LearnJazzPiano.com archives: playing left hand

jazzwanabee -- 04/12/2005, 15:41:23 -- #12752

Hey all, Beginner question.  When playing is it considered good practice to play the left hand a little softer than the right?  I know this is a tricky question and the song also comes into play ...so here is a scenario. I'm learning to play Autumn Leaves.  Right now I am only doing 3 note chords in the harmony.  I find if I play the left hand a little softer than the right the melody comes out more and the harmony is more of a soft undertone. So I guess it really depends on the  mood of the song.    Am I right?  Sometimes when I play the chords I seem to hit them too hard and the sound is not as "sweet" ... Thanks for education.

Scot -- 04/12/2005, 18:37:40 -- #12762

It's called "touch".  It usually sounds great when harmony is behind the melody a bit, which is the way it should be. Consider this. What if someone were singing the words to the melody and you were comping for them?  Obviously, you'd  play soft enough so that the vocals came out on top of everything else.  Consider your melodic line, be it in the right or left hand, the vocal melody and make it the focus of your playing. Of course some times you want to play the chords really loud for various reasons, but if you keep in mind that the melody is all important, you're often able to pull off something quite nice even if you play it simple.

albetan -- 04/12/2005, 19:14:19 -- #12767

Hi Jazzwanabee: Please look for file "Solo Piano: Performance of jazz lead sheets" at Albetan's Area. There you will learn some thougths about left hand.

jazzwanabee -- 04/12/2005, 20:23:27 -- #12773

Very cool.  Thank ppl/

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