Form and Introduction - Professor Longhair Octaves

Breakdown of Tipertina Lesson

So let's break down what I was doing there.

Form of the Song

First of all, Tipertina is an eight-bar form. It's not a kind of 12-bar form, which you might be more familiar with in classic blues repertoire.

• You can hear the chords as follows:
  • Two bars of F
  • Two bars of Bb
  • One bar of F
  • One bar of C
  • Turnaround over two bars, normally F to C

So, you know, it's a very simple form. But there's a lot that can be done with it, especially in terms of feel and groove.

Introduction Techniques

Let's take it back to the start and look at the introduction that I played there, which is very much a Professor Longhair kind of thing.

I used to do this thing with octaves, it's a very nice little technique to get down. Essentially, it involves playing those in octaves.

He used to kind of do a chromatic thing, outlining the chords.

Analyzing the Intro

For the intro, the first chord in the sequence is F:

• It's kind of outlining that seventh with a passing tone of the E, which you might remember from our look at Junco Partner as something James Booker did.
• There's a New Orleans vibe to going down to that seventh via the major seven.

Rather than just that kind of sound, you could go via the chord we looked at in Junco Partner.

In the intro to Tipertina, Professor lands on the third bar, which is the Bb, landing on the third with a little arpeggio. You could do that however you like.

Horn Call Line

Then there's this line, which is very central to the tune, a kind of horn call.

• You could definitely hear that on trumpet; you might even hear Louis Armstrong playing that.
• There's more outlining of the chords to the five, followed by a little line that Professor Longhair uses in Mess Around.

I think that goes back to some old piano styles and concept to lead you back to the chord one, to begin the tune.

Wrapping Up the Intro

So essentially, the whole intro uses those octaves as the main idea, outlining the chords of the sequence.

• The intro leads into the tune, it's a very distinctive thing.

I'm sliding off the Bb to the B, which is a classic Professor Longhair idea. I guess he got this from people like Jelly Roll Morton, who also used those runs in that context.

It's more of a stridey thing, but still very much in the New Orleans way.

So there's that little intro, which I'll look at later because he uses it a lot in the turnarounds.