The Basics
Learn the basic motor skills and harmonic concepts to play a 12 bar blues in the boogie woogie and blues piano styles.
Step 2 - Achieve Hand Independence
Your success as a boogie player largely depends on your ability to separate your left and right hands from one another. This is a fantastic exercise to get that process started. If you can't play these simple rhythms, chances are that you can't do anything else more complicated, so practice until you can do what's shown in this video. The transcription is also available to the left.
Even as you become more skilled, use these exercises as a preliminary step to acquiring any new left hand bass pattern.
After you can perform the hand independence exercise with relative ease, challenge yourself to choose any two beats (out of the 8 eighth notes in a measure) and then play those beats. For example, beats 1 and 3. Or 1 and the "and of 3". (see video below)
Typical boogie woogie rhythm.
Pages 30-32 in How To Play Boogie Woogie Piano
For more help with the triplets, check out these exercises: Help with Triplets.
The curriculum references page numbers in our text book. Purchase is recommended but not necessary to complete the course.
Steps:
4
Course Time: 1 week
Effort:
15-20 min / day
Skill Level: Beginner
Prerequisites: None
Textbook
Got the book? Click here.
Tip: Boogie woogie is a physically demanding style of piano playing, often compared to an athletic event. While you are learning this style, some pain and soreness is normal in your hands (especially your left hand). As you get stronger you should experience fatigue and pain less and less. However, if these persist then you may be holding too much tension in your hand. Refer to pages 103 and 104 in the textbook to learn how to practice relaxing while playing piano.