The 5 Pillars of Piano Accompaniment for Any Genre
Jason Zac's five pillars of piano accompaniment are ballad chords with a chosen time feel, arpeggio patterns, a low-high marching groove, the tresillo dance rhythm, and copying the drummer's kick, snare and hi-hat, all built by first deciding how the beat is divided.
Key points
- Decide the time feel first: is the beat divided into two, three or four, and is it straight or swung?
- Ballad chords get their motion from quiet thumb ghost notes on the offbeats.
- Learn three arpeggio shapes: LMHM, HMLM and HLML.
- Treat low notes as the drum's low sound and chords as the high sound, and let them take turns.
- When playing with drums, follow the kick and snare in the left hand and the hi-hat in the right.
This lesson from Jason Zac of Nathaniel School of Music gives you five go-to strategies for accompanying a singer, a choir, a band or yourself in almost any genre. Each pillar starts from a basic rhythm and grows by changing how the beat is divided. It suits pianists of all levels.
The practice progression
All five pillars use one four-chord progression, with two chords per bar (each chord lasts two beats):
- C minor: right hand G C Eb, bass C.
- F minor over Ab: right hand Ab C F, bass Ab. The Ab bass adds depth and emotion. You may need to angle your thumb.
- Eb major over Bb: right hand G Bb Eb, bass Bb.
- G7: right hand F B D with no root, and the root G in the left hand.
First, decide the time feel
Ask how the beat is being divided. Two units means quavers (1 and 2 and). Three means triplets. Four means semiquavers (1 e and a). Then decide whether it is straight or swung. Straight music tends to move forward, while swing music sways. A shaker or a nod of your head helps you find the division.
Pillar 1: Ballad chords with a time feel
Play the chord on each beat in the right hand and a big octave on the root in the left. To add motion, split the left-hand octave and play the upper note very quietly on the offbeats, like a ghost note. Triplets come from using both thumbs to break the chord up. Semiquavers come from the thumbs alternating busily. Use plenty of sustain pedal for an open, ambient ballad sound.
Pillar 2: Arpeggios
Three arpeggio shapes on the right-hand chord:
- LMHM: low, middle, high, middle.
- HMLM: high, middle, low, middle.
- HLML: high, low, middle, low (Jason Zac's favourite).
Play them as quavers, triplets or semiquavers to match the song. For a sustained ballad or power ballad, hold the pedal. Without pedal, hold the first note of the pattern down, which also builds finger independence. The left hand is then free to split octaves for a kick-and-snare effect or follow the drummer.
Pillar 3: Marching on the piano
Hand drums like the bongo or tabla keep their low and high sounds from colliding, so the two sounds take turns like a conversation. On piano, the low sound becomes your bass and the high sound your chord. Start with left-right (bass, chord), then try left-left-right, which feels like We Will Rock You, or other mixes. For a jumpier song, play the left hand legato and the right hand staccato. For a 3/4 waltz, add one extra right-hand hit. Tap the groove on a drum, a table or your leg first, and play only once you know it.
Pillar 4: Dance rhythm with the tresillo
The tresillo places one of its hits on an offbeat, which creates excitement and makes people want to dance. It has a Latin, salsa flavour. There are two ways to play it:
- Syncopated approach: split the rhythm between bass and chord, one hand at a time.
- Grooving approach: keep a steady pulse in the left hand and give the whole pattern to the right-hand chord.
Feel the offbeats in your own body. Otherwise the audience will not feel them either.
Pillar 5: Following the drummer
Listen for the kick and snare first. Play the kick on the low root and the snare on the upper note of the octave, as a bass player would. Then let the right hand imitate the hi-hat: block chords, arpeggiated chords, faster hats or open hi-hat accents. You do not need to copy every ghost note, just the hits that matter most.
How to practise
Loop the progression through each pillar in turn, first at quavers, then triplets, then semiquavers, straight and swung. When you get a new song, try all five and see which one suits your singer or band.
Questions about this lesson
What chord progression is used in this piano accompaniment lesson?
C minor, F minor over Ab, Eb major over Bb, and G7, with two chords per bar. The G7 is voiced F B D in the right hand with G in the bass.
How do I make ballad chords sound less static?
Split the left-hand octave and play the upper note very quietly on the offbeats as a ghost note. You can also break the chord between your thumbs to get a triplet or semiquaver feel.
What is the tresillo and how do I play it on piano?
The tresillo is a dance rhythm in which one of the hits falls on an offbeat, which makes it exciting to dance to. You can split it between bass and chord, or keep a steady pulse in the left hand and play the whole pattern with the right-hand chord.
How do I follow a drummer on the piano?
Play the kick on the low root and the snare on the upper octave in the left hand. Let the right hand imitate the hi-hat with block or arpeggiated chords, focusing on the hits that matter most.
Practise it
- Rhythm TeacherBuild accent patterns, divide beats and explore odd metres and polyrhythms.
- Swing GardenWork with straight and swung rhythm in an interactive teaching workspace.
- Piano classes at Nathaniel School of MusicLive online or in Bangalore, with a teacher.
- All free music apps40 practice tools for harmony, rhythm, ear training and more.
Related lessons
- 5 Piano Accompaniment Techniques for Beginners (Singers and Producers)Five easy ways to accompany a voice on the piano are fifth chords over a moving bass, simple broken-chord arpeggios, ballad ratios between the hands, syncopated left-right patterns that copy the drums, and harmonising the melody's landing notes with chords that contain them.
- 3 Beautiful Piano Arpeggio Patterns (for Any Genre)Three go-to piano arpeggio patterns are low-middle-high-middle (LMHM), high-middle-low-middle (HMLM) and high-low-middle-low (HLML), played as eighth notes in the right hand over close chord inversions while the left hand plays the root of each chord.
- 3 Go-To Left-Hand Piano Patterns Every Player NeedsThree dependable left-hand piano patterns cover most genres: the umpah (root-fifth bass with a staccato chord), the four-note arpeggio (low, high, middle, high), and the power chord (root, fifth and octave) played in different rock rhythms.
- 4 Left-Hand Piano Chord Patterns for Beginners (Accompany Any Melody)To accompany a melody on piano, learn the tonic, subdominant and dominant chords of a major scale (in G major: G B D, G C E and F# C D) and play them in the left hand using four patterns: arpeggio, oompa, waltz and salsa.