The Boogie Rhythm Pattern – Part 2

In The Boogie Rhythm Pattern – Part 2 we’re going to look at some variations on the pattern that we learnt in part one.

The first variation on the pattern is something that Chuck Berry uses a lot.

We can add the little finger playing the note on the fourth string one fret higher than the third finger.

To make that stretch, drop the thumb behind the neck allowing the wrist to rock forward and keep the separation between the fingers.

First play the 2^nd fret note (always with the 5^th string open), then the 4^th fret note, then the 5^th fret note, and back to the 4^th fret note.

Sound familiar?

Again, this little trick will work for the blues and for rock’ n’roll.

And it works in the same way for the D chord and the E chord in the 12 bar blues progression.

Another variation on the boogie pattern is used almost exclusively with the swung rhythm.

It involves hammering the ring finger down rather than just putting the it down. That’s the sound you hear on, for example, The Beatles’ Revolution.

A slightly different variation is a single note boogie-woogie pattern. Here you’re channelling a rockabilly guitarist like Carl Perkins.

Holding down the 4^th string at the 2^nd fret, we’re going to hit the open 5th string twice, then we’re going to fret the 5^th string 3rd fret followed by the 5^th string 4th fret.

Then we take those two fingers away and we play the 4^th string fretted where it already is, at the 2nd fret, twice, and put the ring finger down on the 4^th fret, as we’ve been doing for the other patterns.

Play that note and then come back to the 4^th string 2nd fret.

Again it works for every one of the chords we’ve looked at, so when it’s time to play D in the 12 bar blues sequence move that first finger to the 3^rd string and start playing the 4th and 3rd strings.

When it’s time for the E chord, the finger moves to the 5th string 2nd fret but the  same pattern works on the 6th and 5th strings.

You can take a look at the following video that I made to explain The Boogie Rhythm Pattern – Part 2

*Universal Attractions (management), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons