In this blog, let’s talk about a quite common chord progression on the minor chord on the left hand.

As usual, I’ll illustrate with the simple key of C, where its most used chord in a progression is A minor (Am).

Watch the video…. While holding down this Am chord in the first inversion position, ie., holding down the notes of of A, C and E, we are going to move our extreme left finger from A to Ab, to G and then to F#.

Songs that can apply this pattern (but of course, often not throughout the whole song) include Summertime, Time In A Bottle, Music To Watch The Girls Go By, Chim Chimminee (Mary Poppins), etc.

So, the purpose here is for you to recognize the sounds of this movement, in case you encounter it.

Every time you move a note, the name of the chord changes, so if you had to name the 4 chords created by the move, they would be:

A-C-E = Am

Ab-C-E = Ab Augmented

G-C-E = 3^rd inversion of C chord

F#-C-E = Am6

But to a write-my-own-notes guy like myself…. for all intent and purpose, I just write it down as Am 1,2,3,4.

Thank you.

…

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The left hand is the all-important contributor to how your song sounds when you play it on the piano, because it does the following things to help to enrich and support the main melody that you play with your right hand:

- holding down a chord
- playing a series of notes (ie. an arpeggio manner)
- providing the ‘beat’ or tempo of the song in a strumming manner.
- playing ‘filler or countering’ notes that support the main melody
- providing bass when using the lower note

If one arrangement of a song sounds better than another, it often has to do with how the the left hand has been played. If you just hold down the chords and play the melody on the right hand, don’t expect your song to sound that great.

You should also not be just repeating the bass+strum pattern from start to end, as that would be boring. Instead, you would intersperse the pattern with short arpeggios on the chord, occasionally counter and also accenting the bass now and then to add variety.

The video in this blog illustrates the above points.

Thank you.

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With my way of learning the piano - through listening to myriads of popular music ( standards, pop contemporary oldies etc) - I’ve observed that piano playing is mainly about how well you combine and interpret the playing of the melody of a song on your right hand with the chords on your left.

The improvements come when you start knowing how you can do more and more things on both hands to enrich the interpretation of the song you’re playing. You gain that knowledge through self-observation when you practice, and through hearing closely to more and more music.

I for one would certainly admit I still can’t do many of the amazing things I hear other pianists do.

However, if I could just from my own experience, describe what the sequences learning of the piano are - progressing from a beginner to more advanced piano playing - it would be the following 10 steps:

1. To start off as essential ‘theory’, you need to at least be able to
- recognize all the notes on the keyboard
- distinguish between the 7 octaves on your 88-key piano, and hear the difference between a given played note and the same note on a higher or lower…

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Welcome to my newly-launched (click Piano Lounge or on above menu tab).

I enjoy recording the songs I learn by hearing, as it’s a great way to share the music,  and hopefully bring on a smile or cheer to others.

But it’s not easy to record a complete song with minimal mistakes, without spending a lot of time on it.  There’s been many a take to most of these tunes - and into the wee hours of the morning - but when just one out of a few is done well, it’s always a great personal satisfaction.

Grab a drink, and come relax in the Piano Lounge.

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