New Orleans Influenced Boogie Riff
Lesson time: (3min 40sec)
Paddy Milner teaches a New Orleans-flavoured boogie riff that outlines a C chord, sliding through E flat and D - a phrase you can repeat and mix with others.
Course preview
This lesson is part of the course Play Authentic Boogie-Woogie Piano
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Exploring New Orleans Style Playing
Another thing we can look at is something that perhaps comes from more of a New Orleans style of playing.
Hand Positioning and Chord Outline
Often, hand position is based on the 5th. In this case, it's quite nice to go through it methodically.
Breakdown of the Riff
Let's break that down:
- Essentially, it's outlining a sort of C chord.
- The movement involves sliding off the E flat via the D, C, and down to the G.
At tempo:
Yes, it sounds nice!
Repeating the Riff
It's a big riff that you can repeat, and you can obviously mix it with a lot of other riffs. For example, you could go:
- [Insert riff example here]
It's actually quite nice just to play and add little touches like that.
Punctuation and Variations
That's a little punctuation idea at the end of a phrase, just another riff idea.
I'm not sure if there's much more that could be developed with that, but you could place it at different points in the bar. So instead of playing that, you could go:
- [Insert alternative riff here]
This sounds a bit funny, but you can kind of play around with that.
Fun with the First 12 Bars
So, for the first 12 bars, you might play just for a bit of fun.
About the instructor
Paddy Milner is recognised as one of the leading blues piano players in the world - he is currently keyboard player of choice for Sir Tom Jones, following several years with the late, great Jack Bruce - but he is also a superb original songwriter and a distinctive singer. Just read the praise from the likes of Dave Brubeck below! His playing was featured on the soundtrack for the hit 2019 film 'Rocketman'. He has twice won the award for Best Keyboard Player in the British Blues Awards, and he holds a long-standing residency as a founder member of the Ronnie Scott's Blues Explosion at the world-renowned Ronnie Scott's club. His current group LONDONOLA plays homegrown British music with a strong dose of New Orleans spirit, and his collaborative group JAWBONE goes from strength to strength following the release of their self-titled debut album. "I love it... there's a guy who can really play the piano" - Dave Brubeck "I highly recommend it. Somehow things start to feel much better!" - Jack Bruce "The best blues piano player in Europe..." - Blues Access, USA "Impressive & original" - The Times "Dazzling" - The Independent Across his courses, Paddy breaks down authentic blues shuffle, slow blues, boogie-woogie, rock 'n' roll and New Orleans piano - right down to three classic boogie-woogie songs - so you can learn these styles from one of the very best in the business. read more