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