Boogie-woogie piano eight to the bar

Where boogie-woogie comes from

Boogie-woogie grew in the barrelhouses and rent parties of the American South and of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. One pianist had to fill a noisy room, so the left hand became a drummer and a bass player at once, rolling eight notes to the bar under the blues. The style later fed rhythm and blues and early rock and roll.

The walking left hand

The pattern climbs the chord and comes back: root, third, fifth, sixth, flat seventh, then sixth, fifth, third. On C that is C, E, G, A, B flat, A, G, E. Move the same shape to F and G and you can play a whole 12-bar blues with it. Keep the hand relaxed and let the wrist rock rather than lifting each finger.

Right-hand riffs

Over the left hand, the right plays short repeated figures: a C-E dyad hammered in triplets, a slide from E flat to E onto a C major chord, a tremolo between two notes of the chord. Repeat the same riff over C, F and G: the changing bass under it gives it a new colour each time.

How to practise it

Play the left hand alone until you can talk over it, at a slow tempo with a metronome. Then add one right-hand chord on beat 1 of each bar, then on the off-beats, and only then the riffs. Speed comes last: a steady boogie at 90 BPM swings more than a rushed one at 160. When the pattern runs on its own, try it in other keys: G, with G, B, D, E, F, is the next most common, and it fits the bass lines of the rock bass lesson.