Developing Left Hand Walking Bass
People always say one of the the hardest things about learning piano is getting your right hand and your left hand to cooperate. While it is true that it is difficult to get the two hands working together initially, it is NOT impossible. As with anything, it just takes time and a good amount of practice.
Your best bet is to start by playing the left hand walking bass pattern shown in this video by itself first. Play it very slowly until it becomes comfortable. No not speed up until you are playing each note accurately and with good feel. Speeding up too quickly will cause your rhythm to suffer and you'll also frustrate yourself.
Remember that the notes of the walking bass pattern here are almost just outlining a dominant 7th chord with the exception of adding an extra note (the 6th or 13th). In the key of C, the notes that you will play in your left hand are as follows:
Over the C7 (I) chord, you'll play: C - E - G - A - Bb - A - G - E - C
Over the F7 (IV) chord, you'll play: F - A - C - D - Eb - D - C - A - F
Over the G7 (V) chord, you'll play: G - B - D - E - F - E - D - B - G
Once these patterns start to get more comfortable, add simple shorts in your right hand while playing your left hand. Once that gets comfortable, add a simple blues scale lick. Keep progressing from simple to difficult and don't move on until you get it right!
If you'd like to learn more left hand walking bass on the piano, we recommend the piano lesson DVD offered by Learn and Master Piano. They offer a good section on left hand techniques in the blues as well as a bunch of other blues oriented piano licks.
Check Out our Review of the Learn and Master Piano Program