What is Boogie-Woogie?
This style of music is particular and very requested by many piano students. Why?
The reasons are many, but mainly because of its catchy rhythms, its very distinctive sound in the bass line and its vocal expressiveness.
The issue is that most of the piano tutors don’t know or they are not very interested in this particular style. Still, if we dig a little bit deeper and also if we don’t get carried away from the prejudice of classical music, we will discover many exciting things that come from this music.
How do we recognize Boogie Woogie?
Among the many characteristics and particularities that the songs may offer, they are a few that connects them all, for example: The call and response pattern, the polyrhythm between hands (in the case of the piano).
We can also mention the peculiar expression in the vocals, more specifically, the screams and cries of the singers, and last but not least, the most attractive feature for Bass players: the characteristic harmonic progressions and alluring bass lines.
Where does it come?
As Ana O.W. says in her article for WKMT Blog, the Boogie Woogie is a musical genre that invokes dance and tells a story through music. By using these layers discussed before, the songs develop a very distinct and embellished character. Its origin comes from the African diaspora, one of the most terrible episodes in human history.
This genre is defined by a very deep cultural and historical background since it is linked to the African Tribal culture. Many of the stories told were sad and nostalgic as it expresses the harsh feeling of being ripped out of oneself’s culture and forced into slavery.
But this experience gave all humanity the gift of music that is full of energy and enjoyable from beginning to end.
It is highly recommendable for all pianists that would like to take the gymnastic melodic and rhythmic patterns of this amazing style of music.
