At The Drop of A Hat! Duet

By Pam & Olly Wedgwood

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Keep this piece nice and light, especially in the secondo part when the left hand plays a classic ‘boogie-woogie’ pattern to accompany the primo player. Swinging the quavers in a relaxed tied-triplet manner is also an important aspect throughout the duet.

The primo player has a few glissandos to enjoy! It doesn’t matter too much which note the glissando starts on – just somewhere an octave or two higher will be fine! After the ‘boogie-woogie’ section comes more of a ‘jive’ feel where the secondo’s right-hand plays on swung eighth note off-beats (for example, listen to Nina Simone’s ‘My Baby Just Cares’).

The secondo’s walking bass left hand can help here by being the first note of each swung eighth note pair. Try tapping swung eighth notes on a table, alternating the left and right hands to get the hang of this!