Introduction to Boogie-Woogie Styles

Boogie-woogie piano styles emerged in the early 20th century, and featured fast tempos and “driving” left-hand patterns. As with most blues-related styles, your left hand literally is “the band,” as it propels the rhythm while defining the chord progression. This style is very percussive, and the right hand is most often playing either single-note lines or chordal syncopations. The eighth notes are almost always treated as “swing eighths.”

Noted boogie-woogie pianists from the 1930s include Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, and Cow Cow Davenport. Boogie-woogie (and in particular, the driving left-hand patterns) also influenced later blues styles, notably Chicago blues as performed by Roosevelt Sykes and Big Maceo Merriweather.

So now we’ll take a look at a great boogie-woogie tune written by Pete Johnson and Joe Turner. (Turner was a key figure in the transition from boogie-woogie into the 1940s “jump blues” period.) The left-hand pattern for “Baby Look at You” uses two-note intervals ( dyads ), playing the root of each chord on the bottom, combined with the 5th, 6th, or 3rd above. The right-hand part uses mostly single notes, with some third and sixth intervals (outlining the chords of the 12-bar blues progression), as well as some half-step neighbor tones and grace notes.

The other tune we’ll look at in this chapter is written in the style of Big Maceo Merriweather, whose boogie-woogie stylings were a big influence on Chicago blues. This song is again based on a 12-bar blues progression (this time in G), and uses ascending and descending octaves in the left hand—an immediately recognizable boogie-woogie pattern. This left-hand pattern is also considerably more difficult than the pattern you played on the last tune, so make sure you put in some good practice time on this part separately! The right-hand part is now mostly using dyads and triads, with some arpeggios starting in the 4th chorus. Note the chord progression in measures 47–48—a commonly used ending in boogie and blues styles.

Grace notes are the small notes with the slashes through them (measures 14, 16, 18, 20, 33, 35, 38, 40, 44, and 46), which function as “ornaments” to the notes that follow them. They are not part of the meter and take up no real time value, but are played immediately before the note they ornament. Tremolo is used in measures 29 and 30 in the right hand. Indicated by the three lines between the two whole notes, this tells you to alternate quickly back and forth between the two notes over the course of the 4 beats.

Listen to track 52 (slow tempo) and track 53 (full speed) to hear “Chicago Breakup.” This tune is recorded with a rhythm section on the left channel, and the piano part (left and right hands) on the right channel; so, to jam along with the band, just turn down the right channel! Also listen carefully for how the grace notes and tremolo are played. When first practicing the song, try the right-hand part without the grace notes, then add them later.

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