Boogie Woogie Njs - Music Theory - April 2016 PDF

Interpretation of Music – Music theory
In General
 To interpret the music in dancing boogie woogie the dancer have to

know something about the music structure.
 Boogie Woogie music is mostly played in blues,swing or rock’n’roll

schemes.
 It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s,
which itself developed from earlier blues, boogie woogie, jazz and
swing music, and was also influenced by gospel, country and western,
and traditional folk music.
Basics - Beats and bars
 Dancers talk about 8-counts and beats
 What we call a beat is a quarter-note in 4/4 music
 4/4 means 4 “beats” per bar
 But the phrasing makes the bars go together in 8-counts
Quarter Note
Bars
Basic – Rhythm I
 Characteristically for all “Boogie Woogie” tunes is the shuffle rhythm.
This characteristic rhythm and feel of the Boogie Woogie was originally
played on the piano adapted later to guitar, double bass and other
instruments.
 The shuffle rhythm sounds like your heartbeat (as long as it’s normal…)
 However, what makes this sound so definitive is the way in which you
play the 1/8 notes. Instead of playing them as straight 1/8 notes (1 and
2 and 3 and 4 and) they must be played as triplets but the middle note
of each triplet is left out, leaving you with the following pattern
Basic – Rhythm II
 When you hear “Boogie Woogie” tunes you can listen to simple shuffle
rhythm which is usually called (boogie woogie) swing and to blues
shuffle rhythm which is called blues. (Examples will be played)
Simple shuffle rhythm
 In shuffle rhythm, the first note in the pair is exactly twice the duration
of the second note.
Basic – Music Structure
Boogie Woogie music is usually a variation on one of these forms:
 Blues scheme
 „Swing“ scheme
you have to distinguish between
- Big Band Swing (Dance: Lindy Hop)
- „Boogie Woogie“ swing
 Rock‘n‘Roll
Blues scheme (12 bar)
 12 bar Blues means that the song is divided into 12 “bars” with a given chord
sequence. When playing, you repeat this form over and over for every verse
until the song ends.
 For a basic 12 bar Blues, you need at least three different chords. You’ll also
find the expression I, IV and V or tonic, subdominant and dominant for this
chords.
 There are also 8 bar, 16 bar and even 24 bar Blues (all forms can be divided
by four!), but the most frequent form is still the 12 bar Blues.
 The first 4 bars just use the I chord - I, I, I, I.

 The middle 4 bars go IV, IV, I, I.
 And the last 4 bars go V, IV, I, V or in an easier way V, V, I, I or V, IV, I, I
 Then you repeat the whole thing again
So, the basic 12-bar sequence looks like this
(V) (I)
 To transfer the blues rhythm to the dance it is important to know this
12 bars = 6 eight-counts ( 12x 4 = 6x 8)
888888 888888 888888 888888

A A B A
Example C.C. Rider

8 -bar blues scheme

 In music, an eight-bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, the second
most common blues form, common to folk, rock, and jazz forms of the blues,
taking eight 4/4 or 12/8 bars to the verse.
 Eight bar blues progressions have more variations than the more rigidly
defined twelve bar format.
 The move to the IV chord usually happens at bar 3 (as opposed to 5 in twelve
bar).
I I IV IV (I) V IV I I (V)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
8 bars = four eight counts

“Swing” scheme
When you say swing then you have to consider that this word means different
things:
SWING I
 Swing can be the music of the classical swing or big band era. People mostly
dance Lindy Hop on this music.
 Many of the so-called jazz standards (and thousands of more tunes) are
written in the AABA form.
 The AABA form usually consists of 32 bars.

