Mike Finnigan School of Music
You’ve heard of the blues, jazz, and ragtime. Barrelhouse Piano shares origins with those styles.
Pat O'Connor, Wichita bluesman and historian, will take participants down to the turpentine camps and railroad towns where that music began in the early twentieth century.
This two-hour presentation is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. June 5 in the Watson Room of the Stiefel Theatre, 151 S. Santa Fe Avenue. Admission is $20.
O'Connor will share the history of barrelhouse with examples from major players. You need not be a pianist to attend, but keyboard players can see the chord charts and exercises to come up with their own arrangements. The Stiefel has several keyboards for those who want to try it out that day.
Named for the houses where the barrels (probably of whiskey) could be found, barrelhouse piano is a two-handed style of playing early jazz, ragtime, and blues.
“Each hand acts separately, but the two hands come together just in time,” O'Connor said.
O’Connor will include a brief history of Black music in Kansas, showing the importance of Black performers in the state. This will give a feel for the people behind the barrelhouse music and highlight their influence and contributions.
O’Connor has played piano and Hammond B-3 organ in rock bands and solo from L.A. to London since the late 1960s and has a forthcoming book on Wichita Blues from University Press of Mississippi.
This event is a presentation of the Stiefel Theatre’s Mike Finnigan School of Music. Register in advance at www.stiefeltheatre.org/classes/barrelhouse-piano or at the door.
The Mike Finnigan School of Music – named for late Hammond B-3 master Mike Finnigan whose legacy helps support the school – also offers summer classes in beginning and intermediate guitar, beginning piano, African-American church piano, vocals, songwriting, brass instruments and more. Enroll at www.stiefeltheatre.org/school-of-music.