The “Duwamish River Boogie” Tutorial
The “Duwamish River Boogie” was composed by Steven Flynn – the teacher of this course. The Duwamish River is a river that empties into the Puget Sound which is the birthplace of the city of Seattle – a city that Steve dearly loves.
The Swanee River Boogie
The full title of this composition is: “The Duwamish River Boogie With Apologies To Steven Foster”. This is a little inside joke, you will notice that in the middle of the boogie, Steve introduces the theme from Swanee River. This is in tribute to Albert Ammons who did a wonderful recording called “The Swanee River Boogie”.
The Bassline & Recurring Lick
The bassline for this song is a variation of what we have explored previously in this course. We use some doubled notes to add more emphasis but the basic structure of the bassline is one we have covered in detail.
There’s one lick that is used throughout the performance which is also a common boogie-woogie lick that you should be familiar with. We start this lesson by outlining both the bassline and the lick so that you are comfortable with these elements.
The 16 Bar Boogie-Woogie Form
This boogie-woogie tune is written in a 16 bar form which is much lesson common than the standard 12 bar form.
The 16 bar form can be divided into 2X 8 bar sections which gives the performer more flexibility to introduce new themes, increase the energy, introduce new licks and riffs etc… experiment with this concept as outlined with the arrangement presented in this lesson.
Lesson Downloads
-
“Duwamish River Boogie” Transcription File Type: pdf
Practice Tips
-
Check out "The Swanee River Boogie" recording by Albert Ammons.
-
This tune follows a 16 bar form. Download the 16 bar form PDF file and try to visualise each chorus in a 16 bar format.