Forma y feel

Understanding the Feel of the Tune

But let's look at the central thing about this tune, which is the feel. The feel is so important on this. It's very much that kind of rumba feel derived from the sort of Afro-Caribbean influence.

The Basic Underlying Feel

Essentially, that is the basic underlying feel for it. You could play something like that, which obviously works fine, but pressing along here really kind of brings it home with some anticipations.

New Orleans Influence

The stuff we looked at in Junco Partner, which I think is a typically New Orleans thing, informs this approach. So, his introduction, you can see it's leading with that 3/4 time signature. It's always leading with that note.

• This is something that really goes well in Afro-Cuban music.
• It can go across the bar line, but in this case, it's still anchored with that downbeat at the bottom.
• Still, it's a note that's stressed in the feel.

Two-Handed Groove

He also incorporates these little skips in between the right-hand notes. So, it's very much a two-handed feel. It's not just a left hand with a right-hand accompaniment kind of thing, which would be more of a ragtime approach or a blues approach, you know, that features a very independent left hand.

• In this kind of feel, it's very much from that sort of Caribbean/Afro-Cuban vibe where the two hands create the groove together.

Creating a Rolling Effect

So really, it creates this rolling effect, characterized by a very distinctive run going up to the four chords:

3, 4. One, two, three, four.

It's all kind of syncopated; it's all off the beat:

3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Then it anchors back down on beat one of the four, leaving you suspended while that's happening. I think that's what makes it funky and what makes it hip.

Echoing the Left Hand

In the right hand, you're essentially echoing what the left hand is doing. Although what Professor Longhair does, and what you can do, is add some octaves or change the direction of the octave.

• The choice is yours! You can play it however you want, but as long as this central feel is underneath, it doesn't really matter.
• That anticipation at the end of the bar is always there.

Keeping the Feel in Mind

So, think of it as "walking down the street":

1, 2, 3, 4 and 2, 3, 4.

That feel is very much present throughout the piece.

So remember, when you're playing, that feel should always be there, regardless of whether you're actually playing notes or not.