Free inquiry post # 3

For this post, I am going to talk about the boogie-woogie. It’s the first song I learned on guitar. Or rather, it’s the first song I learned on guitar on this journey. I learned the Aerials by System of a Down pre-chorus riff back when I first picked up a guitar when I was 14. Unfortunately, I forgot how to play that in the nearly 2 decades since.

Anywho, the Boogie-Woogie has a long history in music and it was the first thing my guitar teacher sent me off with. I’ll talk first a little bit about the Boogie Woogie then I will talk a little about my experience learning it.

“Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities in the 1870s.^[1] It was eventually extended from piano, to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing^[2] and Boogie-woogie dance.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie-woogie

As you can see from the intro the wiki article the boogie-woogie is primarily three things, Bluesy, Dancey, and Been around a long time. According to my guitar teacher, The Boogie-Woogie fits into the category of 12 Bar blues which is a very important chord progression in music. It’s important because it can be found in tonnes of music and is foundational to jazz and blues musicians. I’ve linked to a website that has a list of popular songs that use the 12 bar blues.

For my own learning, the Boogie-Woogie was a huge step for my self-efficacy. I struggled for hours the first day I went home with the tab. And I made a horrific racket. I wasn’t able on that first day to start and finish the entirety of the bars that I had been given. I wasn’t even able to successfully do the first couple of notes fluidly. However, the next day, like magic, my fingers just started to find their way. It was only the second day after my lessons and I was shocked that I was able to make some progress. Granted I did put in a couple of hours! It definitely left me with the feeling that “I can do this”. Which is very motivational as you begin a new Hobby. I included a recording of me stumbling my way through the boogie-woogie. It’s been a minute since I played it haha!

Cheers!

R