Left-Hand Piano Style #3 – Alternating Swing Bass Piano Technique

Good morning, this is Duane. This is our third session of left hand arranging. We’re doing a series on arranging, first with the left hand, then with the right hand and then with both hands. The first style we took up in the left hand was simply strumming the chord, that’s probably the easiest way to start. If you’re a beginner you just play the chord over and over again. In any case, you just repeat the chord rhythmically either on every beat or every other beat or any combination thereof.

The second technique we took up is called the swing bass where our left hand swung back and forth between a low note and a chord. If the chord was C then we’d hit a low C with our little finger then come and play the chord and the chord could be played in any inversion. Chords, of course, have different inversions, they could be turned upside so I could take the C off the bottom and put it on top and it’s still the C chord or I could put it in second inversion where the C is in the middle like so. If I’m a beginner I want to keep my hand fairly close so I can swing, I don’t have to get lost going down there and look, I can just swing back and forth easily between a low note and a chord.

Now today, I’d like to teach a variety of that, it’s called the alternating swing  bass piano technique. Instead of always hitting the low C, always the low root, you hit the fifth of the chord on the alternate beat. Another words, the fifth of the C chord is one, two, three, four, five. Instead of hitting a low C every time, we’d go down and alternate with the low G, the fifth of the chord. We’d still play the C chord. It’s low C, C chord, low G, C chord, low C. If the chord is F then the alternate note is the fifth of the F chord which is C. Back to the C chord. If the chord is G, we hit the low G on the first beat and then we hit the fifth of the G chord which is D but it’s a good idea to go down and hit a lower G. You see that. That’s called the alternating bass where you alternate between the low root and the fifth.

Now if you’re in 3/4 time or any multiple of 3 and then you’d hit a low note and then two chords and then the alternate note and two chords. So like that. Now that would even apply to advanced piano playing. One the first example, we’d played Misty and we played the chord on every beat but we could do this. You see that, I’m hitting the low root then the chord and then the alternate note and then the chord, F, alternate note, G seventh, alternate note, whatever the chord is. You can do it in a simple way or you can do it in a more advanced way or any combination thereof. That’s called the alternating bass.

That was the third left hand arranging technique and tomorrow we’ll take up the fourth left hand arranging technique. Stay tuned and the more of these techniques you learn the better because you can add more variety to your piano playing that way. Thank for being with me and if you enjoy these little tips come on over to Play Piano and sign up for them. Hope to see you there. Bye-bye for now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ZQW_7AKVc&feature=youtu.be

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