Chapter 13: Advanced Playing – Beyond Hand Positions

Moving Your Hands to the Notes as Needed

So far in this book we’ve seen a lot of music examples with fingerings notated. We started out using basic five-finger positions, then we extended these positions, and then we started to use thumb turns and position changes to get to the larger melodic ranges needed. This has all been preparation for a kind of “free hand-motion,” where your hands will often be moving to the notes as needed, no longer remaining (for too long) in one five-finger position. The more you practice this, the more it will become second nature to you. You’ve already done this a bit, but here we go for some more! Here are some pointers to bear in mind along the way:

• Always look ahead in the music. That way you can anticipate register changes (the music going higher or lower), among other things.
• During ascending or descending passages, thumb turns may be needed.
• Most music is organized in phrases or sections. Each phrase might require a new hand position to access all of the notes needed in the phrase. Again, try to see these ahead of time.
• Try to be aware of the melodic range (lowest and highest notes) needed in a phrase or section. This will help you position your hands and fingers correctly.

When I’m playing music, it’s rare for me to consciously think about each individual finger. At first, you’ll probably need to be conscious of this. But soon it will gradually become more automatic, and your hands will just go where they are needed. The more you play and apply these principles, the faster this will occur! One of the most important things needed to achieve this is to really know the notes on the staff and keyboard.

In this chapter, most of the fingerings are still shown in the music examples. However, pretty soon we’ll be working on pieces with no fingerings marked, so if you are still fuzzy on your note recognition, keep working at it, using some of the methods discussed earlier.

Pop and Classical Tunes

In this next section we’ll be doing a lot of stuff—most importantly, playing some real tunes! We’ll learn about arpeggios and apply more triad voicings to a couple of classic pop songs: “Wonderful Tonight” and “Walk of Life.” Then we’ll look at two famous classical pieces by Clementi and Satie, and discover that the chords and scales that we have learned so far are also found in classical music… who knew? First up, we have a great pop song from the 1970s, “Wonderful Tonight.” We’ll get familiar with the melody, and then add some basic triads in the left hand. Then we’ll learn about arpeggios and develop some new patterns from the left-hand triads. Note that there’s an 8-measure intro melody before the verse begins:

Remember those slash chords we talked about in the last chapter? Well, we have several D/F♯ chord symbols in this song. This means that we need to place the D major triad with F♯ as the lowest note. So you’ll notice that in these measures we have used the D major triad in first inversion, so that the F♯ is on the bottom. For all of the other chords, the root is placed on the bottom (i.e., the triads are in root position).

Arpeggios

An arpeggio is simply a broken chord. Instead of playing all of the notes in a chord together, we play them one at a time, in succession. We’ll try a new version of “Wonderful Tonight,” this time with the chords in the left hand “broken up” into arpeggios. All the notes and fingerings are the same as in the previous version, but now we play the notes of the chords one at a time, in an even eighth-note pattern.

First, practice the hands individually, particularly as we’re introducing a new pattern in the left hand. Again, use a metronome while practicing to keep on track. You can start around 50 beats per minute, and gradually work up to 80–85.

This is a pop ballad that will greatly benefit from use of the damper pedal! This pedal is especially effective when playing arpeggios in an expressive style. Review the damper pedal techniques in Chapter 11 as needed, and make sure you release the pedal exactly when the chords change… no “smearing” please!

The song “Wonderful Tonight” comes from one of Eric Clapton’s most critically acclaimed albums, Slowhand, which was released in November, 1977 and sold over a million copies. The song was inspired by his then-wife Patti, as he was (impatiently!) waiting for her to get ready for an evening out. Nonetheless, it is known as one of the most emotional and touching love ballads of the modern era.

Our next song is a very fun pop-rock tune from Dire Straits called “Walk of Life.” Although the keyboard part on the record is actually played by the organ, the music can easily be adapted for the piano. This excerpt of the song is the instrumental melody used for the intro.

Make sure you notice the key signature. What key is this? What are the four notes that are to be played as sharp? Also pay attention to the fingerings and hand position needed for the 4th intervals in measures 10, 14, and 16. This type of figure occurs in a lot of rock and funk songs!

As you play songs in new and/or unfamiliar key signatures, it may help to go through and circle all notes affected by the key signature (i.e., all notes to be played sharp in “Walk of Life”) in a red pencil. This will not only serve as a reminder to play the proper notes, but the act of circling them can also help you get to know the key signature a little better.

The song “Walk of Life” came from the Dire Straits’ album Brothers in Arms, released in 1985. This record was a big success in the U.S., selling over nine million copies. Dire Straits was essentially a vehicle for the writing, vocal, and guitar talents of Mark Knopfler, who also became an accomplished film composer (with scores for Local Hero and Wag the Dog, among others). Pianist Guy Fletcher was an essential part of the Dire Straits sound from the mid-’80s.

