#14: Blues Made Easy - Get Cool, Get Creative (and build valuable music skills without even noticing!) With composer, Mark Matthews
BLOG: Blues to the rescue!
We always need to be prepared for the student who is either super busy at school or work, turns up each week, sits down at the piano, and goes through the motions.
We know we cant move on because they cant do what we taught them last week! So what can we do to spark enthusiasm to make the time to sit down and play something this week?
Most teachers try more pieces. Different repertoire. Suggest a new practice idea.
But what if the answer is a scale they've never heard before?
How the Blues scale saved Boric - who was one lesson away from quitting
Mark Matthews shares a story about a student called Boric who never practised. One day his dad came to the lesson completely exasperated, “My Boric, he go home and he no train on piano!”
In typical piano teacher style Mark pulled a rabbit out of the hat and played Boric the blues scale.
Boric said, “Show me that again.”
He came back the next week having learned three different blues scales. Then he learned them in all 12 chromatic keys. And he never stopped.
Twenty years later, Boric runs two bands and a recording studio in Sydney.
One scale changed that boy’s life!
Who is Mark Matthews?
Mark Matthews is an Australian composer, educator, and what he calls a musical engineer. He’s also a civil engineer too and hosts his own radio show.
Mark has developed his Easy Blues Method to help piano teachers introduce blues and improvisation to students of all ages and levels. He sees his work as bridging the gap between classical training and contemporary musicianship. Mark’s work is practical, joyful, and immediately usable in your studio.
He joined me for this episode from the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia and explained the origins of blues music.
Most of us picture a smoky jazz club when we think of the blues.
But the blues didn't start there.
Mark traces it back much further - to the Sahel region of Africa, where researchers found ancient stringed instruments with wear marks indicating the bending of notes. Flat thirds. Flat fives. Flat sevenths.
This was African musical culture for centuries before Mississippi and Louisiana ever claimed the blues as their own.
Understanding that history matters for how we teach it. Because the blues isn't exotic or mysterious or reserved for cool jazz musicians. It's one of the oldest, most human musical languages there is. And your students' bodies already know it.
Why the Blues Scale Works for Disengaged Students
Here's what Mark has observed over decades of teaching.
When you show a student the blues scale for the first time, their eyes light up.
Not because it's complicated. Because it sounds immediately, undeniably cool.
That flat five - the bluesy note in the middle of the scale - has a quality that stops students in their tracks. They go: what is that sound? And from that moment, something shifts.
They want to play it again.
They want to figure out what they can do with it.
They start to think: maybe I could improvise.
And for the student who has been going through the motions for months - that moment of genuine curiosity is everything.
The Three-Part Blues Scale Recipe
I really love how Mark breaks every blues scale down into three simple building blocks. Once you know the recipe, you can play the blues scale in any key - even the ones that would normally send you running.
Part one: a minor third from the root.
Part two: a three-note chromatic run starting on the fourth - with the flat five sitting right in the middle as that signature bluesy note.
Part three: an upper flat seventh up to the tonic.
That's it.
By the end of our conversation I was at the piano having a go myself - and you can watch me in the video getting very into it!
Tactile Action Technique
One of the most fascinating ideas Mark shares in this episode is something he calls Tactile Action Technique.
It's the practice of adding physical gestures to the music - a finger snap on beat two or beat four, a hand lifted away from the keys, a physical accent that forces the student to be exactly on the beat.
What looks like a fun performance trick is actually doing something much more important.
It forces students to count. To feel the pulse in their body. To lock in with the groove in a way that no amount of telling them to count can achieve.
And it can transform a reluctant, hesitant student into a confident performer.
Mark thinks it’s because when a student knows their piece has a finger snap on beat four - when they know the audience is going to love that moment - they walk onto the stage differently. They're not hoping to get through it. They're looking forward to it. Try it and let us know if it works for you too!
The Blues and Whole Body Learning
Everything Mark describes - the tactile action, the physical gestures, the locking in with a backing track, the full-body engagement with the music - is completely in alignment with our Whole Body Learning philosophy.
The blues isn't just a style of music. It's a whole body experience. And when students learn it that way, they don't just learn the blues. They actually feel it.
Listen to Episode 14
Mark shares the three-part recipe live in this conversation - and you can watch me trying it at the piano in the video.
Listen on your favourite platform
Spotify | Apple | YouTube Video | YouTube Audio | iHeart | Amazon | Goodpods | Pocket Casts
Want to Go Deeper?
🎹 Mark is joining Paul and me for a Blues Masterclass inside The Studio.
We pull the pieces apart live, teach you the recipe, and send you back to your studio ready to use it straight away.
👉 Join The Studio here - $49/month, cancel anytime
About Mark Matthews
Mark Matthews is an Australian composer, educator, and musical engineer whose Easy Blues Method has been helping piano teachers introduce improvisation and blues to students of all ages and levels for decades. His work bridges the gap between classical training and contemporary musicianship in a way that is practical, joyful, and immediately usable in your studio.
