Left Hand Piano Walkups In 3/4 Time…Using Amazing Grace

Here is a transcription of the video in case you would like to follow along:

Good morning. This is Duane and today I’d like to talk about the magic of left hand piano walk-ups in 3/4 time using Amazing Grace. Walking up with your left hand in 3/4 time is an easy almost magical technique that you can use on lots and lots of songs because all it involves is an octave, playing in an octave and going up four notes. You walk up from one note to another. What you do is you walk up a forth. If the cord progression is from C to F, you see that’s a forth isn’t it, one, two, three, four. If you’re in 3/4 time you can play C D E F on one, two, three, one, you see that? Three beats in a measure one, two, three, one.

If the cord is F and you’re going up a forth, the next cord is a forth. What’s a forth above that? One, two, three, four, B flat so you’ll walk up to B flat. Walk up to B flat and again the time is one, two, three, one, two, three. If you’re on B flat and the next cord is E flat, you walk up to E flat. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three and so on. You have to know what the next cord is but if the next cord is a forth higher than the one you’re playing right now, then you can just walk up an octaves in your left hand. Let me illustrate that by playing maybe Amazing Grace, okay watch.

One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three and one, two, three, one, two, three. Now the next cord is F, one, two, next cord is B flat one, two, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two. Okay so it’s a very easy thing to do. Now that sounds kind of boring and that was very straight but you can combine it with other things. I don’t mean that’s the only thing you should do but I’m just illustrating one particular technique. Always mix your techniques. Let me play at a little [inaudible 00:02:48]. Okay, remember if you’re in 3/4 time and the next cord is upper forth, upper [inaudible 00:03:30] cord then you walk up to that cord in your left hand. Do mix it with other styles but that’s one particular technique you can use. See you tomorrow with another idea until then God bless you. Bye bye for now.

Here is the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c_gtsMdB7w