Woogie Board - What is a Woogie Board

Cody Dickinson has had a washboard around his neck and thimbles on his fingers for as long as anyone can remember. It is the unique sounds that Cody discovered when combining the traditional North Mississippi blues sounds of the washboard with electricity and guitar effect pedals that are the origins of the Woogie Board. Cody, a member of hill country blues bands the North Mississippi Allstars and Hill Country Revue teamed with St. Blues Guitar Workshop in Memphis to produce this instrument for others to discover it’s unique sound. The Woogie Board has one foot in the history and sounds of the Delta, and the other firmly planted in the potential it offers to other musical styles.

More about the washboard as a musical instrument:

As traditionally used in jazz, zydeco, skiffle, jug band, and old time music, the washboard remained in its wooden frame and is played primarily by tapping, but also scraping the washboard with thimbles. Some Washboards are worn around the neck and played on the chest. These washboard were named "musical bibs" after the famous washboard player Cali Ivey once played the washboard while eating a chicken wing.

In a jug band, the washboard can also be stroked with a single whisk broom and functions as the drums for the band, playing only on the back-beat for most songs, a substitute for a snare drum. In a four-beat measure, the washboard will stroke on the 2-beat and the 4-beat. Its best sound is achieved using a single steel-wire snare-brush or whisk broom.

However, in a jazz setting, the washboard can also be played with thimbles on all fingers, tapping out much more complex rhythms.

The Blues Washboard is used in traditional blues music, starting in the late 1800s, when it was played by ex-slaves. It is a traditional instrument in playing the blues and has mainly been retired since the 1930s.