OK, let’s straighten our bow ties now as we head into the classical realm (or as my jazz musician friends might say, “the legit stuff”!). In Clementi’s “Sonatina in C Major,” (I know you’ll recognize this one!), you really get to put your scale practicing to good use (review Chapter 7 if you’ve been lax in that area). Just by looking at the piece, you can probably recognize the scalar patterns throughout in the right hand. The left hand fills things in with single notes, and a few arpeggios. Practice the hands separately to get a preview, and then we’ll discuss a few more items about the piece before you get back into the practicing.

Dynamics, Slurs, and Articulations

Listen to track 32 to hear an excerpt from “Sonatina in C Major” by Muzio Clementi. Notice how the notes are played: sometimes they are smooth and connected and sometimes short and separate. Also notice the changes in volume which are called dynamics. Once you’re done listening and looking at the music, we’ll discuss some of these items below, and then give the piece a try.

Loading audio…

Now let’s go over some of those things we mentioned earlier as well as some other new and important items in this piece.

• Look at the time signature. It looks like the “C” used for common time (equivalent to 4/4), except there’s now a vertical line running through it. This tells you we are in cut time, equivalent to 2/2 time (meaning two half-note beats per measure). Notice that a cut-time measure still contains the same number of quarter notes (4) that a 4/4 measure does. The difference is that we just feel two main pulses per measure (on 1 and 3), instead of four.
• Notice the f in measures 1 and 8, and the p in measure 5. These are dynamic markings, which tell you how loud or soft to play. The p stands for piano, which means soft. The f stands for forte, which means loud. Like most musical terms, these are borrowed from the Italian language.
• There are also some long curved lines above some of the notes throughout the piece. These are called slurs and mean to play smooth and connected, or legato (another one of those Italian words!).
• By contrast, some notes have dots either above or below them (for example, the G’s in measure 1, the C in measure 6, etc.). These are to be played short, so as to leave a gap between one note and the next. This is known as staccato, and is the opposite of legato (…we’ll have you fluent in Italian in no time at all!). Play staccato as if the keys are a hot stove—bounce your hand a bit for a short and detached sound.

Ok, now it’s time to get back to practicing.

As usual, work through this piece with hands separately first, using the fingerings shown. Watch out for the dynamics (loud or soft) and the articulation (legato or staccato). Start at a slow tempo, and gradually increase when you get comfortable. When you’re ready, put the hands together.

When using a metronome with this piece, start with the click on the quarter note (as usual). But then, as you get more familiar with it, try playing it with the click on the half note. This is consistent with the cut time signature we discussed earlier, in that we really have two half-note beats per measure.

Toward the end of the 18th century, the new pianoforte instrument was introduced, and it quickly began to overtake the harpsichord (the dominant keyboard instrument up to that time) in popularity. Muzio Clementi was a key figure in that transition, writing sonatas and studies that used the potential of this new instrument, and influencing the technique of many pianists. He also wrote many exercises for young pianists and students, and co-founded a music publishing and piano manufacturing company.

Finally, in this chapter, we’ll take a look at “Gymnopédie No. 1” by Erik Satie, one of the most popular and enduring pieces in the modern classical repertoire.

Listen to track 33, “Gymnopédie No. 1,” for a “preview” of all the interesting musical things going on in terms of dynamics (volume changes) and phrasing (how the notes and measures are grouped together by slurs, producing musical sentences).

Loading audio…

This is our first piece to mix slurs and ties together. They are visually similar, but have a completely different function. A quick review:

• Ties extend the duration of a note, and connect only two notes of the same pitch.
• Slurs tell us to play the phrase legato (smooth and connected), like in the right-hand phrase during measures 5–12. Slurs can connect many notes together (more than just two, like the tie).

You may also notice there are a lot of triads in this piece. For example, in the right hand, in measures 1 and 3, we have root position B minor triads, and, in measure 2 and 4, we have first inversion F♯ minor triads. These same triads are then played by the left hand, starting in measure 5.

Looking at the first measure, you’ll see there is a G in the bass clef, below the B minor triad in the treble clef. Remember those major 7th four-part chords we met in the last chapter? Well, it so happens that if we think of the G in the left hand combined with the triad in the right hand as all one chord, we come up with a G major 7th chord (the notes G–B–D–F♯). In playing and “figuring out” chords, it may be helpful to think of notes in the right hand and left hand separately. This type of “upper structure triad voicing” is used extensively in popular styles, as we’ll see very soon! However, the overall sound and, therefore, harmony is actually a combination of what is being played in both hands. Cool, huh?!