How to Play Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues” on Piano

Looking to add some jazz to your piano repertoire? Then you’ll want to check out this tutorial on how to play Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues.”

Introduction

Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues” is one of the most iconic and influential pieces of jazz ever written. The melody is simple and catchy, making it perfect for beginners to learn. In this article, we’ll show you how to play the melody of “West End Blues” on piano.

Verse

There are 3 main sections to this piece – the opening lead in, the main body of the piece which is 8 bars long, and then a shorter 4 bar section which functions as a kind of coda. Let’s take a look at each one in turn.

The opening lead in is 6 bars long and consists of a slow melodic line which gradually gets faster as it reaches the final two bars. The melody is built around a ii-V-I chord progression in the key of C, and the left hand accompaniment consists of simple quarter note chords.

The main body of the piece is 8 bars long and is based around a repeated four bar riff. The first four bars are played with a swing feel, while the second four are played straight ahead. The riff itself is fairly simple, consisting of just three chords – C6, D7, and G7. The left hand accompaniment for this section is also quite straightforward, consisting of quarter note chords on beats 1 and 3 and eighth note passing chords on beats 2 and 4.

The final 4 bar section functions as a kind of coda, bringing the piece to a close by repeating the opening lead in melody one last time. The only difference here is that the tempo is slightly faster than it was at the start of the piece.

Chorus

The chorus of “West End Blues” is one of the most memorable and iconic sections in all of jazz. It’s also one of the most challenging to play on piano. In this article, we’ll go over some tips on how to tackle this classic chord progression.

The first thing to know is that the chords in the chorus are not your typical major or minor chords. They are actually a type of chord called “alterations.” Alterations are simply chords that have been modified in some way, usually by adding or removing a note. In the case of “West End Blues,” the altered chords are all dominant seventh chords.

A dominant seventh chord is a four-note chord that contains a root, third, fifth, and flat seventh. When played in the key of C, these chords would be C7, F7, Bb7, and Eb7. To get these altered tones, you’ll need to use what’s called an “altered scale.” The altered scale is simply a minor scale with a flat fifth and flat ninth. In the key of C, this would be C-D-Eb-F-Gb-Ab-Bb.

Now that you know what alterations are and what scale to use, let’s take a look at how to apply these concepts to the piano. The first thing you’ll need to do is find the root notes of each chord in the progression. In “West End Blues,” the roots are C (chord 1), F (chord 4), Bb (chord 5), and Eb (chord 8). Once you find these roots, you can begin laying down the basic triad for each chord. For example, on chord 1 (C7), you would play C-Eb-G.

Once you have the triads down, it’s time to add in the seventh notes. For C7, this would be Bb; for F7, it would be Eb; for Bb7, it would be Ab; and for Eb7, it would be Db. You can add these notes in either by playing them as passing tones or by holding them down for the duration of the chord.

Finally, once you have all of the notes in place, you’ll want to experiment with different rhythms and voicings. The original recording of “West End Blues” features some very dense voicings with multiple notes being played on each beat. However, you can also choose to spread out the chords more sparsely if you prefer. There are no hard and fast rules here—it’s all about what sounds good to your ear!

Bridge

The bridge of “West End Blues” is unique in that it doesn’t repeat the same phrase twice. Instead, the left hand plays a simple quarter note melody while the right hand improvises around the chord progression. To play this bridge, start by learning the left hand melody. Once you have that down, you can begin to improvise with the right hand. Experiment with different rhythms and melodies until you find something that sounds good to you.

Outro

We hope you enjoyed learning how to play Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues” on piano! If you’re looking for more great jazz songs to learn, check out our other articles on [jazz piano standards](https://www.pianomyths.com/blog/category/jazz-piano-standards/).