Choose and Learn to Play Left Hand Patterns

Alberti Bass Boogie Style Arpeggios    Tenths  Walking Bass   Stride    Mixed 

How Strong is Your Left hand?


Probably not as strong as your left hand so you need to use it with determination, but so as not to overdo it and damage it.

 

In my case I have had some scares about my hands developing arthritis, or locking up when misused so I obviously bear in mind that taking charge needs to be done in the safest way.

 

But fortunately my hands continue to even improve in technique with careful general use.

 

Regardless as to how fast you can play with your left hand it can often seem weak in comparison with your right and so what you do with it may come out as a little vague.
 
A little logic and practice of course shows how we can give a feeling of strength to the left hand.
 
I try and recommend here then using the strongest method of attack with the weight of the wrist whenever you feel you need a more positive sound from the left hand
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An approach to using your left hand in the strongest manner but without strain
 

Alberti Bass - Simple but Effective

Using Maximum Relaxation

 

Alberti Bass is basically outlining the left hand chord with disproportionate use of the thumb. It would consist of playing such patterns as CEGE CEGE DGFG BGFG  to outline the chords of C and then G7.

 

Again we have a technique which is unexpectedly chord related which gives a nice clear basis for adding personal variations based on those chords.

Is it rather dull? Indeed not!

It has the unspoken reputation of being not very effective, rather dull and just being related to harpsichords, and baroque music. This is probably because the left hand stays in the same place on the keyboard throughout, so it must obviously be unexciting!

 

In fact it is possible to make it a feature of a very full sounding interesting arrangement.and even incorporate it into arpeggios to modify and make those sound more interesting too.

 

So What Is The Problem?!!!

Your hand is just staying in the one place after all. The first problem though is that the concentration on keeping all those fingers going can tighten your fingers up and virtually lock your hands up.

 

The mildest form of this effect is to make your playing very uneven. This may be because the hand feels rigid without the distraction of darting over to another part of the keyboard!

A Video Example

In this video I break it down to some very simple hand movements which get you feling very relaxed about making those shapes, so much so that you can easily achieve great speed and assign a lot of notes inside the beat.

 

With the support of the sustain pedal Alberti bass is the exact opposite of that harpsichord continuo part you were expecting in this one minute video instruction.

 

Video - Relax to produce a Stunning Version of Alberti Bass

 

Alberti Bass Can Be Mixed in with Other Effects

It can for example be used with arpeggios to allow more fast notes to be played without crossing over into where the tune is being played.

 

It is amazing how quickly you can run out of keyboard space if you speed up and play a lot of notes in a continuous upward arpeggio.

 

It can also be used as a tremolando effect to produce a very full deep sound