Piano Technique: Arpeggio

Arpeggio is the sound of the notes of the chord while played in succession. So, instead of playing all the chord notes together, with arpeggio you can play them one after the other. For example, F chord will be played with F note followed by A note followed by the C note.

Arpeggios are usually played in the lower register of the Piano using left hand primarily as an accompaniment to the melody played using the right hand. However, as in the lower register, notes close together can sound overlapped and hence will create muddy sounds. Hence, the arepeggios are usually played in 'open position' in these registers. As this happens during the start of the arpeggio, most of the arepeggios start with 'open position' and then switch to the 'close position'. So an F chord arpeggio will follow F-C-F-A-C-F-A-C. The first F-C sequence will be open followed by F-A-Cs in the closed position.

Many times arpeggios are played along the entire stretch of the Piano especially when ending a rendition. Such arpeggios are called 'Grand Arpeggio's. If not the entire stretch, the arpeggios can stretch across multiple Octaves especially when used as a filler during the silent section of a song. Arpeggios are generally a great accompaniment for songs which are very slow. Arpeggios tend to make the songs richer by adding more notes. This give a sense of 'Counter Melody' - A melody running parallely to the main melody on the right hand. Even though arpeggio does not have a strict melody, but the sequence of notes gives it a touch of melody.

Remember to use sustain pedal. Sustain pedal needs to be pressed when a chord sequence is started until it ends or during the start of next measure (where it will be briefly released and engaged again). With Grand Arpeggios, however, the sustain pedal is kept engaged from start till end to give a rich overlapping sound.

Where to learn?

Arpeggios are briefly touched up on by Monath's book in Lesson 9 - Jazz Piano Styles. Cannel's book discuss arpeggios in greater details including their variations and the property of delivering counter melody. They are covered in Part 6 of the book.

Shorter Arpeggios

One of my favorite way of playing accompaniment with left hand is using shorter arpeggios. These arpeggios start at the lowest register of the Piano and has only 5 notes per measure for both 3/4 and 4/4 rhythm. The first two notes follow the open position and each notes last half beats.

I play C arpeggio as C-G-C-E-G. And as it consumes only 2-1/2 beats, you get enough time to get your left hand to the lower register before you start the melody for the next measure.

How to Practice?

  1. Practice as slow as possible
  2. Get the right hand melody under control. This will help in focusing on the arpeggio when your right hand is in auto-pilot mode.
  3. Slowly add arpeggio the left hand
  4. Remember that you need to engage the sustain pedal when beginning a measure and briefly release it before you start the next measure (at which time you will briefly release and engage it again)

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