How to Play Piano and Sing! 3 Easy Patterns For Piano Accompaniment
After you can get to your chords fairly quickly in both hands, the next step is to add some rhythm and the other hand! These patterns are for accompaniment, meaning they won’t have any melody. It’s perfect for accompanying your self to play and sing at the same time.
How to Play Chords with 2 Hands
Right hand plays the chord, left hand plays the root of the chord down lower on the piano. The root of the chord is going to be the name of the chord. If you used the right fingering, its the note you’re playing with your thumb in the right hand.
Simplify the Coordination Patterns
When trying these for the first time, I like to break these patterns down to simple instructions and even say them outloud: left right left right. Both left left left. You can also practice them on your lap before even trying to worry about what notes to play.
3 Accompaniment Patterns for Singing & Playing Piano
• Left Right Left Right for 4/4 songs or Left Right Right for 3/4 time songs where you count 123 123. This is good when you want the music to be uplifting or create some rhythms to dance to.
• Both Left Left Left good for rock stuff or something with energy. You can add your right hand in as much as you want for more punch.
• HOLD each chord for 4 beats - Good for jazz and ballads. or if you are just learning a song and trying to get the hang of playing and singing it.
WHATS THE NEXT STEP?
If you get these basic patterns down, its really easy to add a little variation in the rhythms to create a lot of new vocabulary for your playing. When you start to try and sing along with these patterns, go slowly at first.
These are perfect for playing and singing at the same time because they are simpler than a piano arrangement. The patterns are repetitive allowing you to focus on hitting the right pitches with your voice and remembering the lyrics. GOSH!!! There is so much multi-tasking going on!
Dude, AWESOME post!
lately I was searching for some patterns to play piano accompany for singing, and you, you scored a direct hit! Thank You very very very much!
P.S. Can you show more patterns? ^_^
Hi Chris,
I think Summer of 69 is sung by Bryam Adams, not Bon Jovi : )
Great lesson by the way.
Hi Chris
I just returned to the piano after about forty years!
This is a great post on what I think is one of the most overlooked topics for beginners & Intermediate.
Emulating simple melody comes easily to most!
Somehow the transition to suitable backing throughs up a mind block for most!
Keep up the great work!
Jimmy
Hey Chris,
Ran across your video on youtube. I love the simplicity. You have any videos that just deal with jazz piano accompaniment in the same way?
I’m pretty boring and usually do root on my left and some version chord on my right, but I seem just to stick to the middle of the keyboard and my rhythms aren’t very interesting.
If you already have something posted, please let me know.
thanks,
J
Thanks Chris! you are excellent teacher man!
Hi Chris!Wonderful lesson, but i got a problem with my ring finger, it always confuses the sound by pushing the key(((For example when i play Cmaj chord, it sometimes pushes on the F key. So wanted to ask you, is there any exersice in order to avoid such situations?Or it’s just a thing that comes in time?
Exactly what I have been looking for — to learn how one plays a piano like a piano player where people can sing and dance. Thank you