Born in 1932, Richard Penniman was destined to become one of rock-n-roll's most important celebrities. A bubbly, flamboyant man, Little Richard was one of the most energetic rockers of his day. Unlike Fats Domino, Richard belted most of his lyrics, and he always sang with a coarse, raspy voice. Throughout his career, Richard was in conflict with himself, largely due to his Seventh Day Adventist upbringing. The pianist's wild, glitzy, and even outrageous image hardly complemented the life of a devout Christian. Consequently, his music underwent constant transformation. He would switch from rock-n-roll to gospel and then back again several times.

Richard's recordings for Specialty Records (1955–1957) are widely considered to be his most important. This text will not deal with Richard's gospel music, although it is well wrought and beautiful in its own right. As a rock pianist, you will want to concentrate more on Richard's two-year tenure at Specialty. There, he recorded such classics as “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Jenny, Jenny,” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly.”

FIGURE 13-8: Little Richard Rock-n-Roll

FIGURE 13-8 shows you an example of Little Richard's piano style, which is boogie-woogie based. Like players such as Meade “Lux” Lewis, Richard always played with a driving pulse. In other words, the eighth notes that appear in the exercise should really crackle. In order to do this, use big forearm chords.

Little Richard was also fond of playing rapid, machine gun-like triplets with his right hand. These can be difficult to play at first, so don't hesitate to slow the following exercises while practicing. Eventually, you will need to build up your stamina because these licks are intended to be played fast. Practicing with a metronome is a good idea when learning these triplet figures (see Chapter 17). FIGURE 13-9 shows you one possible triplet pattern using the right hand only. FIGURE 13-10 adds a basic boogie-woogie left hand. Rather than sixth intervals, as used in FIGURE 13-9, this exercise uses octaves with a stacked fifth in the right hand.

FIGURE 13-9: Triplet Riff Using Sixth Intervals

Like most '50s rock-n-rollers, Little Richard did perform some mellower material. These songs were known as “slow songs” or “slow dances” at sock-hops. Slow songs were not Richard's forte, but when he played them, he still knew how to enchant listeners. To hear Richard play a beautiful 12/8 ballad, check out “Send Me Some Lovin” also culled from the Specialty Records era.

FIGURE 13-10: Octave Triplet Riff with Left Hand Added

TRACK 54