Left-hand Techniques for Chord Style Piano

I have been playing chord style piano for about nine years and absolutely love it. But when I first started music lessons I felt like chord style piano was the lazy person's way to play simplified songs until they could gain enough skills to play the "real way." I think this idea came from a misguided belief that chord style piano simply involved playing the melody notes with my right hand while playing block chords at the beginning of each measure with my left hand. While this is a first step to learning very basic chord style songs, I now realize that chord style piano IS a "real way" to play and that there are many techniques that can be used to make songs sound MUCH BETTER than many of the note for note arrangements I used to play. Personally, I find it easier to play sophisticated sounding songs using chord style techniques than by using any other method. Chord style piano also allows me to be more creative, making song arrangements that are uniquely my own. Also, because I don't have to use all of my mental faculties to focus on reading individual notes, chord style piano allows me to be more expressive and make use of the piano's full range of pitches while executing more complex rhythms with my left hand than I am able to do when I'm reading notes. Using chord style piano techniques allows me to feel the music instead of just thinking about it. As an added bonus, because the same chords are used over and over again in different songs, once I learned a handful of chords I saw those same patterns again and again. This allowed me to get more "bang for my buck" when learning new songs, and eventually playing chords was as easy as buttoning a shirt or riding a bike: I was able to do it reflexively without any conscious thought.

Every child learns her native language simply by listening and repeating what she hears, not by learning to read first. Yet traditional music lessons do the opposite: note reading is taught first and note playing is taught second. This approach is logical and effective, and with dedication and practice it can produce very capable musicians. However, it doesn't work for everyone. How many people do you know who took a few years of piano lessons and decided it wasn't for them? Perhaps you are one of those people! But maybe if you had been introduced to chord style piano you would have been able to play more of the music you loved (whatever it was) and found music lessons more enjoyable. In my experience chord style piano is both easier and better than traditional classical instruction, as it allows students to play the songs they really want to play much more quickly than they could otherwise.

In this blog entry I'm going to introduce, through a series of videos, various techniques that demonstrate what's possible with chord style piano from the very simplest methods to more advanced styles. I included standard notation for both the right hand and left hand parts in each video to demonstrate how the left hand notes could be played, but in chord style piano the bass clef (left hand part) is either ignored by the musician or it isn't there at all. Songs that don't include the bass line and just have the melody and chord symbols are often referred to as "lead sheets," and compilations of lead sheets are sometimes called "fake books" -- not because you can't make real music with them, but because they don't contain note for note arrangements of songs. Instead of being told exactly which notes to play and how to play them, chord style musicians use chord symbols to understand the full array of possible harmony notes that might sound good with the melody. It's up to them to select which of those possibilities they want to incorporate into their playing. If a lead sheet begins with a C chord, any C, E or G note on the piano could theoretically sound good with the melody; however, there some C, E or G notes will work better than others. For example, playing the LOWEST C, E and G notes on the piano simultaneously produces a very "muddy" sound. Experience will help you learn which notes will work best in various situations.

My first video demonstrates the most basic chord-style technique. In this video the first line of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is being played using block chords with the left hand. For those that may not be familiar with the term "block," it simply means playing all of the notes of the chord simultaneously. For example, a C major chord contains three notes: C, E and G. If I play the C, E and G notes all at once, that's called a block chord. If you'd like to learn how to play other common chords, check out this printable chord chart.

Here is what a basic chord style piano song sounds like:

Next I'll show an example of a chord style piano song that is being played using arpeggios instead of block chords. This simply means that the notes of the chord are separated in time rather than being played all at once. This technique is sometimes referred to as "broken chords" and they are featured prominently in Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."

If you are new to chord style piano and start to feel overwhelmed by some of the more advanced techniques I'm about to present, don't worry. I'm simply trying to demonstrate what's possible with chord style piano, and with time and practice you will be able to more easily incorporate some of these techniques into your playing while you develop your own style.

Here is what it sounds like if arpeggios are played twice as fast as they were in the previous video. This example uses eighth notes instead of quarter notes in the left hand:

The next video illustrates a very useful technique that every chord style pianist should know: power chords. Power chords can be safely used to accompany just about any melody, usually with quite satisfying results. As mentioned above, a C major chord has three notes: C, E and G. If we only play the C and G notes and ignore the middle note, we're playing a power chord version of C (sometimes referred to as C5 because it uses the 5th tone of the C major scale). We could use these notes for a Cm chord as well, because the power chord tones (C and G) are the same for C minor as they are for C major:

Here is what happens if we play power chords while doubling the left hand tempo. Even though there is a G7 chord in the last measure, I am ignoring the "7" in this example and simply playing G and D notes (which are the "power chord" notes for the G chord) with the left hand:

Here is an "up and down" power chord pattern that can work well with certain songs. Notice the rhythmic change in the left hand part:

It is not necessary to play the left hand part the same way throughout an entire song. Using a variety of left hand techniques interchangeably can add depth to your playing, so this next example demonstrates a few different techniques. In the first measure I'll introduce a new pattern that I call the "ballad" pattern. The ballad pattern involves playing the root, fifth, octave, ninth and tenth scale tones and can sound great in slower songs. To play this pattern for a C chord, start with a C note, then play the G above that, the C above that, the D above that and the E above that. Note that the ninth tone  (D) isn't part of the C major chord, but it can still sound good in many situations. The rest of the song uses different inversions of block chords. I selected these particular inversions because it created a descending bass line for the last 5 chords (the bass note starts with G and moves down the notes of the scale to C). A good bass line, in my opinion, is second only to a great melody. In certain fake books you might see a chord notation like "G/D." This doesn't mean you can choose to play a G or a D chord; it means you are supposed to play a G chord with a D as the root (lowest) note. If you are just starting out with chord style piano, I would suggesting ignoring those "slash" chords and just playing a standard G chord. But as your skills develop you may discover that playing the recommend inversion (C/G, for example) can sound quite good. In some cases, slash chord notes aren't part of the chord itself. For example, F/G can sound great in the right situation, even though G isn't one of the three notes in the F chord:

In my last video I'll demonstrate a fun technique that involves hitting a single chord note and then playing the full chord an octave higher. In the first measure I alternated between the C and G notes for the root note to add interest and variety, but in the rest of the measures I simply used the root note of whatever chord was being played:

Chord style piano is a set of tools and techniques that's versatile enough to be used by professional musicians, beginners and intermediate players alike. In my experience it's especially useful for adults who want to learn to play the piano, and it will help new players create more satisfying music more quickly than any other method I know.  As an adult learner myself (I started playing at the age of 26), I am living proof that this approach WORKS! In fact, I released a Christmas album featuring chord-style arrangements of some of my favorite songs. It's called "Christmas Notes" and you can listen to it on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and bandcamp. I had been playing chord style piano for about 8 years when I started working on this album. Listen to the music to discover the possibilities that chord style piano can offer, then get started on your own chord style piano journey today!