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Exploring Left Hand Techniques: Inspired by James Booker

Right, cool. Let's look at the left hand and explore some tenths, specifically, some techniques that James Booker might have employed.

Who is James Booker?

If you're not familiar with James Booker, please check him out. He was an amazing piano player with lots of great ideas from various genres. He is very steeped in the blues and gospel, but also embraces that broader New Orleans sound.

Bass Lines and Tenths

James would often create bass lines using tenths. It's almost like a slowed down stride kind of feel. He would incorporate movement in the left hand, adding interest and complexity.

Example Techniques

• When transitioning to the IV chord, he might use:

  • Bass line: (Insert bass line example)

  Those are the kinds of techniques he would utilize.

• In context, you can play that kind of tenth technique underneath the V chord. Here are a few ideas for different bass lines:

  • When you go to the IV chord, you might do something like this:
    • This creates a hip turn of the G7 into a 2-5-1 progression: D minor → G7 → C.
    • The root stays while the left-hand movement varies.

Contextual Playing

• For context, when moving back down to the I chord, you could incorporate this bar leading up to the IV chord:
  • (Insert example here)

Here I was doing a kind of Stormy Monday run-up, which I believe I covered in the first video on the left hand.

Right Hand Riffs

Just to show you, here's a little right hand riff that James Booker uses. It involves rolling off the C sharp, transitioning from the major seventh to the dominant seventh, a technique he could execute incredibly quickly.

More Ideas for Using Tenths

Though not strictly a James Booker technique, consider this:

• When going up to the IV chord, you could play something similar to:
  • (Insert example here)

So, in context:

• You might play flat 6, then 5, before moving down to the IV like this:
  • (Insert example here)

I've been exploring a lot of anticipations lately, which seems to stem from that classic New Orleans piano style.

Conclusion

So, there we go! We've reviewed various ways to play tenths within a 12-bar progression to take the music somewhere new.