Broken chords
With
Tim RichardsTim Richards explains broken chords - playing a triad one note at a time - and shares a practice routine for working them through different keys.
What's in the course
16 lessons (0h 31m) · 1 free
Lesson transcript
Improvisation and Chord Practice Routine
When you've played one chord, jam a few times with the backing track.
Key Exploration
- Try it away from the recording in different keys.
- For instance, if you started in F, you could go around the key clock and try it in:
- C
- G
- Consider doing this in a different key every day.
Chord Playing and Improvisation
So you're playing:
- Chords in the left hand on the beat
- Improvise with:
- The major scale
- The major triad
- Arpeggios or broken chords
Understanding Broken Chords
Talking about broken chords, that's the figure you heard.
It's like an arpeggio, but we're just going up one note at a time. It's really important to practice those.
Practice Routine
Here's a practice routine for triads, which are the basis of the broken chord patterns:
- F Major:
- Practice with a metronome.
- It's important to be able to play it in time.
Starting at 80 beats per minute:
- 2 clicks per chord
Once you've got the notes sorted, you can obviously play faster.
Fingering
The fingering is important:
- 1, 3, 5 on the first inversion
- Then practice: 1, 3, 5, 1, 2, 5, and back to 1, 3, 5
That fingering is going to remain the same when you play broken chords.
Typical Patterns
A typical pattern might be:
- Or you could play it in triplets.
(The fingerings are given on the PDF.)
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Meet your guru
Meet your guru
Critically acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Tim Richards is one of Britain’s most experienced jazz educators, teaching piano privately for over 30 years, as well as at Morley College, Goldsmiths College, the University of Surrey, Premises Studios and other venues in the UK and abroad. He has produced numerous titles for Schott Music, including the best-selling two-volume Exploring Jazz Piano, Blues, Boogie & Gospel Collection and the acclaimed Improvising Blues Piano. He is also co-author, with John Crawford, of Exploring Latin Piano and Brazilian Piano Collection.
More recently Schott have published Jazz, Latin & Modern Collection (15 pieces for solo piano), comprising Tim Richards originals alongside pieces by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, and the two volume set Beginning Jazz Piano (now a two-part MusicGurus course).
“The real joy of Tim’s music… is that it is both hugely educational but also such great fun to play. Anyone with the slightest interest in learning to play or teach jazz piano should really acquire a set of Tim’s books.” PianoDao
As a performer Tim has been a presence on the UK jazz scene since the 1980s, also playing the blues with UK and US legends such as Otis Grand, Earl Green, Dana Gillespie, Larry Garner, Joe Louis Walker and Mojo Buford. He has released over a dozen albums as a leader (featuring many of London’s best jazz musicians including Pete King, Gilad Atzmon, Tony Kofi, Jason Yarde, Seb Rochford, Ed Jones, Dick Pearce and many others), and toured all over Europe with line-ups ranging from duo to nine-piece. His latest recording, the album ‘Telegraph Hill’ by the six-piece Hextet, was described in The Observer as "A true joy from beginning to end".
More info can be found on his website www.timrichards.ndo.co.uk
