Advanced Left-Hand Piano Workout for Melodic Independence

To build left-hand independence under a right-hand melody, practise rhythm patterns such as choppy stabs, filling the melody's missing beats, the 3:2 son clave, following a drummer's kick and snare, and a dotted eighth-note pulse, then add finger independence by holding the root with the pinky while the thumb plays the rhythm.

Video lesson by Jason Zac · Advanced · 16 min

Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.

This is Part 2 of Jason Zac's left-hand rhythm series at Nathaniel School of Music. It is for pianists who can already play a simple melody in the right hand and want the left hand to carry harmony and groove on its own. Part 1 covered the steady pulse, toggling pulse, disco pulse, the We Will Rock You feel and the tresillo. This lesson keeps the same right-hand melody and adds five more left-hand patterns, plus a finger-independence idea. Count everything in sixteenth notes: 1 e and a, 2 e and a, and so on.

1. Choppy stabs

Instead of playing many notes, pick just one or two beats in the bar and hit them with real power and energy. Try a stab only on beat 2, or on beats 2 and 4. This feels unusual because the left hand normally starts on beat 1, but leaving the downbeat empty adds a lot of impact.

You can also place a stab just before beat 2 and beat 4 (on the "a" or "and" leading into them). Targeting a few specific points like this enhances the melody and trains independence.

2. Melodic missing beats

A good melody never fills every sixteenth note. It needs breathing space, otherwise it sounds like a machine gun. Find the gaps in your right-hand melody and fill them with the left hand. The result sounds percussive, a bit like a tabla, djembe or darbuka player.

• Start by tapping the left-hand part on your body or lap, not the piano.
• You do not have to fill every gap; a few is enough.
• The left hand should never collide with the right hand.

This pattern is easy to build because it is already built into the melody, and since every melody is unique, the groove will always be unique too.

3. The 3:2 son clave

Moving on from the tresillo, the son clave is a two-bar Latin pattern. It is called 3:2 because the first bar has a group of three hits and the second bar has two. In the first bar the hits fall on beat 1, the "and" of 2 and beat 4; in the second bar they fall on beats 2 and 3. The first bar feels like tension and the second like relaxation.

Get the left hand secure on its own first, then add the melody. For an extra challenge, begin with root and octave together, then split them so the root and octave alternate.

4. Follow the drummer

Copy the kick drum and snare drum of a drummer. Vocalise it crudely, for example "dup" for kick and "tha" for snare, so your voice triggers your left hand. The groove in the video is an eighth-note pattern.

1. Say the groove along with the pulse.
2. Play it with the left hand on the piano.
3. Add the right-hand melody on top.
4. Try singing the melody over it as well.

Find grooves online or jam with a drummer friend and transfer them to your left hand.

5. Dotted eighth-note pulse

Keep the beat divided into four sixteenths, but play a steady stream of notes every three sixteenths. Counting 1-2-3, 1-2-3 across the bar shifts the accents to very different points, and the pattern takes a while to come back round to beat 1. The left hand of Summer of '69 is mentioned as an example of this feel. Slow it down, write it out, feel the pulse, and then play.

Bonus: finger independence within the left hand

Hold the root down with the pinky and play a rhythm with the thumb, or with the index finger if you are playing the fifth. The thumb can play off-beats, the clave, the tresillo, the dotted pattern, missing beats, or a soft ghost note like a drummer's snare ghost. Now there is independence inside the left hand itself.

How to practise

Treat independence as independence of tasks: melody in one place, groove or bass in another. Use any song, popular or your own, as a template. Go slowly, move your body, sing, and don't worry about mistakes; once a rhythm is learnt, it stays with you for life.

Questions about this lesson

What is the easiest left-hand pattern in this workout?

Melodic missing beats is the most natural, because the left-hand rhythm is simply whatever the right-hand melody is not playing. Start by tapping those gaps on your body before playing them on the piano.

Why play a left-hand stab on beat 2 instead of beat 1?

Leaving beat 1 empty and stabbing on beat 2, or just before beats 2 and 4, feels unusual but adds a lot of impact to a song. Using only a few strong hits also trains hand independence.

How do I count a dotted eighth-note pulse on piano?

Keep counting sixteenths (1 e and a), but play every third sixteenth, grouping them 1-2-3, 1-2-3. The accents shift across the beat and take a while to land back on beat 1, so practise slowly and write it out first.

How do I get finger independence in the left hand?

Hold the root with your pinky and play a rhythm with the thumb, or the index finger if you are on the fifth. Use any pattern you know, such as the clave or off-beats, or play light ghost notes like a drummer.

Practise it

• Rhythm TeacherBuild accent patterns, divide beats and explore odd metres and polyrhythms.
• Groove MetronomeWork with tempo, accents and polyrhythms instead of a single unchanging click.
• 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

• Beginner Left-Hand Piano Workout for Melodic Independence (Part 1)To build hand independence on the piano, keep a melody in your right hand while your left hand plays steady root-and-octave rhythm patterns: a simple pulse, a toggling pulse, a disco pulse, the We Will Rock You rhythm and the Afro-Cuban tresillo.
• Piano Hand Independence: Melody in the Right, Chord Patterns in the LeftTo build piano hand independence, keep one simple right-hand melody fixed and practise the left hand through more and more demanding patterns: quarter-note pulses, eighth-note toggles, half notes, spread chords, syncopated rhythms and finally a sixteenth-note tresillo.
• The Advanced Tresillo Piano Challenge (Hand Independence and Inversions)The Tresillo Piano Challenge is an advanced exercise in which you play D minor, G minor (or Gm6), D minor and A7b9 over four cycles: the left hand keeps an oompa pattern, the right hand plays the tresillo rhythm through each D minor inversion, and every A7b9 bar adds a new kind of triplet or three-note grouping.
• Easy Piano Improvisation Anyone Can Do: Start With One Left-Hand PatternTo start improvising on piano, keep your left hand on a steady D minor arpeggio (D A F A in eighth notes) and let your right hand explore short melodies from the D Dorian scale, adding new rhythms and question-and-answer phrases one layer at a time.