Boogie Woogie on Piano - plus percussion
L E T ' S_ B O O G I E , _ B A B Y !
.
As I was tired of trying and decipher cryptic MIDI-Files, recorded from Keyboards by MIDI sequencers, I searched for scores on the Internet, found some of the most famous Boogie Woogies on the piano on .PDF - and fed them into MuseScore .
Ideal stuff for testing the new options like "Swing" and "Tremolo".
Furthermore, I tried to write a percussion track without the main mistakes of modern Rock/Pop/Hip-Hop
a) always repeating the very same one, two or four measure-drums-pattern on the "groove machine"
b) thus boring the audience by this repetition
c) drums not so big and loud, but a little more decent, similar to "handmade & unplugged".
My thank goes
to Werner Schweer and the Musescore development team for Ver. 2.01 and the new soundfile (.sf3): The new Musescore 2.01 is big - and so is the new sound-routine for playing online at musescore.org.
to Albert Ammons, for >>Boogie Woogie Stomp<< 1939 (posthumously)
to Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, for >>Pinetop's Boogie<< 1929 (posthumously)
to Pete Johnson for Jam-Session "Boogie Woogie Prayer" + "Answer" (posthumously)
to Meade Lux'' Lewis for Jam-Session "Boogie Woogie Prayer" + "Answer" (posthumously)
(Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ammons - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinetop_Smith - both can be found and heard at youtube...)
I love to hear the Boogie rolling and swinging'!
May be, there are real Piano- and Drums-/Percussion Experts in the audience? As I'm no pianoplayer and no drummer at all: Let me know, what you think, about rolling tremolos, swinging bass lefthand patterns or setting up a drum set for swing, and what could be done better.
Feel free to contact me at
https://musescore.com/user/28092/scores/954466
https://musescore.com/user/28092
Have fun, and: Set the music free!
FarrierPete
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Boogie Woogie Stomp, Pinetop's Boogie, Boogie Woogie Prayer, Answer.mscz | 129.27 KB |
Comments
It's good. Gets stuck in your head though.
In reply to It's good. Gets stuck in your by Elwin
Hi, Elwin,
.
thanks for listening. A few hours ago I did some rework on that, and added some more Boogies...
.
Any tips for a Piano- & Drummer - Apprentice? Let me know, what You think.
.
Sincerely
FarrierPete
In reply to Hi, Elwin, . thanks for by FarrierPete
Okay, it's good you added more stuff. I don't have a lot of experience with drums. I only have average experience with Piano. So no tips. except write your heart out.
In reply to Okay, it's good you added by Elwin
Thanks again for listening.
Sincerely
FarrierPete
I really have appreciated this post and particulary the Pinetop. This version allows the pianist to get a real sense of the boogie woogie with the context of the percussions and is far superior to many "official" scores. Thank you so much!
In reply to I really have appreciated by Mississippi
Hi, Mississippi,
.
first, thank you for listening and writing a reply. And, thanks for some compliments.
.
Indeed, I never really learned piano or drums. I'm only a amateur or dilettante with PC and MIDI-Keyboard (Xamaha PSR E423, has 61 touch-sensitive Keys, General MIDI+ XGlite. It has auto-play and electronic drums, but I don't use them often...)
.
What I really learned ist picking acoustic Guitars (Folk, Country- and Delta/Bottleneck Blues), making different actions with left/right hand, and how to read music-scores. Further, I know how to improvise in a "Jam Session", just for fun. And, a Boogie is very related to a 12-bar-blues (in fact, it's a blues played at double speed, with a well accentuated swing rhythm.
.
If you have a little more time, take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnbYagLaXM .... Martin & Sabine Pyrker from Austria. The father boogies on piano, his daughter on the drums - and they are good! Like that I imagine the drums in my scores, but as I said, I'm no drummer.
.
Mississippi: Do you have a good source of knowledge from internet on "drumming the swing"? Or, if you are familiar with an 88-Keys-Piano or with percussion, please let me know what could be done better.
.
Hello Farrier Pete
I do not have a better drumming the swing reference. I am essentially a pianist and I barely have the level to play your score, but am working on it. The tremolo are actually not hard to do, but its the pace that can get you out of line with the drums. Pianists are trained to focus on that one and three beats so your integration of a much more interesting and realistic drum expression helps practice the ear in ways that improvised jazz can not because of its unpredictive and sometime counter-intuitive quality.
Thanks again for your generosity and good luck!
Best
Mississippi
In reply to Hello Farrier Pete I do not by Mississippi
Hi, Mississippi,
.
thanks for answering to my questions. You see, I'm trying to learn more about playing the Piano and the Percussion, and I'm searching for lessons in the net (e.g. at Utube). There are some blues and boogie tutorials to be found, but that's random, not regular learning.
.
Well, Mississippi, I've to confess that I don't have the level on my keyboard to play this boogies, too, I need much more praxis on the keyboard, and some knowledge on "fingering". MuseScore took over and does this job better, than I would be able to - but the software also showed up with some difficulties. For example, the Tremolo-Intro to "Boogie Stomp". As far as I know, it's called a "barrel-roll" on the blues-piano... First I tried "Tremolo" from lefthand-menu [F9] - and the result was shrilling like an old door-bell. Then, I saw some video, (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR0z5hcCUoA ) and tried to watch the movement of Luca Sestak's hands. Then I understood: the hands move in alternation, up and down, so that the "attack" of the right hand falls into the "gap" between two attacks of left - and vice versa. In fact, if you watch one single hand only, the piano player plays 1/16-notes, but with this motion sequence of both hands together he gets a 1/32-note-tremolo.
.
IMHO, for this "sound-event", there really is no abbreviation in notation, esp. "tremolo", possible. I had to write it down, each 1/32-note, to make MuseScore play this "Barrel Roll". And, as even this version sounded a little too "clean and perfect", I changed tempo while replay time (Invisible commands, won't show up online or on paper), as no human is able to play at a constant tempo and will unknowingly modify this while replaying.
.
Furthermore, something very important is the "swing ratio". Default-Swing would be 60% to 40% duration for 1/8-notes. Some play 75% to 25%, but that's to harsh for my ears... I prefer 66% to 34%
.
Finding the right drum-beat? Rather easy for a Guitar-Picker. "You can't loose the beat, because it has a backbeat!" (Chuck Berry). One of the first lessons I got from Stefan Grossman's books on Blues Guitar was "Frankie and Johnny" by Mississippi John Hurt (listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtxyjOFLXSg ) Listen to the "accents" in the bass line - they fall on beat two and four (= accentuated backbeat) -- not on one and three as in that dull european march practice. As native german, I had to learn: If you wanna clap your hands, you should clap on beat 2 and 4, too - not on beat 1 and 3 (... as any german audience, drilled in centuries of barrack-yard-marching by the Prussians, would do! >B^{ ) And, listening to some example on utube, it was easy to find out that the drummer has only a small "shooting gallery", mostly uses the brush, not the stick - and he will accentuate with snare-rimshot or crash cymbal.
.
But, as I already said, all that is random- , not regular learning. I know, there is much more to learn, especially about "drumming and Percussion".
.
All what I found out up to now is to be heard at actual ver. 3.3 of that score, see https://musescore.com/user/28092/scores/954466 . And, furthermore, you might find four Boogies more and some "sound-mix-trick", if you download this version (attached to this reply, too), load it to MuseScore and make anything visible (inside Instruments menu, key [i]).
.
Sincerely
FarrierPete