you need to play it this well.

[@wouterdeheus3626]

Bullshit, you don't need to be an addict to be a good pianist

[@suzannebrown945]

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[@jamesewanchook2276]

what if you can not reach a 10th in the left hand, like most players?

[@raulsevero8512]

a gypsy woman told me i would become a great blues pianist...thanks for helping her...

[@DalhartWX]

“Master, where can I learn this power of playing slow blues on the piano like that?” “Not from the Jedi”

[@hangroover]

do you have any exercise for those thrills??

[@MusicGurus]

Paddy is giving away a free 1 on 1 online tutoring session, so you could ask him directly - enter the competition to win the session here musicgurus.leadpages.co/tutoring-competition-paddy-milner/

[@CapnSchep]

It is amazing to me that there is 3 dislikes on this video ...!! Awesome tutorial on stride blues ...!! ,

[@nunyabidnss9094]

CapnSchep bc this tut doesnt help anyone below his play level. Its Too fast, no note display and terrible straight down camera angle. Unfortunately This vid has zero benefit for a novice player like myself and others.

[@paulrhodesquinn]

⁠@@nunyabidnss9094 It’s an extract from a whole course. If you’re a novice, then there is plenty of beginners material for you to learn from online. The top down view I find is very helpful but each to their own.

[@donhendershot9705]

Clearly not from earth! Incredible ability!

[@likwidguns]

New Orleans in the building

[@wearashirt]

Anybody know surgery so I can do 10ths

[@mailie6403]

It was great but for me to have a go I would need it a bit slower.

[@nandosainz]

New Heroe

[@mark.lawrence]

omg total baller.

[@crazypianolady]

Any tips on how to reach 10ths?

[@eigojiyouzu]

stretch

[@imfromsweden007]

Long fingernails

[@ph_stuff]

Sure! By a piano like that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iajCo6xjgah_baM&ab_channel=accordoTV&ab_channel=accordoTV

[@warningchimes24]

My C pentatonic and C minor scales doesn't sound like that at all :-(

[@MusicGurus]

Hi Vic - don't despair! It can be fixed :) Just practise slowly and learn to play what paddy plays note for note - here's his course where you have a slow motion player to help with that - bit.ly/2huKdMf

[@warningchimes24]

@@MusicGurus Thanks! I mainly play guitar but I'm going to practice only keyboard these next weeks

[@alphonsebakhorsov4144]

I've always hated that I can't reach a proper tenth, but great ideas to work on nonetheless, thank you very much for that lesson :)

[@mickkennedy1344]

There's a couple of strings in the upper bass of that piano that are out of tune

[@maxtinkle]

Its great what you and others do but you ignore that fact that many can't reach a tenth [ Fats couldn't so used sixths ] It least we can get the cool right hand. Thanks Max Tinkle

[@ayokay123]

Agreed. Mostly a waste, especially if you're not gonna demonstrate some workaround cheats.

[@ichabedichlieb4745]

Max Tinkle you mean fats waller?

[@MooPotPie]

@@ichabedichlieb4745 probably Fats Domino. Waller could definitely reach tenths.

[@ichabedichlieb4745]

@@MooPotPie thanks.thats what confused me. 😁

[@Clodhopping]

Try rolling tenths.

[@paxwallacejazz]

So 10th then chromatically roll to the minor 3rd

[@barrytaylor2560]

Anyone asking him to slow down, use the speed function on your KZbin settings. 👍

[@MusicGurus]

Hey Barry! The MusicGurus player on the course itself provides slow motion AND the ability LOOP the sections you're working on. Super useful for isolating and practising the tricky bits :) Course is here: bit.ly/2huKdMf ALSO, a number of the pieces have full transcriptions which synchronize to the video too, and you can also select, slow down and loop sections using the sheet music interface. It's awesome and MUCH better than the YT player!!

[@barrytaylor2560]

MusicGurus already got this course. Has improved my playing so much. Looking forward to Paddys’ next course. Hopefully he’ll consider ‘St James Infirmary’ 😉

[@dimitris3pa386]

2:00 Flexing😂

[@clementxavier9547]

C'est paddy ffiçile. Faut téter du J.B, installer un lit de camp derrière le piano et y passer sa vie. Plus, si affinité. XC

[@connorkonen5770]

I have small hands so...

[@susanlynch6900]

my longest finger is three inches long. but you're great. haha

[@angelamusic2185]

I just want to jam with you : )

[@7vanzzy7]

All the people who can't reach tenths thumbs downing this lesson...

[@carlenechestnut9423]

Party. Good. Stuff. But

[@MusicGurus]

Full 2+ hour course can be found here; www.musicgurus.com/course/stylistic-creative-ideas-slow-blues-piano-paddy-milner?Paddylssnslowblues

[@ramjam2548]

Jon cleary

[@donk.5730]

Great playing Paddy, but please work on your teaching ablilities= very poor. your want to show off, but your fast for style, but not for teaching.

[@blumskis1386]

DONT BUY THE LESSONS!!!!! THEY ARE 45 DOLLARS AND LITERALLY NOTHING MORE THAN LINKS TO KZbin VIDEOS

[@ivanslivonja3393]

You are obviously wrong. KZbin videos are just exception of what you can expect in courses.

[@blumskis1386]

I am happy to buy sheet music that represents what is played in the videos...for example Brendan Kavanagh. I bought this guys full course and did not get as much as a line of sheet music. And the videos are identical to the ones you can watch on youtube for free. This man puts no effort into teaching...dont waste your time or money.

[@nunyabidnss9094]

1. Straight down camera doesnt give visual of the keys you play at all. 2. Playing so fast doesnt help at all. 3. Not displaying the notes played doesnt help at all. 4. Basically Your video isnt helpful at all to learning what you're playing. 5. When teaching others, you should do it from the learners needs and level, not the teachers (your) skill level.

[@marykough476]

It really depends on the level of your playing, and everyone is at different levels of experience. I consider his video as incredibly helpful. For a beginner, it would be too hard. For me, a more advanced player, what he posts is perfect. Its tough, but he gives great information. Maybe find something a little easier, but mark this video as something to aspire to?

[@walkernick86]

I agree! He is obviously a great player.... but teaching is terrible. If you could call it 'teaching' I certainly won't be buying his course! And I am an intermediate level pianist

[@pablosteelio9462]

This is a VERY helpful video, If you are ready for it. If not, shut up and practice!

[@barrytaylor2560]

To be fair to Paddy, this isn’t supposed to be a KZbin tutorial. It’s one section of his authentic blues course (which comes with pdfs. Anyone not willing to purchase his course because they don’t like the format of this video is seriously missing out. It is, without question, the best blues tutorial I’ve ever purchased. P.s. anyone looking to be spoon fed a note for note explanation of this style of playing is missing the point of the blues entirely.

[@RanBlakePiano]

nunya bidnss A couple of your points might be valid but you should be tactful and not put Paddy down .i like this session