Excerpts from LEARN BOOGIE WOOGIE PIANO

Select a Bass Line and Make It Solid (excerpt) Explanation The classic book on boogie woogie history is titled A Left Hand Like God because of the importance of the bass line in boogie woogie. The bass line provides the repetitive, rhythmic foundation that characterizes the boogie woogie style. Your objective is to learn to play a bass figure with your left hand over and over again with speed, precision, and stamina. The key to learning this is repetition. Over the course of this book, you will repeat these bass lines many, many times. Most boogie woogie bass lines consist of one- or two-bar figures, with each bar containing eight eighth notes. These eight-to-the-bar bass lines outline the notes of the harmony for that bar, usually with passing tones or auxiliary tones between chord tones. Boogie woogie bass lines can be divided into two general types: standing and walking.

Walking bass lines

The walking bass line is usually a two-bar figure based on the arpeggio of the chord, played eight to the bar in broken octaves. Figure 2-1 is an example of a typical walking bass.

Figure 2-1.

Standing bass lines

In most of the bass lines played by the Boogie Woogie Trio, the left hand does not travel up and down the arpeggio in octaves as it does in the walking bass. Instead, the hand stays in one position until it is time to move to the next chord. We refer to this type of bass line as a "standing bass," because the left hand plays the figure without changing position. (The expression "rolling bass" is sometimes used.) The arpeggio is usually embellished with an auxiliary note, such as the D# in Figure 2-2.

Figure 2-2. Standing bass.

How to learn a boogie woogie bass line

To learn how to play a boogie woogie bass line:

1. Find the fingering that best fits your hand.
2. Practice it in the tonic harmony, C. Practice for 10 minutes a day for a few days.
3. Practice it in the subdominant and dominant harmonies, F and G. Practice each for 5 minutes a day for a few days.
4. Practice it in the 12-bar blues progression 10 minutes a day. Learn it first with no substitutions for bars 2 and 10. Later, practice using these substitutions.
5. If you know how to juggle, try learning to play the bass line while juggling two balls with your right hand! This step is optional.
6. Practice the right-hand exercises in Chapters 3 through 7 using the bass line.

You should learn some standing bass lines first because they were used more often by the Boogie Woogie Trio, and because they are easier to play. Only standing basses are taught in this section. Walking basses are taught in Chapter 16.

Four standing bass lines

The standing bass lines taught in this section are:

• The Basic
• The Blues on the Downbeat
• The Monday Struggle
• The Roll ’Em Pete

Start with either the Basic or the Blues on the Downbeat.

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