Reddit mentions of Improvising Blues Piano

Most of the blues is two things. Learn more left hand patterns... learn more right hand licks. Obviously that's a simplified answer because there are turn arounds and jazz-blues progressions to learn and plenty else, but that really is the heart of it. It seems like when most people post some blues stuff they find very impressive it's literally just someone soloing over (or even just comping) 12-bar blues.

One good resource I'm familiar with first hand is this Mark Harrison book. It covers a lot of basses dabbing at a lot of different ideas form different blues styles. It's probably a decent jumping off point and Harrison always does a great job of explaining why things work from a theory standpoint so you can actually apply it rather than just memorizing a few stock ideas.

I also hear good things about this Tim Richards book. I don't have first hand experience with this one, though I'd like to pick it up to review and safely recommend since I've heard it mentioned quite often.

I personally think that it's much more efficient to have a pretty firm grasp on a style and it's theory before trying to transcribe. A lot of people say to jump straight to transcription, but they are taking for granted all of the skills they already possess that make that a good tool for advancement. It's like telling someone to learn how to paint like a famous painter by telling them to just copy their works even if they don't know how to even hold the paintbrush yet. Learn the basics and some of the broader ideas first and then you'll find transcription much easier and much more fruitful. People have a bad habit of giving advice for where they are rather than where the learner is. I'm not immune, but I at least try to be aware of the phenomenon and take it into account when helping people get started on stuff.

I think by the time you've worked through a book like the Mark Harrison book you'd pretty much recognize at least the bare bones of a lot of blues ideas and have a much easier time transcribing them. And even beyond just transcribing recordings, Youtube is a great resource these days with people throwing out tons of great licks in short videos.

Also, don't feel like you need to be limited to stealing ideas from pianists. There's a ton of material out there for guitar and while you might not be able to do everything they do (like bends) you can emulate tons of licks. Obviously other instruments too... but guitar is super ubiquitous.

My last teacher recommended "Exploring Jazz Piano" by Tim Richards as a great book to get into Jazz. The author has a similar book on Blues (Improvising Blues Piano).

I actually have been self teaching myself the basics of jazz using two good resources with some input from my teacher (which does not focus on jazz). First of all Improvising Blues Piano by Tim Richards is really good, with a focus obviously in improvisation. After doing part of that book to understand the basics he recommends moving up to Exploring Jazz Piano 1. Since you have 18 years of classical experience you're probably going to be familiarized with most of the concepts and you can just focus on understanding the style and ideas for improvisation. Honestly I find it very helpful and throughout Richards has "assignments" you can do to further expand. Also in the songs themselves there is a reccomendation of notes you can use within the scale you're working on to improvise. Very complete overall.

http://www.amazon.com/Improvising-Blues-Piano-Tim-Richards/dp/0946535973/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421076430&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=impprovising+blues+piano

http://www.amazon.com/EXPLORING-HARMONY-TECHNIQUE-IMPROV-Schott/dp/190245524X/ref=sr_1_sc_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421076430&sr=8-3-spell&keywords=impprovising+blues+piano

I got this book a few days ago and it looks very solid. I'm still at the level where the first few pages are giving me grief, but it all looks achievable.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Improvising-Blues-Piano-easy-grasp/dp/0946535973

The two volumes of jazz material in the same series are intended to follow on from this book as well.

This book has been recommended many times on this sub and it's full of ideas for both hands:

https://www.amazon.com/Improvising-Blues-Piano-Tim-Richards/dp/0946535973

Aflred All in One - A reliable go to for the complete beginner to get them using both hands, reading music, understanding chords and keys etc.

Improvising Blues Piano - Great book for intermediate to later beginners looking at exploring contemporary styles.

Exploring Jazz Piano - Similar to the blues one but using jazz which requires a higher level of complexity.