Piano Technique: Swing Bass (Oom-Pah)

Swing Bass technique (also known as Oom-pah technique) is a left hand technique. Instead of playing all the chords together at once and holding it down until there is a chord change or the chord needs to be repeated in the case of blocked chords technique, swing bass technique uses a more dynamic approach.

In Swing Bass, your left hand will swing between the bass note/root note and the chord while your right hand is busy playing the melody.

For a simple example, for a 4/4 rhythm with C chord (through out the measure), you strike the C note (bass/root note) at the lowest measure of the Piano on the first beat. This makes it the first 'oom' sound. On the second beat, you play the C chord which will be the 'pah' sound. On the third beat, you play the fifth note of the scale - C note - above the bass note you played. This will be the second 'oom' sound. On the fourth beat, you again play the C chord which will make the final 'pah'. So, in essence, 4/4 rhythm will have a typical oom-pah-oom-pah sound.

If there is a chord change within a measure in the 4/4 rhythm, then you need to play the new chord. For example if there is a F chord on third beat (fist and second beats on C chord), play the root C note - C chord - root F note - F chord. When you are starting, it may also make sense to keep things simple and ignore the chord changes in between the measure.

Things are a little different for a 3/4 Waltz rhythm. You play the root note (first 'oom') on the first beat, followed by the C chord on beats two and three. So the 3/4 rhythm makes an 'oom-pah-pah' sound. If the same chord is getting repeated across two consecutive measures, you can play the 'oom' for the second measure using the fifth - G - note.

Advantage of Swing Bass Technique

The great plus of this technique is that it gives us a great control on consistent rhythm. Consistent rhythm is one of the basic pillars of good piano playing. The free flowing oom-pah-oom-pah/oom-pah-pah will get your rhythm in control.

Variations and Resources

Oom-pah technique comes with a great amount of variations. Variations are required to break away from monotony and helps in keeping the listeners interested whereas the underlying harmony is still managed by the consistent beats of Oom-pah. Following are few of the variations:

1. Play the bass notes in Octaves
2. Avoid playing on pre-meditated beats
3. Using inversions
4. Alternating bass notes

You will find a great amount of resources about this technique & its variations in both Monath's and Cannel's book. Montath provides a very concise - one page explanation- of the technique in Lesson - 9 (Jazz Piano) under the heading 'Swing Bass'. Cannel, however, invests a great amount of theory and detail spread across multiple chapters betwen Part 3 & Part 5. I would strongly recommend you to go through these resources for better understanding and mastering of the technique and the variations.

Using Sustain Pedal

The above books however does not seem to touch on using Sustain Pedal while playing Swing Bass. I personally find that not using swing bass creates a choppy sound which is not pleasant to my ears. Hence, I press the sustain pedail while playing this technique. This is how I play it.

4/4 rhythm - Complete measure - (Press pedal) oom-pah-oom-pah (Release pedal)(Press again immediately)oom-pah-oom-pah(Release pedal)...(Continue)

4/4 rhythm - Chord change on 3rd beat - (Press pedal) oom-pah(Release pedal)-(Press pedal)oom-pah (Release pedal)(Press again immediately)...(Continue)

3/4 rhythm - Complete measure - (Press pedal) oom-pah-pah (Release pedal)(Press again immediately)oom-pah-pah(Release pedal)...(Continue)

Pressing and releasing pedal will be a skill that needs to be developed and it will not take too long to master this technique. The idea is you need to press the pedal, moments before playing the chord and hold on till you are done with the chord. Release the pedal and press it again within fraction of second, before you play the next chord. You should release the pedal and press it again, between chord changes. As this happens between either 4th to 1st beat or 2nd and 3rd beat in the case of 4/4 song (third and first beat for 3/4 song), you should be quick enough to do this in the short time in between. This needs a bit of practice but will become your second nature soon.

Learning Tips

Playing this technique is a bit of challenge as you need to swing your left hand all over the left side of the Piano, when your right hand is doing the same on the right side. Losing control and playing wrong notes are all common when starting out. But slowly things will start to fall in place. The following is the technique I use to play a song with this technique.

1. Master the song using Blocked Chord and Single Finger Melody until you can play the song easily with right hand. This will also register the chord progression in your mind.
2. Remember to practice slow. Play as slow as possible
3. Practice only oom-pah with your left hand and that too only for the Song scale. If the song is in C scale, just play oom-pah for C chord repeatedly. Of course, you need to play for the rhythm Play oom-pah-oom-pah for 4/4 rhythm and oom-pah-pah for 3/4
4. Combine the above two steps: Play the melody with single finger in the right hand and oom-pah on left hand - only for the song scale (i.e. only one chord with no chord changes at all). Practice this until you are comfortable playing this. This step should help you to play with both hands with hands swinging in all directions!. This may take a while to master.
5. Once you get the above step in your bag, this step should be a cake walk. Modify the left hand to use chord changes. You don't just play the base chord, but you perform chord changes with oom-pah, for the chords mentioned in the lead sheet!

Important take away

Finally don't get disheartened, if this technique is not coming to you easily. Mastering this technique will take couple of days. Keep the mantra - Practice slow.

Don't try too hard. Practice only for a short stretch. Trying too hard can make things worse and leave you fustrated. Many times a good night sleep, will make things fall in place automatically (Don't ask me how or why. It just happens to me so many times).