Boogie-Woogie Method at the Piano

Sébastien Troendlé, pianist and teacher, has developed this Boogie-Woogie method to help students work on this style of music. Technical advice, custom-made pieces, controlled progression make it possible to understand how this music is built. You put in place the rhythm so special Boogie, without you tense. Then the little notes added to the melody will sound the songs. Videos available on the site www.sebastientroendle.com offer to work and hear the songs in slow and normal versions.
The second volume offers songs in more advanced versions, more accomplished.

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Interview

A new method of Boogie-Woogie
After reviving the soul and the history of boogie-woogie on stage and on record, pianist Sébastien Troendlé has devised a method dedicated to this musical genre. She is going out, these days, to Editions Lemoine.

What are the origins of boogie-woogie?
It's the blues, even if it is more expressed on the guitar and by singing. This style appeared in the Barrelhouses, these black ghettos bordering the Mississippi. This explains why the original boogie-woogie does not take into account the quality of the piano: this music sounds naturally, if the groove is preserved. In 1928, the American pianist Clarence Pinetop Smith (1904-1929) recorded his famous Pinetop's Boogie Woogíe whose name was prominent. Then, over the decades, this genre became more commercial in the face of jazz, which imposed itself.

You have realized this method. Would not a simple collection of coins suffice?
Until now, we had either very simplified pieces, pleasant, but musically limited, or some original pieces really difficult. So I composed pieces that I declined in four progressive levels, which correspond to the classification of the classical repertoire. For example, the first level is for pianists who can read the notes and have a little piano ease. The rhythmic writing is simplified and I value the main melody. The following levels become more and more complex and we understand that this music has some keys. In particular, it is necessary to restore slip effects. This writing also has some risks. Indeed, when we master the mechanics of the piece, we forget the main, that is to say, the melody. But boogie is already blues. Performers who play mainly classical works will benefit from this repertoire. They will gain better rhythmic stability and pay particular attention to the melodic lines of the right hand. In addition, I made videos - free and available on the internet - of all the pieces presented.

What would be the descendants of boogie-woogie today?
It is a repertoire that still lives and has not closed on its heritage, even if there are fervent defenders of this or that style of boogie. This music does not support excessive simplification. We can only enrich it, from musical dictations that were born ... a century ago!

Interviewed by Stéphane Friédérich
Pianist # 99 (July-August 2016)