Music Lesson: Breaks and Variations

Overview of Breaks

Let's take a look at the breaks I demonstrated in the recording from the first video.

First Break - Suitcase Blues

The first break was taken from a little Albert Ammons tune called Suitcase Blues. It's a great tune and goes something like this:

[Plays tune]

When you break it down, it's actually pretty simple. Here's how it works:

Left Hand Technique

• The left hand is simply going up and down the G arpeggio.
• It's using a 10th in the left hand when it goes back into it.
• There are grace notes in between, which makes it sound impressive.

Tip: Practice it at a slower tempo to ensure it's comfortable under your fingers. It's quite a feature in the tune, so it needs to stand out from the right hand as well.

Right Hand Technique

• The right hand is also simple. It plays essentially sixths down with leading notes before it.

Whole Technique:

• It's important to keep your wrist flexible here.
• Avoid using your whole arm; otherwise, you risk injury and won't be able to gain speed.
• Focus on having a relaxed wrist. Your upper arms, lower arms, and wrists should all be relaxed.

Visualize: You should be able to see the muscle relaxing and flapping underneath, an important aspect of playing comfortably.

Variations on the Break

Left Hand Variations

Instead of the usual up and down approach, consider starting with the left hand at the top, moving to the bottom, and back to the top:

• Fun Experiment: Let's see how that sounds with the right hand.

[Plays new pattern]

Right Hand Variations

• You could change what you're doing with the right hand. Consider trying different riffs, like the one we looked at earlier.

[Plays new riff]

Exploring Trills

We haven't really covered trills yet, but you could incorporate one:

• A basic G7 chord played with a voicing that covers the F and G with the thumb.
• Rock around the B and slide off the B.

Inversions:

• In the second half, slide to the next inversion or two inversions up of the G7 and slide off the D flat.

Experimentation:

• You could use different inversions while reducing the time spent on each one.

Bringing the Left Hand Higher

You might find it interesting to carry on with the left hand up at the top.

[Demonstrates idea]

This may lead to a nice feature in the tune, especially if the bass is typically low.

Conclusion

This breakdown of the break includes a couple of ideas for variations. I recommend listening to Albert Ammons' original of Suitcase Blues to hear his approach.

In the next video, we'll explore the other break I did.