Category: piano

Practicing arpeggios and extensions in modal context

I love combining different workouts in one so that I don’t spend two hours just doing arpeggios and then another two hours trying to make them work with right hand patterns. My approach is to work on both hands at the same time by putting emphasis on one of them and keeping the second busy with something super simple and minimally technical, yet still meaningful in terms of theory. But, there’s also a possibility to pack one more thing in an exercise — and that’s when you make it modal!

For this one a picked the classic Mixolydian progression: I7 — bVII∆7 and played it it using 7th chord arpeggios with left hand and doubled intervals in the right.

Stuff I improve while practicing this:

  • Modal DNA
  • Arpeggios
  • Diatonic intervals

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Sure enough, you can transpose it to any key or apply to any modal progression like Dorian i — IV7 or Phrygian i — bII∆7, etc.

On Hand Independence and Wasted Youth

I struggle with hand independence. It’s a fucking nightmare, I’m telling you. There’s a solution though: take Dohnányi exercises, play them for 10 years (starting when you were 4) — ? — PROFIT! My problem here: I started a bit later, and I hate exercises that sound like they were deliberately written to torture me and make me feel like crap. I love playing things that matter musically. So I thought, okay, why don’t I play some arpeggios with the left hand, like this:

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Then add some scale runs with right hand (F Dorian in this case), like so:

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Then stop playing the 5th in my left hand Fm7 arpeggio:

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Continue playing the same rhythmic figure with the left hand, but sex it up by switching to broken 10ths (F — C — Ab). Keep doing the scale thing with my right:

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Then go back to my Fm7 arp and instead of removing 5th, get rid of the 3rd, which will completely change the rhythmic pattern and fuck up the right hand. Switch to 10ths as soon as the right hand starts to unfuck itself again.

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At every moment I can try and switch from running a scale to actually improvising in key to see if my left hand can handle it:

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Of course, there are also other things like other mode degrees to play with the left hand (for example, v or IV7 instead of i), other scales (like, parallel Lydian or Aeolian, you know?) etc. Thus, by the end of a 12-hour session, you will have achieved total hand independence and absolute fluency in all keys and all modes. All by doing just this one exercise!

Just kidding. Go build a time machine and start your piano lessons when you’re 4. Or at least build a time machine so people like me could practice more AND write about it! Laters—

Hacking Pop Interpretation

I was always wondering: how do they do it? The pro piano players who take pop songs and create wonderful, authentic instrumental versions of them that sound awesome on their own without vocals. I remember jealously listening to those pieces and thinking — damn, I’ll never be able to do this — and then going back to my block triads with octave bass. It’s okay, son, don’t go too hard on yourself—

Well guess what! I won’t say I’ve mastered it, but I hacked it, and now it’s just a question of practice hours, baby. I call this exercise “Pop Jam” — the idea is dead simple:

  • Find chords on the Interwebs (or in the Real Book if you’re into jazz standards)
  • Play through the whole chart once with block chords and simplest bass on Earth
  • Then replace block chords with shell voicings and connect them using minimal movement principle and thus achieving sweet ass voice leading
  • Add broken 10ths in left hand
  • Break shells in right hand into arpeggios (or some semblance of)
  • Add other intervals and ascending / descending movements in left hand (1-5-10, 10-9-3-1, whatever)
  • Use diatonic passages in right hand instead of shells
  • Throw in super low bass in left hand in key moments
  • Combine everything
  • Perform it until it’s suddenly 4 AM

Here are some parts of this approach illustrated with an example of Katy Perry’s vintage banger Fireworks (first four bars):

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Here’s what it sounds like:

 

It’s barely recognisable, I know. Of course it is, because it’s a freaking interpretation! 😄