Are you chording with your Left Hand?

[DaNatiMaestro]

I'm shedding and taking lessons from a jazz musician in the area and the first thing he asked me to do was play a standard.  So I played Autumn Leaves in the key of Bb.  So I started to play and found myself running the bass with my left hand and playing chords in the right hand.  After I did this for a few minutes he stopped me and said.  Ok that was cool now play it with the chords in your left hand and the melody in your right hand.  Boy, did the song slow down and sounded choppy.  He said "Ah-ha!!!"  In order to play with a band you have to learn to chord fully with your left hand to free your right hand to solo or chord.  So I went home and practiced but I neeed something more.

I went to Sam-Ash and got the following book...  The Jazz Pianist: Left-Hand Voicings and Chord Theory w/ CD by Fred Hughes.. This book has hands down increased my playing.

I can see how this left hand chording would be significant in the gospel arena where I play on a weekly basis not just on the organ but on the piano as well.  I see so many guys who play well on their own but when thrown into a band setting they never can fit in because they always have to  play the bass while they are playing.  Guess what.. you have a bass player or someone running key bass so you have to give them room by playing chords with both hands.  Also you have to know where to play your LH chords on the piano so they don't sound too muddy or too high.. The book says you want to keep your chords in the area between E below middle C and G above middle C.  I have found that you can go a little bit below and above this but not too much.

Also your left hand chords have to flow so that you aren't jumping all over the keys trying to voice your chords.  The book I named above will help tremendously.  The book starts off with simple triads and runs you all the way up to 13th chords all in the left hand.

Maybe I'll go through a song like Giant Steps or There Is No Greater Love and chord out just the left hand so you can begin to see how to approach a chord progression.

Main point:  If you don't already, begin taking some of your right hand chords and play them with your left hand.  If anything you'll make your bass player happy!!

Another tool for your toolbox...

[sjonathan02]

Good Stuff, man. Thanks for sharing.

[rayjohnson83]

Great stuff man!!!!! I have to see if the music store down here has that book

[musallio]

That's what I need seriously...
Don't know if they have it here in South Africa..
Don't want 2 cough up too much on shipping costs.

[raegenius]

That's really good advice. I do recall when I just started to play the keyboard, I was playing the basic chords in my left and the melody in the right. A musician saw me playing and "corrected" me telling me to play the chord in my right hand. Since then I have been playing them in my right. Now when I want to play them in my left I'm so sorry that I stopped practicing that way. It's like a forgotten language, but I hope I can work back on it some time. Peace.

[Sekaz]

Thats great stuff man. I just want to know which inversions? Do you play them exactly like you would with the right hand?and what sort of runs do you do with the right hand?

[DaNatiMaestro]

That's really good advice. I do recall when I just started to play the keyboard, I was playing the basic chords in my left and the melody in the right. A musician saw me playing and "corrected" me telling me to play the chord in my right hand. Since then I have been playing them in my right. Now when I want to play them in my left I'm so sorry that I stopped practicing that way. It's like a forgotten language, but I hope I can work back on it some time. Peace.

That musician that corrected you was probably right.  In gospel settings when there is no bass player; 99% of the time you're going to be playing chords in the RH and the bass note in the LH on the keyboard.  The problem with only playing with this approach is what happens when you are now playing in a band setting with other musicians and there happens to be a bass player or what happens when you have to play the organ?  You can't have two people playing the bass with two different bass runs and ideas it won't sound very good and on the organ your foot is going to playing the bass.

I truly believe that you have to learn both ways.  Chords in the RH, Bass in the LH, Chords in the LH, Melody lines and runs in the RH or Chords in both hands.

I challenge everyone to get their musicianship up to a point to where you can play in all facets.  LH and RH.. You can do it.. you can do all things through Christ!!!

[musallio]

I'm practicing DNat...i'll get there.
thanx 4 kindling the fire within.

[Wolfram]

I can totally dig this... I came from the other angle...  I am a jazz guy that had to learn the gospel way and I am always struggling with leaving the left hand chord thing out. 

[darkwing]

Great post!  You're absolutely right.  One thing that will always keep me in business as a teacher is the age-old tradition of octaves in the left hand.

An easy stepping stone is to at least add 5ths or 7ths in the left hand.  But please, STOP PLAYING OCTAVES IN YOUR LEFT HAND!  Bass players are so easy going, lol.

[musallio]

Great post!  You're absolutely right.  One thing that will always keep me in business as a teacher is the age-old tradition of octaves in the left hand.

An easy stepping stone is to at least add 5ths or 7ths in the left hand.  But please, STOP PLAYING OCTAVES IN YOUR LEFT HAND!  Bass players are so easy going, lol.

I'm working on the 7ths Darkwing..
I'm working on them thanks ..& other stuff as well of course

[Fenix]

Great post!  You're absolutely right.  One thing that will always keep me in business as a teacher is the age-old tradition of octaves in the left hand.

An easy stepping stone is to at least add 5ths or 7ths in the left hand.  But please, STOP PLAYING OCTAVES IN YOUR LEFT HAND!  Bass players are so easy going, lol.

Can i ask why? I have hit this problem where for some crazy reason i always play power chords on my LH and then play inversions and extension son my RH.

An example is this;

C major LH- C G C, RH- E G C. I have not been able to break this habit and barely play root position chords on my right. Is this a bad way of playing? The bass player in church once asked me to not play so much bass and i was like what??? Does this method really get in the way of the bass player? I now have to play up the keys so i dont hit low notes but i still play the same way.

