In this blog, I”d just like to show 3 ways of ‘strumming’ or playing your left-hand chords in accompaniment to your right-hand melody, when you play a slower-type song that has the very common ‘Rock Beat ‘ tempo. This is the tempo you hear often, when a vocalist (especially one also playing the piano together ) sings a slower contemporary song.

As the above video show, the purpose here is to show a few the ways you can strum* your left –hand fingers, and when youre familiar with each of them, you can then flexibly, and as appropriately, blend them in your peft-hand playing throughout a given song.

* Sorry, I’m fond of using the term ‘strum’ - for want of a better word - as this is what I used to do when I first learned the guitar… strumming the strings, and humming the melody along. I couldn’t sing of course.

Thank you.

This blog builds on my previous one about the simple C-Am-F/Dm-G progression.

In addition to playing and moving around the chords, we are going to be adding ‘transiting’ or ‘filler’ bass notes with our extreme left hand fingers.

Your little left small finger (pinky) is always holding one bass while you play the chord with the other left-hand fingers, so it’s time to make it even busier by moving it around a bit more, with the purpose of ‘connecting’ the cords with acceptable sounds within the scale you are playing.

As you watch the above video, you will observe that you can hop over from one chord to another using a few extra bass notes, as long as they sound right.

If you are playing the chords in the key of C, then these notes fall within the scale of C. Of course if your are playing the chords in a different key, then these bass notes will correspondingly change (Eg., by transposing them to find out what these are, if necessary).

Done properly and keeping in timing, this makes the change of chords sound more interesting , rather than just switching from one chord to the other.

But you should try to add these basses only intermittently and ‘in good taste’ in the duration of the song (you learn this through hearing how they are applied in songs or by other musicians, or through practice and self-observation).

You shouldn’t apply these basses liberally right throughout the song, just for the sake of doing it… (oh well, maybe initially, if you’ve just discovered this technique and are quite excited about using it!)

Thank you.

A chord refers to nothing more than a commonly-played sequence or pattern of playing a few chords (usually 4- 5) during a song. One chord typically ‘progresses’ to another expected one, before the pattern is often broken and the player plays a chord other than the next one in this chord progression pattern. But the point is, it’s good to recognize and be familiar with patterns when they occur

Some simpler songs just repeat these patterns through the song, Eg., oldies music with a C –Am-F-G progression.

For starters, the above video illustrates this very common progression.

It is useful to be familiar with chord progressions because:

- Being able to better anticipate what the next chord/s will ‘typically’ be helps make learning and playing easier in that part of the song where the pattern occurs;

- It possibly also helps when you’re composing a song. Many popular song melodies are built around common chord progressions because they’re proven and work nicely.

- Knowing chord progression also helps when you’re in a situation of playing impromptu, and may need to think quickly to apply an appropriate set of known progression chords for say, an intro or a break before the main melody starts again .

We’ll talk about other chord progressions in due course.

Thank you.

Victoria,

Here is your song request:

Two Words

The Prayer

Alan

Let’s now try making some country sounds with the right hand playing, imitating the western ‘slurred’ styling of Floyd Cramer (Eg. Last Date, Unchained Melody). You could also effectively apply this playing technique to tunes like Rhythm of the Falling Rain, My Way, and A White Shade of Pale.

Watch my above video, and you’ll see that it all starts by playing around with a certain set of notes, that are pretty similar to the ‘Oriental’ ones covered in my other blog.

As usual, after you’re well familiar with them, try them in different keys you know, and apply them to some of songs you know. Also, listen closely to Floyd’s right hand melody in his YouTube videos, and try following along with him.

You will notice that he doesn’t of course play the country effect throughout the entire song, but instead applies the touch selectively to parts where effectively bring out the expression.

The next time you hear some pianists play, try and hear if and where they apply these touches to get ideas.