bit.ly/billsbook There are several basic piano techniques that you can use to make your right hand chords sound smoother and more elegant. In this piano tutorial I introduce three ways of avoiding the choppy right hand sound that is common among a lot of beginning pianists. Start by looking at the chords you’re playing and the sequence in which you’re playing them on the piano keyboard. Are you using the right inversions? As a beginner, it’s common to play all of the chords in the root position, but this can lead to a lack of smoothness. Try using chord inversions which have notes in common with the next chord in the sequence. It’s also important to choose sensible fingering. A lot of ‘teach yourself’ piano books tend to instruct you to use your thumb, third, and fifth fingers, but this isn’t always the best choice. Make the transitions from chord-to-chord easier for yourself by using fingers that are already ‘free’ rather than moving your whole hand for each new chord. This should help your piano playing - both improvisation and playing from sheet music - flow much more easily, and also gives you the ability to ‘swing’ between chords by holding down just one of the notes of the chord. This is a great way of ‘faking’ smoothness, which listeners generally won’t notice. You can also make use of your piano's sustain pedal - but remember to do this sensibly! Try not to overuse the sustain pedal, as this will create a nasty, messy sound. Pedalling on each chord should give the desired effect. The most important thing to remember is that this all comes down to practice. Try incorporating these techniques into your playing, and before long you should find that your right hand chords sound far smoother. If you enjoyed this video, please check out some of my earlier videos, as well as my website at www.billspianopages.com. You might also enjoy my book, How to Really Play the Piano, which is a great beginner’s guide to improvisation, chords and basic harmony.

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