The piano is an amazing instrument. So many notes, so many keys! That's why the crossover or arpeggio technique is employed frequently. It allows the pianist to use much of the keyboard and the left hand.
The trick to using this technique is in the crossover itself. Usually, the left hands initial position will span an octave and then the index or ring finger will be used to crossover the thumb to continue playing more notes of the chord.
A good example of this is the piece "Ocean Piano." Here, a whole harmonic background is created by the left-hand crossover technique while the right improvises a melody line. And the results are a beautiful piece of music! Nothing complicated here. Just the left-hand playin a few chords. This creates the backdrop for the entire piece - and the mood!
You too can create your own harmonic backgrounds. Once you learn how to do the crossover technique, you'll find it to be something you'll use over and over again. Why? Because of its capacity to use much of the keyboard and the beautiful sound you can get from it.
There are many variations to the crossover technique as well. In fact, you can actually use it to cover more than 4 octaves of the keyboard! You just keep crossing over with the left hand to cover as many notes as you wish.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Improvise Piano Using the Crossover Technique!
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Wow! simply beautiful! It placed me in each of those pictures through the relaxing sounds of your playing. The waves of the ocean have a soft and gentle sound. Listening to this piece makes me feel peaceful and so close to nature.
ReplyDeleteI could use some peace right now in my life.
Now, is this piece in the New Age Piano book? It sounds familiar. Now, if I wanted to do a video like this for our Quiescence Music YouTube, where could I get royalty free pictures off the internet and how do I upload this with sounds of the ocean or birds, including my piano playing?
Edward, can you assist me?
Miriam