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Boogie Woogie piano basslines

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Boris Skrbic

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Dec 31, 1997, 3:00:00 AM12/31/97
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I've been trying to "copy" some of the Jerry Lee Lewis songs ("Whole Lotta
Shakin' Going On", "Great Balls of Fire" and similar) on the piano, I have
all the chords down no problem etc, however I'm unfamiliar with the actual
left hand basslines used by the players at the time. I know he used this
one (or something very similar) in a couple of songs:

CC EC GC AC BbC AC GC EG etc


which seems very suitable for right-hand rock'n'roll/rockabilly/boogie
woogie improvisation. Are there any others I should be aware of? (I know
about the C-G C-G C-A C-A C-Bb C-Bb C-A C-A one and a few other boogie
woogie bass figures but they either sound too rough when played low or
obstruct the right-hand melody/improvisation [please excuse my lacking
knowledge of accepted terminology, but I have literally learned everything
other than classic piano the Duke Ellington way - by observation and
experimenting, playing mostly by ear etc. :) I believe I can handle any
rhytmical level after some practice (the above took a week or two but I
have very little problems with it now except that my wrist starts aching
after a while [as I said, I still have much to learn about technique etc.])


Thank you!

Boris

Grygosinski R A (Roman)

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Jan 5, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/5/98
to Boris Skrbic


Here are some others I've come across: (I hope the sequence makes
sense)

C C EbA C EG C FA G

also

C C FA EbG EG C FA G

also

C C Eb E G C A G

I've come across others if you are interested. Let me know.

Joel Hogarth

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Jan 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/8/98
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Boris Skrbic wrote in message <01bd1632$b1880820$66756cc2@lcars>...


> Are there any others I should be aware of? (I know
>about the C-G C-G C-A C-A C-Bb C-Bb C-A C-A one and a few other boogie
>woogie bass figures but they either sound too rough when played low or
>obstruct the right-hand melody/

If you play the above figure keeping the bass note (C) striking whilst the
chord note (G,A,Bb) is held down it will sound much better:

C-G C C-A C C-Bb C C-A C --- holding the G,A,Bb,A whilst playing the
second C.

Other ideas are:

C C Eb C E C F F# G

C C Eb>E C F C F#>G C - flicking your finger from the black to the white
note.

or a roaming bass, e.g.:

C C' E F F# G 'G G - moving to IV through C C' D D' Eb Eb' E E'

Others can be made up around these ideas.

Joel


Pete Psingpy

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Jan 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/10/98
to

Dr John's audio tape series covers a few boogie bases. Actually quite
a few. Or just listen to some recordings of him playing boogie...he's
the master of it these days IMO.


On Thu, 8 Jan 1998 19:33:32 -0000, "Joel Hogarth" <jr...@cam.ac.uk>
wrote:

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