[lopar]

heyhey...

just wondering, i play mostly by ear on the piano, and i'm looking for left-hand patterns to kinda spice it up a bit.. most of the time i usually impro or read the melodies over chords, but my left hand is usually limited to arpeggiating the root-fifth-octave or just playing the chord (i've figured out how to throw in some other keys for sevenths and stuff, though)

any ideas/examples on how i could spice things up a bit?

Thanks!

[Born2Worship]

I use my octaves a lot.. and I do a rocking bass when it is appropriate for the song.... incase you don't know what that is, (Example in C) Place your left pinky on C and your left thumb on the C of the next octave and place your pointer on the G and alternate between pointer and thumb... with G it would be a G octave with pointer on D and so on

Hope that helps!

B2W

[sanzi]

Yeah, with worship keyboard players just keep it simple. The rocking octave thing I've seen quite a bit. What you might be able to do it just add a few runs, kind of like what the bass does. Don't add too many notes into the low sounds or it gets all jumbled up and doesnt sound good anyway.

[benharrell]

If you're playing a fast, or uber-blackish song, you might want to dry the half-step chord transition, which is like taking this:

E B D A
We worship you, hallelujah, hallelujah,
E B C-D
We worship you for who you are.



And changing it into this:



E (Bb)-B (G#)-D/A (G#)-A
We worship you, hallelujah, hallelujah,
(D#)-E (Bb)-B (B)-C-(D#)-D
We worship you for who you are.


Basically, all the chords in () you play as root-octaves and they're played for only about half a count. It'll spice up a song for ya, but some songs don't work well with it. Hope that helps. Also, instead of always arpeggiating, try 5-root-octave mix-ups on some songs (don't do it a whole lot, though, because it's a little wierd sounding.)

[charlie]

Originally Posted by sanzi

Yeah, with worship keyboard players just keep it simple. The rocking octave thing I've seen quite a bit. What you might be able to do it just add a few runs, kind of like what the bass does. Don't add too many notes into the low sounds or it gets all jumbled up and doesnt sound good anyway.

Keyboard players: dont rock the "bass" (yeah right its fake) when you play with a band. The bass player will clash if you both play busy.

[benharrell]

That could be true, but I don't think that's the kind of "rocking bass" they were talking about. FOr instance, walking up the bass on a slow song sounds good.

[Bass_Thug]

Generally, the more members of a band you have, the less you have to play. So, if, for example, you are playing with a bass player, you do not want to have your bass note playing too "busy" as charlie said.

In worship settings, a keyboard/piano often serves as a rhythm instrument, providing chording and simple left hand work such as the octave/fifth "thing" (which I tend to overuse in playing keyboard :P).

However, if the bottom end is covered well with the bass player, the keyboard can also explore two-hand voicings of the chords he/she plays. This might be something you can try as well (although chords played too low can sound muddy).