An easy way to break up chords: the Alberti Bass

Good morning. This is Duane. Today I’d like to talk about the simplest way to break up chords. It’s called the Alberti Bass. It goes like this. Whatever the chord is, I’m playing the C chord as you can see in root position. You play the bottom note, then the top note, then the middle note, then the top note again.

Bottom, top, middle, top, bottom, top, middle, top. If your chord was C minor, it would be bottom, top, middle, top, bottom, top, middle, top. If your chord was F, you could play it in root position, but I’m just going to play it in second inversion. Bottom, top … Bottom, top, middle, top. In other words, whatever the bottom of the chord is, whatever inversion you’re in, play that. Then the top note, then the middle note, then the top note again.

There are some variations to that. For example you could go … See that. There’s some variations. By the way, I just played the one, four, five chord. Here’s the one chord in the key of C. Here’s the four chord, which is F. You see I’m playing it in second inversion, which makes it a lot closer to the C chord. For beginners it’s easier to move, and it’s smoother too.

Then I played the five, seven chord. When you have a five, seven chord, you’ve got a four note chord. In Alberti Bass you just leave out the fifth or leave out any one of the notes, but usually the fifth is the best to leave out. You play bottom, top, middle, top, bottom, top, middle, top. That’s the one, four, five chord in the key of C.

If we were doing it in the key of F, it would be the one chord, the four chord, one chord, five, seven chord. You’ve probably heard this sort of thing. Something like that. I think it’s called Music Box Dancer, but it’s made out of that Alberti Bass. It’s a very simple way to break up any kind of chord.

Now if you want a music box effect, you just come high on the keyboard … Well, let’s try up here. I’ll play Brahm’s Lullaby. The music box runs down, so if you’re looking for a very simple way to break up chords, this is the way, the Alberti Bass.

By the way, it was name after a composer named Alberti who used this technique a lot. Other composers used it too, but Alberti probably used it a little too much. It came to be named after him.

That’s good for today. If you enjoy these free piano tips, come on over to playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips if you haven’t already. Hope to see you there. Thanks. Bye-bye for now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArE2GP3ArgE&feature=youtu.be
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