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audington · Post by **audington** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:26 pm

Can anyone recommend a good book/dvd/video to teach how to compose or improvise boogie woogie piano? A good handful of standard bass patterns would be good, but the most important part for me is to be able to come up with the melodies, harmonies, and flourishes.

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:06 pm

piano with willie
http://www.pianowithwillie.com/

Check out his youtube content.

jopy · Post by **jopy** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:43 pm

advice from someone who tried the book route once: don't get a book; none of the guys who started playing boogie woogie were book players. get a few records you like and try to copy those. you'll develop much faster that way.

Bobbotov · Post by **Bobbotov** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:51 pm

http://www.boogiewoogiekid.com/contact.php

mungocherry33 · Post by **mungocherry33** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:04 am

http://www.elderly.com/books/cats/501.htm

mungocherry33 · Post by **mungocherry33** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:06 am

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_ ... ooks%2C277

http://www.amazon.com/Improvising-Blues ... pd_sim_b_3

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:51 am

jopy wrote:advice from someone who tried the book route once: don't get a book; none of the guys who started playing boogie woogie were book players. get a few records you like and try to copy those. you'll develop much faster that way.

+∞

audington · Post by **audington** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:31 am

Thanks for the suggestions guys, plenty for me to look at. Rather than a book of ready-written tunes I'm more looking for a 'vocabulary' of licks, riffs, rhythms, and patterns, and theory about how it's put together. The Time Richards book looks like it could suit me. Does anyone have the Tim Richards book that can confirm this?

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:01 pm

Ignore all the tough talk.
There are few places left on earth where you can cut your teeth on blues jamming and many I'd rather not be in anymore. Boogie Woogie is primarily up tempo blues. Even in days where there was a blues jam around every corner smart jammers worked up thier stuff woodshedding before they hit the stage. Those who didn't were easily overwhelmed and left the bar with a chip on their shoulder. Sometimes they'd try a bit harder to get back on that horse and sometimes they'd walk away for good. I've climbed that rock pile. I've had my arse handed to me, I've got back on that horse and I've even spent years hosting blues jams. If you aren't ready don't set yourself up for disaster do exactly what you are doing. Building your chops up working thru material and improvising alone or with a partner.

So you've got the right idea.

I would like to highly reccommend Band in a Box. You don't need the super duper expensive version to get going. However the more styles you have the better.
http://www.pgmusic.com/
They do have a lot of gems in the actual styles and quite a number of good ideas in the demo songs

Most folks mistakenly think that the blues is limited to 12 bars or that there is only one 12 bar blues pattern. I've got over 60 12 bar blues progressions that I draw upon from time to time when writing/jamming in biab.

wrench45us · Post by **wrench45us** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 6:26 pm

all I know is I used to have an album set my Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons and very rare for any piano player to achieve that sort of facility/fluidity

I would recommend
The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Albert Ammons and Meade "Lux" Lewis

audington · Post by **audington** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 5:28 pm

Thanks Mike, I will look into BaiB - I can't believe I didn't think of it before!

Learning to compose/improvise boogie woogie piano?