i was listening to ray bryant's version of "take the a train", he is a m*f***er on the piano, and one hell of a blues player. he is playing this amazing boogie-woogie left-hand... and i want to learn this at least to some extent.... do you no some hip patterns to get me started? and some tips... i don't want ending up with does music school patterns...
There are 10 comments, leave a comment.
if you want accurate transcriptions of patterns, go to colin davey's website -- he has an instruction book as well as full-on individual transcriptions for sale of classic boogie performances.  trust me on this one, there just aren't that many high-quality transcriptions out there for sale.

pick up pete johnson's records as well -- "roll 'em pete" is maybe one of the most imitated boogies ever.  also johnnie johnson's homespun video has a ton of boogie on it -- and a nice booklet with it as well (as does dr. john's homespun things -- a different style but one i spent a lot of time working on as well).

it's a pretty long road to get *good* at this style, but you can get there for sure.

here's a kind of pattern which should slow you down for a while:

lh (one bar):
......a..a........bb..f
c..c..d#.e..c..c..g...a

or just run an ammons/jerry lee lewis pattern in the lh -- c c e c g c a g.
i see the formatting didn't work too well above -- use your imagination.

the best instruction book (next to the original recordings), however, is the colin davey book.

i also have a complete transcription of dr. john's "the honeydripper" from "dr. john plays mac rebennack" that i made a few years ago -- i don't know where it is right now, though, but that's a pretty manageable one to start with, as far as lh goes.  if i find it, i'll try to post it, but it's not that tough to figure out.
on the nav bar on the left click on “rooms: show list”

go down to the section entitled:
“jazz lessons
contains lessons, articles, examples, etc...”

click on the 8th on the list:  
“[walking bass”

in the top bar on that page, click on
“list files”

this brings you to a file list. the info you’re looking for is contained in the following files:

"this is the blues" otis spann [lh only] (pdf)

notes on "this is the blues" otis spann lh file

"this is the blues" otis spann lh.mid

while these lh patterns might not represent every possible permutation of boogie-woogie bass formulae, otis puts damn near every trick in the book in here.

if you have the vanbasco player, you can watch the midi file being played on a virtual piano keyboard. very educational!
that *is* a good transcription, 7.  i checked some of it about a year ago, and you really got it down on paper about as good as it can get (at least as far as i was really checking it).

especially the lh -- you got all of the little changes spann made.  

there's a (not very good) transcription of "otis blues" (in a) in print somewhere -- it's a boogie, in the sense that it's a tad slower than the one you did, but with the same feeling and the same sense of drama.  i like to think of spann, maceo, memphis slim, dupree, davenport as having a kind of boogie all their own -- how would you describe that difference between them and albert ammons or pete johnson, 7?  more straight-8s in the lh, maybe?  i don't know, truly, how to describe it.
i see people writing about the "chorded bass" by albert ammons. could somebody explain this concept to me? demonstrated in boogie woogie stomp?
chorded bass is just "beefing up" the lh with one or two notes stacked on top of certain bass notes.  there's apparently some controversy over exactly *what* was used in..."boogie woogie stomp," i think, but i believe it's explained in the colin davey book.

i bet dalty knows more precisely, if he's still around.  i haven't played that pattern myself.  there's also a chorded bass on jools holland's "shoot shoot" from his "solo piano" cd -- unfortunately, it's out of print, but if you hang out at the boogiewoogiesheetmusic yahoo! group, you might find somebody who can send it to you.  great music, anyway -- jools holland is maybe best known for his piano solo on "good thing" by squeeze (in addition to his late-nite talk show thing in the uk).
also, the best versions of the classic boogie guys (johnson, ammons, lewis) are on the chronological classics series -- they can be hard to find these days, but they're *the* way to go if you want to start a little record collection and get some of those great sides in great sound.
this is a site for all you boogie woogie fans:

https://www.boogiewoogiepiano.net/piano-jukebox/myjukebox.html

thanks to eeco, the best boogie woogie player on the internet that i know. without him i wouldn't have gotten as far as i have now.

peace out!
should boogie-woogie always be played right on the beat, like not swing?
Please sign in to post.

Jazz Piano Notebook Series
Scot Ranney's Jazz Piano Notebook, Volume 1 - jazz piano tricks of the trade

Volume 1 of this educational jazz piano book contains 15 jazz piano exercises, tricks, and other interesting jazz piano techniques, voicings, grooves, and ideas Scot Ranney has picked up over decades of playing on stage.

Being a pro jazz pianist requires good ears, experience, and a bag of tricks that create the kinds of sounds people expect to hear from a jazz pianist. The entries in this book will give you some of those tricks.

buy pdf version - buy coil binding version - videos

Scot Ranney's Jazz Piano Notebook, Volume 2 - jazz piano tricks of the trade you can use today
"Latinesque"

Volume 2 has 14 jazz piano exercises and tricks of the trade, and quite a bit of it is Calypso jazz piano related material, including some Monty Alexander and Michel Camilo style grooves. Jazz piano education is through the ears, and books like this help connect what you're hearing to what you want to play.

buy pdf version - buy coil binding version

Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Notebook - jazz piano tricks of the trade

Volume 3 contains 12 jazz piano exercises and explorations by the acclaimed jazz piano educator, pianist, author, and recording artist Tim Richards.

Tim wrote the well known "Exploring Jazz Piano" and "Improvising Blues Piano" books and has several others to his name.

Tim has a new book out Beginning Jazz Piano (Pts 1 and 2)

Many of Tim's books now come with free access to interactive sheet music ONLINE, which permits slowing down of the backing and performance tracks, as well as the option to loop passages for practice purposes.

Tim now also has online VIDEO courses for his books, including Beginning Jazz Piano, Improvising Blues Piano and Exploring Jazz Piano Vol 1:

buy pdf version Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Notebook Volume 3 -

Jeff Brent's Jazz Piano Notebook - jazz piano tricks of the trade

Volume 4 is by Jeff Brent, a jazz pianist, composer, teacher, and author of "Modalogy" and other acclaimed jazz theory and education books. In this book Jeff shares detailed analysis of transcriptions of live performances. He covers everything from the shape of the songs to the tricks and licks he uses in improvised lines to the ideas behind his lush chord voicings.

buy pdf version - buy coil binding version

Most Recent Discussions
Great Resource for Jazz Pianists
Scale in Calderazzo solo
analyzing Someone To Watch Over Me
Site updates
Korg SV-1 vs Nord Electro
Brad Brad Mehldau's independant left hand
more...
Articles

Piano for Adoption Scam
Aprender Jazz en Piano
BEWARE: FREE BABY GRAND PIANO SCAM
Oh Tannenbaum for Jazz Piano
Volume 5 of the "Jazz Piano Notebook Series" is Available!
LearnJazzPiano.com File Downloads News
more...

Top Sheetmusic Picks

Jazzy Christmas Arrangements
Cocktail Piano
Best Songs Ever, 6th Edition
Christmas Medley
Moana Songbook
Late Night Jazz Piano

Jazz piano education is cool.

be the main character in your own story

Rock on. Follow your passion.

Sign In

privacy policyterms of serviceabout • 50,655 messages 63,069 accounts 57,198 logins
LearnJazzPiano.com Copyright © 1995-2026 by Scot Ranney • website software and design by scot's scripts
LearnJazzPiano.com is For Sale - Serious Inquiries Only