Boogie-Woogie Piano Lesson - 9 Popular Left Hand Patterns

okay I'll be demonstrating everything in the key of C now when we play basic blues we have three chords in C it would be C F and G so whatever figure we use on the C we're going to have to transpose up to the F and G as well but I'm just going to demonstrate everything in the key of C let's start out with one of them bass lines this is a very popular one in the key of C I'm going to start on my C's here it goes going very slowly I'll show you I start with my hand playing the octave here the little finger and the thumb and then my fourth finger is ready to go it's in place just the way the hand sits here fourth thing is going to play the E and the third finger the F index finger the F sharp the G it's here and rocks you this figure is not too difficult to master if you just plan the left hand alone it's when you start adding the right hand that it becomes more challenging this next figure I would categorize is a medium difficult line to learn it's a very popular figure it sounds like this we play our outline of a C chord here with the little finger third finger goes here the index finger on the G the thumb on the a and here's the point where it poses a little bit of difficulty the index finger has to cross over cross over the thumb to play the b-flat the thumb comes back back down the way we came you the lines not too hard to play if you're just playing chords in the right hand and you can play something like this but when you start to play other things in your right hand to play the blue scales and blues figures in the right hand it becomes a little more challenging you we can step it up in difficulty by giving it a shuffle feel and it sounds like this again not too difficult if you're playing the left hand all by itself and if you play just chords in the right hand it's not going to be too hard either but when you start to play blue scales and figures on your right hand then it becomes quite a challenge here's another variation on that same line it becomes one of them was difficult left hand patterns to sustain while the right hand is improvising alone it sounds like this same set of notes but I rock any octave every time Oh not too hard by itself but when you start to add the right hand it gets a little bit difficult again if you're just playing chords it's not too hard but when you start to add improvisation it becomes a real challenge to sustain it this next line I will put into the medium difficulty range it's a lot of fun a very popular line I'm going to play it as a shuffle first it goes like this you can play two different ways going back and forth like this or you can stretch it up to the B flat sometimes looking at this very slowly it's the outline of a C chord leaving out the middle note so it's C and G then holding the C down going up to the a back to the G or if we put the third note on it up to the B flat I'm using my thumb twice here I play with the index finger I use the thumb here and then the thumb one more time up here and once you get the hang of it it's not too difficult to put a right hand too you if you've never played a shuffle before it can be a little challenging in the beginning to get the feel of the note shuffling so I recommend playing in straight time first so that's when it sounds like this just so you can learn it that way and you can add a right hand to this also that fits very nicely the first two hits we're going to play this C and G and then the right hand will play a full C chord and then when it expands up to the C and a here we're going to play an F chord and then back down to the C chord so it sounds like this if I want to expand it up to the b-flat the right hand is going to go to a c7 putting the b-flat on top of it but don't play the e so here's where it is when it expands out the most when it goes back to the F in an F chord on the right-hand is just the C and a down here and then it goes back here to the C so it's a C chord F chord and this time when we go to the c7 we don't play the e in the middle back down to the F this line is equally popular played in straight time as it is in shuffle time and the right hand fits pretty well with it when you once you get it down well it said everybody especially girls is right and in shuffle time you hear it in songs like this when I'm going to Kansas City Kansas City here I come you and here's one that moves a lot slower it's a variation on the last one we've got the same notes coming up in the same way but this time we're rocking and back and forth and not too hard there at the cords to Mardon provides or we can play the same line fast of course and get you you here's a fun one that's kind of challenging we're taking the C and G going up to the a and then down to the G stretch 1/9 downtown and then come back to GA and if we had a right yet so much of solo blues piano is about the left hand the left hand has to set up a strong repeating rhythmic line so the right hand can play around it and have a lot of fun just playing blues scales and blues riffs and and go into town but the left hand has to set up with something automatic and repeating now I always recommend starting with this walking boogie line and I'm going to show you here on the video because it's one of the easier lines to get starting with there's so many left hand figures to play that are interesting and a lot of fun but they also require a lot of work and if you haven't done it before it can be kind of discouraging because you can't even get into playing your right hand until the left hand gets nailed down and if the left hand is playing something difficult it's going to take you a while so what I'm going to show you here is a left hand that's not so hard and it'll allow you to start exploring and having fun with all that right hand blue stuff so the left hand can just do this steady easier thing then after you get it down it's easier to go on to the more difficult lines we take the outline of a C chord in our left hand c e g and the thumb lays naturally right above the g on a so it sounds like this it's very similar to the other line we looked at earlier where we cross over and put the b-flat on but when you put the b-flat on it really does add quite a challenge getting this hand to stay steady while the thumbs coming over and going back down again so if we just play it like this it fits naturally under the hand little finger middle finger index finger thumb that just lay right on the keys like that you this line lets you be more free with the right hand because it's not too challenging but very steady go to my website and purchase a downloadable video there of a walking bass line boogie lesson where I explore this last left-hand figure more in depth and take it through the different chord we take it step by step and build it up show you how to practice it well that wraps up our to our boogie lines for the day I hope you enjoyed it you

Channel: Glen Rose

Views: 335,989

Keywords: Glen Rose, jazzypiano.net, blues, blues piano, boogie, boogie-woogie, piano blues, piano boogie, left hand blues, blues patterns, blues lessons, rock blues, 12 bar blues, improv, piano improv, jazz improv, piano lessons, jazzypiano, teach, Scales, practice, music, keyboard, playing, improvisation, performance, video music lessons, blues scales, steve lucky, jerry lee lewis, boogie woogie lesson

Id: ujry_nPihaI

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 23 2014