Developing Left Hand Boogie Bass
If you want to get your left hand playing a piano
boogie bass pattern as shown in this video, you
really need to slow things down to start. The
key here is to get the pattern to feel good
rhythmically and to not try to play it as fast as
you can right away. With anything
you practice, patience is key. Get the
fundamentals down first and the rest will follow.
The pattern itself is fairly simple. In
this example you are simply going to arpeggiate a
major triad (C major in this case) and play the C
octave above in between each note.
My suggestion to learning this is to start very
slowly with only your left hand. As
soon as you can play the pattern slowly and in time
with a metronome, add a simple right hand in.
Start out with just chords lasting four beats (ie a
whole note). Then try half note chords, then
quarter note, etc. Once you start to feel more
comfortable, you can start playing single note lines
with your right hand. Start with a simple two
or three note pattern. You can even play up
and down the
c
blues scale. If you add the blues scale,
you'll be practicing two things at once which is key
to quicker development. The more things you
can practice at once the faster you'll learn.
Finally, once you get the pattern feeling good in C,
start working it out in all other keys. Play
through the blues progression in as many keys as you
can. With the right focused practice, your
left hand will boogie like you never thought it
could!
If you'd like to learn more boogie piano, we
recommend the piano lesson DVD offered by Learn and
Master Piano. They offer a good section on
boogie-woogie styles for the left hand as well as a
bunch of other blues oriented piano licks.
Check Out our
Review of the Learn and Master Piano Program
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