Piano Improvisation Techniques: Creating The Arpeggio
Ah… the arpeggio. A miracle of cascading notes that produces a beautiful sound on the piano. To most it’s a mystery how it’s created. But to those who understand chords, it’s just a matter of practicing until the pattern is mastered.
Now, the arpeggio can be used either in the right or left hand (or both together) but it’s usually the left-hand that takes up this amazing technique. Let’s look at how one might use an extended arpeggio pattern to create an improvisation.
The first thing you need to know about most left-hand arpeggios is that they usually start below the middle of the keyboard. Most pianists begin their run below middle C and there’s a good reason for this - bass
...Improvise I never understood the allure of playing other peoples music via note reading. Now, don't get me wrong - some of the best music in the world was produced centuries ago. But, and here's the interesting thing, Beethoven, Mozart, ...
Those thunderous resonant bass sounds that reverberate in the body are hit and the piano comes alive!
Now, you have to be careful here because if you hit too many bass notes together the effect can end up sounding "muddy." That is, you won’t be able to differentiate the notes and you’ll end up having sonic sludge. But, if you spread out the first few notes this won’t happen. That’s why the open position chord is perfect to begin your left-hand arpeggio. For example, let’s say you want to play a C Major 9 arpeggio.
Of course, you’ll begin with the C note (which is also the root note.) Now, we could play the third (e) but if we do, chances are
...corps. They can produce a high quality sound.A typical drumstick has a tip, shoulder, shaft and butt. The tip, also referred to as bead, is the top-most part that strikes the drum. Traditionally, the tip is made of the same ...
What I like to do is play a pattern that looks like this: 1-5-8-9-3 - which means I’m playing these notes: c-g-c-d-e. This pattern produces a beautiful "new age" sound and is used frequently in New Age piano playing.
For example, look at the lesson "Coming Home." Here we play an extended arpeggio in the left hand and use over 2 octaves of the keyboard. It’s quite an exercise and is a good one to get your left hand moving!
Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping
...have problems with the piano is they give up out of sheer boredom! They sense that it will take months if not years to create something that sounds like music on it. So they give up.By starting out with open ...