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| Johannes Brahms (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Monday Music Quote
"It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous (extra) notes under the table. "
Left-Hand Parts
Composers write harmony parts in many different ways. Here are some of the most common left-handed harmony parts found in piano music.
Blocked Chords
All notes of the harmony are played together at once. Play G-B-D-G with your left hand. Then play, G-C-E-G.
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Broken Chords
The left hand plays notes of a chord but not all at the same time. There are different ways of doing this.
Oom-pah
As shown above, a repeated pattern of a single note followed by a chord. For more information, visit wikipedia.
Here's an example to practice. First play C with the l.h., then grab E-G-C with the l.h. Go down to low G, then play E-G-C chord again.
Arpeggiated Chords
As you can see from the above photo, notes of the chord are played one at a time, just like in an arpeggio. With the left hand, try practicing C-E-G-E (counting 1-e-&-a) then play, C-F-A-F.
Alberti Bass
The notes of each chord are played in this order: bottom note, top note, middle note, top note.
Example: C-G-E-G // C-G-E-G //
For more information, visit Alberti Bass
Waltz Bass
The first note of the chord is on the first beat, followed by the other notes on beats 2 and 3.
For example, play the C note then grab E-G-C and play the block chord 2 times. Play low G, then play D-G-B 2 xs.
Be sure and check out the 300pg Piano By Ear Home Study Course
It's a great theory resource book to have in your library.
Best wishes this new year!
"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life." -- Art Blakey
