5 Levels of Boogie Woogie

Boogie woogie is a fun style of blues piano to bust out, whether to unleash some stress at the end of a long day or in a party setting with friends. It’s playful, high-energy, and can sound super impressive and entertaining even at a beginner level.

In this lesson, we’ll show you five levels of boogie woogie. See which level you can play and how you can level up! Don’t forget to download the free lesson resources first:

BOOGIE WOOGIE RESOURCES

Boogie Woogie Level 1: Beginner 👶

If you’re a beginner piano player, or if you’re new to boogie woogie and need some ideas to start, start here!

At this level, just get comfortable with the chords first. The progression we’ll use for this exercise will involve just a few simple chords:

G > C > G > D > C > G

On our left hand, we’ll play these chords in “power chord” form. This means we’ll just play the root and fifth note. Sometimes, this is notated as G5 in chord symbols.

With your right hand, practice the boogie woogie pattern. We’ll be building on this pattern as we go up the levels.

Oh, and remember to swing! The counting is written out in the screenshot above but once you get the basic rhythm down, try lingering on that downbeat just a tad longer than you’re supposed to.

Boogie Woogie Level 2: Intermediate 🧒

In Level 2, we’ll make our left hand do a little more work: this pattern is called the rock shuffle. Essentially, you’re shuffling between different top notes of your power chords.

We’ll also vary the chords a bit on our right hand, substituting a simple C chord with a more bluesy-sounding C7 chord. A C7 chord consists of the notes C-E-G-Bb. We can also stack another note (D) on top, creating a C9 chord. This can feel like playing a Gm chord on top of C and it creates a more complex sound.

Boogie Woogie Level 3: Advanced 🥉

Now let’s have some fun 🙂 Instead of the rock shuffle, try substituting in a walking bassline on your left hand. This involves adding in notes that lie outside the basic chord structure. For example, for G, you can use the 6th (E).

On your right hand, add some extra frills to the melody by slipping into the downbeat with a chromatic grace note. Just be careful not to overdo it!

Boogie Woogie Level 4: Pro 🥈

At this level, try getting more creative. Experiment with adding different melodies to your boogie woogie. Blues is all about patterns, so if you find one that you like, try it on different chords in different notes.

You don’t need a super intricate pattern to sound like a blues pro. In fact, “overplaying” can make music sound too busy.

On your left hand, spice up your walking bass with approach tones that are a half-step away. This involves being confident in where you’re heading, so have some fun practicing your left hand on its own.

Boogie Woogie Level 5: Master 🥇

Congratulations, you’ve reached the Master level! You’re grooving along with confidence. You’re having fun. In this level, we’ll increase our speed and add even more fancy frills.

Some of these moves look harder than they are to play. This right hand pattern is super fast and impressive, but it fits neatly under the hand.

But at this level, we want to be a little more unique 🙂 So see if you can create your own secondary melody. Here’s a sample interlude:

Things don’t have to be complex to sound good. The sample interlude is just playing around with chords and rhythms. You can also find a short phrase—just a measure or two—and see how many variations you can come up with.

Finally, a boogie woogie performance is not complete without a schnazzy ending. You can use this as a template: improvise on the G Minor pentatonic scale and end with some fancy glissandi!

G Minor Pentatonic Scale
G – B♭ – C – D – F

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