Pinetop's Boogie Woogie: Understanding the Groove

Right, so let's move on to this next section. This is where Pinetop is kind of talking or shouting over the top.

"Want y'all to know this is Pinetop's boogie woogie."

Setting the Scene

Imagine this in a crowded bar. Pinetop has to shout over the noise of laughter, dancing, and probably an argument happening somewhere. He is trying to get everyone's attention.

• Vamp: Underneath, there's a vamp going on, which is just a nice groove that people can dance to if they want.
• Purpose: It's all about laying down the groove while people are listening to what he's instructing them to do on top.

The whole point of this is that it is a dance, and he's telling people how to dance, when to dance, and when to take a pause.

Musical Structure

• Rhythm: This is played quite straight; it's not a dotted rhythm. The chords are quite fat sounding.
• Chords: It's difficult to tell on the recording whether he's playing a full sixth chord with that voicing or if he's sometimes omitting the G note.

C Major Triad

• The chord is built on a sixth chord. For example, you have a C major triad, and the A is the sixth note:
  • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
• He adds that to the chord to beef it up a little bit.

Inversions and Variations

• It sounds like he's using an inversion here. When it goes to the F chord, he flattens the E to an E flat, which turns the C6 chord into an F9 chord.
• An F9 would normally have F, A, C, E flat, and G.
• Turning that C6 into a C minor 6 allows it to function as an F9 chord with the ninth at the top and bottom.

You might hear him play different variations:

• Sometimes dropping the G but keeping the A.
• Returning back to the C6.

Transition to G7 and F9

Then he will play:

• G7
• F9
• Back to C6

It can be difficult to hear the exact inversions he's playing, but there's a cool vamp going on beneath his talking and shouting on top.

"Get that nice and solid."

This is the kind of groove that you should be able to listen to all night without getting bored of it, similar to any happening hip-hop or funk beat.

Instructions for Dancers

In those two choruses of the vamp, Pinetop gives instructions to the dancers on how to dance and when to dance.

• He says:
  • "Hold yourself to get ready to stop."
  • "When I say stop, do not move a peg," meaning leg.
  • "When I say get it, do the boogie woogie," which refers to a particular kind of dance at the time.

Musical Announcements

Musically, there's a little announcement of what's coming up.

• In the second chorus of the vamp:
  • We go to the F chord, and then back to the C.
  • Then there's a kind of diminished chord which transitions to chord V, something different from the vamp.

Understanding the Diminished Chord

If you're not familiar with how a diminished chord is constructed:

• It's made up of minor thirds and is a symmetrical chord.
• You have a minor third, then another minor third, then another minor third, returning to the tonic at the octave.

This resolves nicely , or leads nicely , to the dominant seventh on the G.

The Dance Break

Finally, we have the break where the dance stops and starts again.

"So we got this diminished chord and then we're into the break."

This concludes the overview of the groove and rhythm that Pinetop is using in his boogie woogie.