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Thats is so right. It takes a long time, but time is not the only thing. You can practice it incorrectly forever and never get anywhere except learning some bad habits and perhaps injuring yourself.

What helped me to learn the LH walking Bass is to first master rocking the LH on an octave. Do this slooowly and very carefully, and stop before the pain occurs. This teaches your hand to do the basic movment, and if you go slow, and stop before the pain occurs, you will eventually build up endurance.

Then, start doing the walk-up thu a root chord, i.e. C - E - G - E - C. This teaches the hand to go up and down without having the jumps be too complicated.

Once you can do that consistently you can go up and down more, and slowly increase the tempo. Use a metronome or drum machine so you are also building in proper tempo control.

The bottom line is go slow, careful, precise, and take baby steps. Its like the tortise and the hare....the slow tortise won the race.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

Hi rocket88.... I couldn't agree more with you...this is very good advice for novice blues and boogie players....and any type of playing...boogie dosent happen over night...I have been working on a Albert Ammons piece..."Monday Struggle" for 8 months and it still going to take another 12 months to get it at comfortable playing tempo that I will be happy with..the trouble with learning this type of music is you cant take a break from it....if you dont play it for a week ..it takes two or three days to get it back to speed..........Doug

Sunday Afternoon Blues (p. 61) - difference between recording and printed music

It is not a big thing, but am I correct in that there is a difference between the printed music and recording for right hand, bars 4-5 Sunday Afternoon Blues (p. 61)?

Bars 4-5 the right hand repeats:

Print: F-G-Bb (B-flat6)
Recording: C-D-F (F6)

I'd never noticed that before. Either works.

Hi again guys, bit of an update on my progress.

I'm a bit further on now than I got the first time around and I'm starting to learn some really cool new songs.

So far my progress looks like so:

Chapter 1 (Triads) - All pieces / Assignments completed.
Chapter 2 (Sixth Chords) - All pieces / assignments completed.
Chapter 3 (Seventh Chords) - I'm currently working on two pieces in this section at the moment:-

On-Off Boogie #2, currently trying to learn this with a walking octaves bass, after that I will be spending some time learning the piece with 3 note chords and spending some time in that area in general. My octaves walking bass is now starting to come along quite nicely.

Blue Monk - I've more or less got his one down now, just working on the melody in thirds assignment and I'm then planning to start looking at stride.

Chapter 4 (Ninth Chords) - Working on Ninth Blues, again this ones nearly there, just need to work on consistently finding the turnaround and ending chords.

Chapter 5 (Minor and Diminished Chords) - Just started looking at How Long Blues. Really great piece of music.

Regarding the last one, I'm finding that I dont have the hand span for the second chorus tenths (where the bass note is held for 4 beats and the other notes are played on the beat for 3 beats). Does anyone have any playing tips for this? On the recording it doesnt sound like Richards keeps the bass note held but I may be wrong. I was wondering if this would be an appropriate place for the sostenuto pedal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Hi guys,

Not sure if anyones still following this thread but to answer my own question from before, I actually got in touch with Tim Richards by email to ask him the same question and his response was that its fine to play the tenths seperately which he does on the cd or together if you have big hands.

Also here's a couple of recordings I did at the weekend. I've been trying to get my piano set up correctly for recording for a while and finally had some success. The first is an improvisation on Smooth Blues, and the second is an improvisation on Syncopated Blues and Happy Blues. There a couple of obvious mistakes in there but feel free to post some feedback.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22324380/Piano_Recordings_130311/Blues_Improv_1.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22324380/Piano_Recordings_130311/Blues_Improv_2.mp3

Thanks.

Hey, dissyfingers, which "Monday Struggle" are you working on? The boogie-woogie one or the stride one? I know Colin Davey sells sheet music for the BW song, but I'm currently working on (my own transcription of) the stride one. Completely different songs. The BW one has a lot in common with "Shout for Joy," with the same LH and turnaround. The stride one is like nothing else I've heard by Ammons.

Incidentally, it's the stride version one hears if one Googles the title or searches iTunes or Amazon.

Hi shepdave...I am working on the Colin Davey transcription....ie:April 8,1939.....Solo Art Recording.....The closest version is Utube...Freakyfingers20 performance.....he also has a stride version there as well..another close version in Utube...Cam1987.....I have been plodding along with this piece for 9 months now...can play several sections OK...but still needs a lot of work..have allowed myself 18 months to play it..but I doubt if I will ever play it at recommended tempo...have another 7 or 8 Boogie pieces I would like to play eventually.......Doug

I've seen both Eeco's and Cam's renditions of the BW versions on YouTube. Very impressive. I have also seen Eeco's performance of the stride version, which is close to the Ammons record, but not exactly the same. Nonetheless, it's pretty impressive.

Sorry to sort of hijack this thread on IBP. I have the book, but I haven't really dug deeply into it so far. I've mostly been working with the Colin Davey/Frank Poloney BW book and with transcribing and learning a few of these old songs. It's amazing how hard they are to play. The boogie-woogie masters made them sound so effortless and joyful.