 These 32 bars are divided in four 8 bar sections:

Two A sections or verses, a B section or “Bridge” (also: middle eight) and
another A section or verse:
 A - 8 bars (A1) A - 8 bars (A2) B- 8 bars A - 8 bars (A3)

 The first two A sections (A1 and A2) are verses with similar chords and a
similar melody, while the lyrics may change.
 The following bridge builds a contrast to the A sections using different
chords, a different melody and different lyrics, before it is transitioning to
another A
 This last A section (A3) repeats the first two A’s with similar chords and a
similar melody. The lyrics may be different or one verse may be repeated
8888 8888 8888 8888

A1 A2 B A3
 To transfer the swing to the dance it is important to know this
32 bars = 4x4 eight-counts ( 8 x 4 = 4 x 8)
8888 8888 8888 8888

A1 A2 B A3
32 -bar swing scheme

Example: “Take The ‘A’ Train”
 Artist: Duke Ellington & His Orchestra, 1941 Composer: Billy Strayhorn.
 0:00-0:06 Intro (4 bars)
 0:06-0:52 A A B A
 0:52-1:38 A A B A
 1:38-1:43 Transition (4 bars) with key change
 1:43-2:29 A A B A
 2:29-2:52 last A repeated another two times and fading out.

SWING II
 Swing can be the way playing music in a swinging style (Puppini Sisters – I
will survive) or the transmission of the rhythmic or the music structure to a
“pop” song (Roger Miller – King of the road; Eva Cassidy – Wade in the water).
 Swing music saw a sort of revival in the late 1950s and 1960s .
 In the Boogie Dancers Community we say “Swing” to these kind of tunes
 So these tunes are written in the AABA form.
 The AABA form usually consists of 32 bars.
32 bars = 4x4 eight-counts ( 8 x 4 = 4 x 8)
8888 8888 8888 8888

Rock’n’Roll
 Often used in Rock’n’roll music. The verse chorus form is like AABA
shortened to AB.
 Verse and chorus usually each 4x 8 (8 bars).
 Verse often acts as a lead in to the chorus. The chorus is often repetitive.
 Sometimes a bridge section is inserted for variety. Then you have AB C
8888 8888
A B
A variety to this is the four – six verse chorus.
8888 888888
A B

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Interpretation of Music – Music theory

 To interpret the music in dancing boogie woogie the dancer have to

 Boogie Woogie music is mostly played in blues,swing or rock’n’roll

Basics - Beats and bars

 Dancers talk about 8-counts and beats

 What we call a beat is a quarter-note in 4/4 music

 4/4 means 4 “beats” per bar

 But the phrasing makes the bars go together in 8-counts

Simple shuffle rhythm

Basic – Music Structure

Boogie Woogie music is usually a variation on one of these forms:

Blues scheme (12 bar)

 The first 4 bars just use the I chord - I, I, I, I.

So, the basic 12-bar sequence looks like this

 To transfer the blues rhythm to the dance it is important to know this

12 bars = 6 eight-counts ( 12x 4 = 6x 8)

888888 888888 888888 888888

Example C.C. Rider

8 -bar blues scheme

8 bars = four eight counts

 The AABA form usually consists of 32 bars.

 These 32 bars are divided in four 8 bar sections:

 A - 8 bars (A1) A - 8 bars (A2) B- 8 bars A - 8 bars (A3)

8888 8888 8888 8888

 To transfer the swing to the dance it is important to know this

32 bars = 4x4 eight-counts ( 8 x 4 = 4 x 8)

8888 8888 8888 8888

32 -bar swing scheme

 0:00-0:06 Intro (4 bars)

 1:38-1:43 Transition (4 bars) with key change

 2:29-2:52 last A repeated another two times and fading out.

 In the Boogie Dancers Community we say “Swing” to these kind of tunes

 So these tunes are written in the AABA form.

 The AABA form usually consists of 32 bars.

32 bars = 4x4 eight-counts ( 8 x 4 = 4 x 8)

8888 8888 8888 8888

 Verse and chorus usually each 4x 8 (8 bars).

 Sometimes a bridge section is inserted for variety. Then you have AB C

A variety to this is the four – six verse chorus.

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