{"id":1465,"date":"2020-06-19T06:35:24","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T13:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/?p=1465"},"modified":"2023-01-13T15:14:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T23:14:13","slug":"left-hand-arpeggios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/left-hand-arpeggios\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful (And Easy) Left-Hand Arpeggio Patterns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your left-hand doesn’t like to listen. It wants to do its own thing and it gets mad when you try and tell it what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Face it … Your left hand is a teenager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make it better with these left-hand arpeggio patterns. Not only will they improve your playing, but they also sound fantastic! No more boring single-note left-hand basslines \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left-Hand Arpeggio Pattern #1<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is my bread and butter. It\u2019s my standard left-hand arpeggio pattern that I use all the time. To play this, I use the root-5th-octave of the chord and play that with my left hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I play the notes in a rocking pattern so it goes root-5th-octave-5th-octave. That reads messy, so let\u2019s use a practical example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re in the key of G and want to play this pattern for a G chord. So the notes would be: G(root)-D(5th)-G(octave)-D(5th)-G(octave)-D(5th)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That still reads weird, so here\u2019s what it looks like on the piano:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pattern is wonderful, but there are many more possibilities…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left-Hand Arpeggio Pattern #2<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready to stretch? This takes a bit more work but I PROMISE it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pattern is similar to the first one, but instead of playing the octave at the top, we\u2019re going to skip it and play the note 2 steps ABOVE the octave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what it looks like on G:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at that stretch. I told you this would take work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To master it, you\u2019ll have to release your pinky finger from the bottom note and PIVOT (cue Friends reference) your wrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practice slowly and you\u2019ll soon get the hang of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much better does that sound? This left-hand arpeggio pattern is so beautiful and rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why stop there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding extra notes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Instead of playing that top note, try playing one note below it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is called a 9th in music (the octave is the 8th) and it\u2019s another stunning left-hand arpeggio pattern that fits so many situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could even experiment with playing the major 7th note. Those 4 notes (the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th) give you so many options for creating beautiful melodic patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you know some patterns, but what do you DO with them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applying them in songs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These patterns work best in a song that already uses arpeggios. Take \u201dHallelujah\u201d<\/a> by Leonard Cohen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original song already uses arpeggios, so we can replace some of the patterns with these new ones and see how it sounds (spoiler alert: it sounds amazing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dPerfect\u201d<\/a> by Ed Sheeran is another song that you could easily apply these to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or you could sit down and come up with your own beautiful chord progressions<\/a> that incorporate these left-hand arpeggio patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So by the end, your left-hand won\u2019t be eating all your food and staying out past curfew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will no longer be a teenager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy practicing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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