[Rjthakid]

Can i ask why? I have hit this problem where for some crazy reason i always play power chords on my LH and then play inversions and extension son my RH.

An example is this;

C major LH- C G C, RH- E G C. I have not been able to break this habit and barely play root position chords on my right. Is this a bad way of playing? The bass player in church once asked me to not play so much bass and i was like what??? Does this method really get in the way of the bass player? I now have to play up the keys so i dont hit low notes but i still play the same way.

We're creatures of habit, which is good and bad.

I'm probably like ALOT of musicians in that I KNOW alot of theory and wonderful voicings, but I struggle APPLYING them because I've done the same thing for so long.

[DaNatiMaestro]

Can i ask why? I have hit this problem where for some crazy reason i always play power chords on my LH and then play inversions and extension son my RH.

An example is this;

C major LH- C G C, RH- E G C. I have not been able to break this habit and barely play root position chords on my right. Is this a bad way of playing? The bass player in church once asked me to not play so much bass and i was like what??? Does this method really get in the way of the bass player? I now have to play up the keys so i dont hit low notes but i still play the same way.

Gospel music is at its core chordal music meaning for the most part we're playing some sort of triad or chord in our right hands to correspond with the sung harmony (soprano, alto, tenor) and sing bass note in the left hand.  The challenge is when when you're used to playing like this because you've done it your whole life its tough to then change over to playing in a left hand chord, right hand chord style.  My father plays this way and at first it was tough for me to fit in because I was playing the same way with a bass note in my left hand and chords in my right.  This is where playing jazz has helped me.  When you play jazz piano you HAVE to have a strong left hand from a chording standpoint.  Starting with playing 1-7,1-3,etc all the way to 4 and 5 note rootless voicings... you're left hand has to be able to provide whatever kind of harmony you want to produce.

I think playing organ helps with this because typically you're playing the bass note with your foot so this frees up your hands to both play chords.   

A good way to practice this would be to take a congregational songs in your favorite key.. Eb is good.. and play your normal right chords then add left hand chords to those right hand voicings that follow the basic progression or framework of the song.. I demonstrated this in a post I did on Victory is Mine.

Here is the link:  http://www.learngospelmusic.com/forums/index.php/topic,50490.0.html


Hey Rjthakid.. you wanted some application well here you go!!

A look at the chords will show something interesting...  although I am playing the vocal harmony with my right hand.. my left hand is playing the framework of the song... next to the chords I'm going to write out the chord that I'm playing in the left hand

Key of Eb

Bb,C,Eb,F-both hands
GDbF/BbEbG victory     rootless Eb9
GDbF/AbDbF is            rootless Eb9
GDbF,AbDGb/GBbEb  mine repeat 2x     rootless Eb9, rootless E9... E9 is used as a passing chord to get back to Eb9

GBbDbF/BbEbG victory            rootless Eb9
GBbDbE/BbEbG to                  rootless C7 b9
ACEbG/CEbAb,BbEbG day is     rootless F9
AbCDF/BbDF mine                  rootless Bb9

BbDbEG/BbDbEG - FILLER         rootless C7 b9
AbCEbF/CEbAb I Told              root Fm7
AbCEbF/BbEbG sa                   root Fm7
AbCDF/BbDF tan reapeat 2x for get thee behind    rootless Bb9

GBbDF,BbDbEG/BbEbGBb victory    root Gm7, rootless C7 b9
BbDbEG/CEbAb to                      rootless C7 b9
AbCEbF/BbEbG day                  root Fm7
AbCDF/AbCF is                        rootless Bb9
GCDF/GBbEb mine                     rootless EbM6/9 w/ no 5th

You see with these voicings the Bass Player has plenty of space to do his thing and you can still use your right hand to harmonize the voices for the choir or congregation but now your left hand is being used to follow the basic framework of the song.

In order to do this though you're left hand has to get re-trained to play these rootless voicing on command.  The book I listed at the top of this post will help with that tremendously.  It's one of the best books that I have and I have A LOT of books.

Does this make sense...?

[Fenix]

It makes perfect sense, but it'll be tough not playing roots on the left. I am SO used to doing that. If you asked me to play a rootless chord on my right, then i could do it in a snap. But the left is going to be another matter.

So what you mean is that i should play the same inversions i play on my RH on the left. What then do i do with the RH? Play another inversion other than that or focus on playing the melody?

[musallio]

hey DNat,
This is really cool..

The last time I read your post I was not ready to tackle it.
But now I feel I am ready to apply LH rootless voicings in my playing.

I appreciate your post & would love it if U and many others could start a post dedicated to just that.

U / any1 else could post as many songs as they can containing these, & if possible, explain why they've used the chords they've used.

This is YEP! stuff

[Rjthakid]

DaNatiMaestro,

Feel free to contribute to this thread I started in the Piano Room.

http://www.learngospelmusic.com/forums/index.php/topic,51419.0.html

It's a little something to promote left hand chording.

[DaNatiMaestro]

DaNatiMaestro,

Feel free to contribute to this thread I started in the Piano Room.

http://www.learngospelmusic.com/forums/index.php/topic,51419.0.html

It's a little something to promote left hand chording.

Absolutely bruh.. you got it!!

[musallio]

Nice 1 kid..
can't w8 2 c how it will develop

[musallio]

Here are some rootless LH voicings Greg Hannon was sharing:

http://www.giftedplayer.com/media/audio/asoulfulchristmas-leadsheet.pdf