Does that sound like something that you would like to play? Probably! it's a boogie woogie
pattern that a ton of people want to play and use, but a lot of people really struggle with
their their hand independence—getting their left hand and right hands to work
together. well I'm gonna address that in this quick video.
Hi I'm Scott Houston. I get a ton of questions from students and viewers that say
I 've got these patterns or Boogie Woogie patterns that
I wanna play, but I can't ever get my left and right hand working together
I can't do that pat your head and rub your tummy thing at all. Do you
have any advice? Using a Boogie Woogie pattern I'm going to try to
address that issue in this video. now I'm going to use a left-hand Boogie Woogie pattern that
actually I taught in a previously posted video. See the video description for a link to the previously posted video, "Boogie Woogie Piano Bass Line Pattern."
Here you can learn the bass line pattern that you'll need for the lesson I'm teaching you in this video.
We are going to use that bass line pattern to add to the right hand part that we'll learn in this video.
Number one i'll give you a really easy thing to play with your right hand
that you could do in two or three minutes if you didn't have to do it with that hand too!
right, that's always the issue. so here's what we're gonna do. let me go
ahead and just give you what we're going to play in the right hand and then
what we're really going to focus on this video though is how to get your left
and right hands working together, so what we're doing is playing a Boogie Woogie in the key of
G. By playing Boogie Woogie you're really playing the blues. so we're going
to play a G pattern
by the way middle C is right here on the piano I'm way down on the lower part of the piano
So we need a C pattern and
that we have a D pattern
I taught that in the previous video so you go look at if you need to.
We are going to add a little harmony to it by adding something in our right hand
We are going to play this
like this
Here's all it is—super easy
In the G section you play, you play an F and a B.
For those of you that it makes any sense that's the dominant 7th and the 3rd. If it doesn't ignore what I said.
In the C section you will take
both notes and move down half a step and play an E and a Bb from F and B.
Then back to the G section. Next, up a half step to the D section and play an F# and a C. Review ... It's called the blues chord progression.
When you play it up tempo, it's really difficult.The solution to that (as much as I wish I had a magic wand for) is to play it S-L-O-W-L-Y.
Unquestionably, the trick is to get your brain to understand which hand needs to come down in what order and whether both hands are together or not. so this pattern sounds like this:
but if I'd never played that before I would definitely not be able to do that, so go even slower and think ...
at the very first one, my hands come down together
This one is still being held down while the second note gets played
still down
Then that note gets played
but on this note is when they come down again
If you hear the whole thing going on it's sounds like this ...
these are really playing if you're counting the notes in your bass line you would think ...
so the right hand has to come down on the first and fourth note of your left
hand playing. that's it. so 1234 and if you do that that slowly your brain can
Oh right, it's when it gets to that one, so you do that
ok here we go
how I would probably practice that, is to just do just up to that point and try
that in all three patterns. So you do this ...
1, 2, 3, 4
when you go to the C-section take this and go down a half step
Go back to the G Section
Here comes the D. So in the D you go up a half step with your right hand. Think 1, 2, 3, 4 ...
It would continue on. But that is all it is. That is what your brain needs to get underhand.
Scott reviews again ...
weeks and days later you finally at the point where you're getting it that fast
it doesn't work that way, it's not like climbing a hill, it is like breaking through
a wall. you won't be able to do it at all No, I can't and then all of a sudden you break through a wall and get
you where you want to be. drummers can really relate.
because drummers have to add two more limbs to this
whole thing. right they've got two hands two limbs, although I suppose they're not
using individual fingers but it's that way. when you're trying to get some
new hand independence thing down you've just gotta go slower and slower
and slower and slower and slower until eventually you'll be able to do it and
then once you can do it, your brain goes alright it's just one and that one and this one ...
then you pretty quickly can bring it back up to speed to wherever you need to do it.
Having said that, I am going slowly, but I'm just going to work my way through the pattern
I'm going to be doing the Blues changes with this boogie boogie pattern with my left hand. I hope I can
get through this whole thing without stopping. Here we go
I'm thinking 1, 2 ... Oops ...Let me try that again. I can't talk and play at the same time. 1, 2, 3, 4
Let's try that again without me talking. I'm thinking, 1, 2, 3, 4 ...
Back to G.
Here comes D.
There wouldn't be anything wrong with playing it slower ...
You have to really swing and keep it. You have to pick a tempo and stick with it.
or if you want to get it up to tempo ... Some people like to play it crazy fast!
See that happens to all of us! It is not very funny!
Understand that the important thing is when you run into a road block with hand independence
The way to fix it is to again, play R-E-A-L-L-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y for a while until you can start to gradually pick up speed and still be able to keep both hands going independently.
I hope that helps. Hopefully running through this example will allow you to know what to do the next time you run in to this issue! Have fun!