Techniques For Left Hand

The document provides 5 left hand piano exercises: 1) The 1, 5, 10 Stretch which uses the 1st, 5th, and 10th notes of major scales to spell out chords and basslines. 2) Chromatic Crunch which focuses on playing chromatic passages using all five fingers. 3) Boogie-Woogie Blowout which moves a boogie-woogie riff around the keyboard to build speed and use oblique motion. 4) Diminished Dexterity which uses diminished seventh chords to build strength through their minor third intervals. 5) Speed Walking which works on walking bass patterns over "Rhythm Changes" to build

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Techniques For Left Hand

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Left-Hand Power Practice

1. The 1, 5, 10 Stretch

Ex. 1 is called The 1, 5, 10 Stretch because you are using the first, fifth and tenth notes of the major scale. (The tenth is the same as the
third but an octave higher). This also happens to be a common accompaniment technique for the left hand, as it spells out the chord and
can have motion like a bass line. It is meant to be practiced using legato phrasing so that the finger stretches can really be utilized.

2. Chromatic Crunch

Ex. 2 focuses on the opposite of what we covered in Ex. 1. Instead of wide stretches, here we have all of our fingers cramming into a small
space. The main idea here is to be able to play chromatic passages using all five of your fingers (with each finger responsible for a different
note of the phrase), and still achieve a smooth articulation without notes overlapping and sustaining into each other.

3. Boogie-Woogie Blowout

Ex. 3 is called the “Boogie-Woogie Blowout,” referencing a common figure used in early rock ’n’ roll as piano accompaniment. What I’ve
done in this exercise is move the riff around the keyboard so that the left hand can adjust to shifting quickly. An added benefit is the use of
oblique motion, where some notes move and others stay the same. This exercise should be practiced both with straight and swung eighth
notes.
4. Diminished Dexterity

When you play a diminished seventh chord in root position on the piano, you will notice that all of the notes are exactly the same distance
from one another. The intervals are all minor thirds—three half-steps between each note. Because of this, you get a nice little stretch
between each note of the voicing. Ex 4. utilizes different diminished patterns and voicings to build left-hand strength and endurance.

5. Speed Walking

Ex. 5 is essentially a walking bass pattern over the first eight bars of “Rhythm Changes” (aka the chord progression for the classic jazz
composition “I’ve Got Rhythm”). The idea here is to work this pattern up as fast as you can, while still maintaining clarity and evenness.
Once you’ve mastered the notes, work with a metronome to see how fast you can play the line and still have it sound clean. Pay close
attention to the fingerings here; they will help you get through the phrase in the smoothest way possible.

Source: https://www.keyboardmag.com/lessons/left-hand-power-practice