Hi shepdave...I dont think Adalberto would mind ..its the same type of music and he is a keen boogie woogie player.....I have the Colin Davey /Frank Poloney tutor....it has taught me heaps and I use it as a referance...when you see someone who is a confident player ...looks easy....BUT...it takes years and you have to play it every day or you loose it very quickly...then it take days to get play ability back...I have also been tinkering with Swanee River Boogie....its a piece I can relate the melody too..Blueberry Hill ..using the Yancy Special left hand also is a great slow blues number..Learn the IBP Rockaboogie...page 226..this has both a shuffle and boogie bass and a tricky rundown third chorus...bars from 9 to 13....Doug

Hi Tim Richards..followers...Have been a bit busy doing some Willie Myette ..Boogie Jazz lessons...but I always come back to IBP as a reference .and its the Slow 12/8 Blues P.208..it user's the Fats Domino types riffs and left hand in the first chorus.... then changes to Stride left hand in the 2nd chorus ...the stride left hand is good as I also play Black & White rag and 12th street rag...its quite a struggle sometimes to keep up the octave bass over each of the chords..the left pinky gets lazy and doesn't hit the key..I've always admired a good stride player...lot of practice involved to get it perfect.....Doug

Hi To... Tim Richards IBP students...Have been playing the Blues In Thirds...Page 96..This has the Jimmy Yancy feel..I have several different riffs ..including a blanket riff..turn arounds and endings for this feel now...the more I play this it will get me closer to attempting the Yancy Special...not so hard on the left hand as Boogie and Shuffle...Doug

Hi all,

Just bumping this thread. I spent a lot of time with this book a while ago, then have put it aside to work on other things. Thought I'd share some old recordings.

http://www.box.net/shared/h02vin9u3j
http://www.box.net/shared/6qc8lzxd3s
http://www.box.net/shared/ryn8io8auq

Great book. Wish I'd written it.

Hi Tim Richards .followers..Here's an update for the people who are going through the BPI book..I have been using the book as a reference and enjoy going over the favorite blues pieces I have learnt from this fantastic book..I'm going to try some Funk blues next.....Doug

Hi Tim Richards IBP Students.....Have been playing some broken octave 1.3.5.6.7th bass runs lately.. can't do much more than 3 -12 bars without the wrist getting pretty heavy...its a great boogie sound and can break up the monotonous shuffle when playing a boogie-shuffle improvisation... I'll use about 4 different bass lines..and sometimes use it as the melody only... "Back in the Ally" P80 #30 has a broken octave bass line and a few good right hand patterns you can use in any impro you are playing..there is a carpet run...a thirds chorus...Also P103 #37 "On Off Boogie" #2..you can practice a broken octave's to the right hand chord pattern in this one..Theres a great left bass run on P 226 #70 Rockaboogie...its the third chorus from bar 5..this is a Johnny Johnson type left hand riff...also got a nice carpet run in the second chorus and bar 9 is a great finishing touch to a lot of Boogie Takes a bit of practice..but has a great feel and sound..Theres a lot of fun in this book if you want to find it..I use this book as a reference..theres a lot off information here.....Doug

Hi Tim Richards IBS students...Have been playing around with the Stevie Wonder song Superstition..Its a little repetitive just playing the riffs over but as I get more into it I will do some recorded overlays on my CVP505...and have a more band like setup to play along with..I see in his videos he has another 2 keyboard players behind him...this brings me to the piece on page 168 Down Home Funk..its in Eb and is neally all black notes..has a 16th note groove..takes a little practice..but gets you movin and have the piano set to clav for the clunky sound...Have fun....Doug

Hi IPB fans,
I have just started with Tim Richards book after seeing all the good reviews here. As a 64 year old beginner, having just started on piano 2 years ago, I find his tunes with very different rhythms in each hand quite challenging! Any tips with how to go practice with "Blues with Pick-ups" (p. 66) for example? (my right hand wants to keep bouncing to match the left!!).

Anyway, I am enjoying the challenge.

Up to this point I was using Willie Myette's Jazz site, but after I finished all his beginner stuff, most of his newer chapters seem too advanced for me - too many very complicated chord changes. So IPB will keep me busy and happy for at least a year I should think.

Brian

Hi Brian...Welcome to the forum...It just takes a lot of playing...I usually learn the left hand ..play it until it plays itself without looking...and then the right hand and eventual put them together...the great thing about this book is you dont have to go page by page..you can try any thing in the book and if its a bit hard you can always come back to it latter when you are a bit more confident with your playing..I have a Gold Pass Willy Myette subscription best money I have ever spent...Jazz..Funk..Blues..Rock..I down load the lessons so I can go over them..I have a dedicated hard drive just for the lessons..Just have fun playing and dont over do it as boogie will strain you wrist....Doug

Hey,

Just started IBP yesterday.
I bought it after I read this great post : seemed really interesting.

And I must say I'm not disapointed... great book ! great method !

I started piano again 2 weeks ago after a 20 years silence and I must say that my left hand is quite slopy after all these years. I think Boogie is just what I need to shape it back.

I want a left hand like God ! :-)

IBP is great. I've learned a ton from it.

Have to agree with Doug about the Willie Myette lessons, they are really good. I just signed up a few weeks ago, although I only signed up to the blues site, and Im now considering a gold membership.

The nice thing about IBP is that the songs are really very good also. I've got together a nice repertoire of different songs just from this one book and they can be combined and modified endlessly using the techniques the book gives you.

My main problem is focusing my practice sessions rather than just sitting down and playing the same old stuff. Its difficult when you have so many enjoyable tunes to play though!