Opening out Left-hand Chords

Autumn Leaves Music Lesson

Our next tune, "Autumn Leaves," is a really well-known standard that you should be familiar with. It's another example of a tune based on the diatonic cycle, and this time we're in the key of B flat.

Key Points

• Chords: Learn all these chords up and down.
• Notes: All notes come from the scale of B flat major (two flats: B flat and E flat).

Voicing Techniques

You don't always have to play these chords in root position. A really common style, especially for solo piano, is to open out the voicing. Here's how to do this:

• In the left hand, use a bit of pedal to keep the bass note from disappearing.
• If you keep the bass note with the pedal, you can achieve a nice sound.
• If you have a big hand, you may be able to stretch without using the pedal.

Open Voicing Example

• Notice that I'm alternating an open voicing with the third moved up an octave.
• The D goes up here with a root position:
  • Open root, open root, open.

All those open voicings are created by moving the third of the chord up an octave.

Triad Simplicity

You can simplify things by just playing triads.

• For example, your B flat major triad would be:
  • Root: 5, 3.
• If you want to include the seventh, you could do it like this:
  • Root: 7, 3.
• Alternatively, you could play both, as we did earlier.

Chord Progression in Autumn Leaves

"Autumn Leaves" starts on the II chord, unlike "Fly Me to the Moon," which started on the sixth chord (A minor in the key of C).

Chords to Play

In B flat, the first chord is:

• C minor
• F7
• B flat major
• E flat major
• Half diminished (D7)
• G minor 7
• You could also play G minor 6.

Note that the D7 in bar 6 isn't in the key of B flat because it has an F sharp in it. This is our secondary dominant. Just as in "Fly Me to the Moon," this spice adds to the harmony and takes us to the relative minor.

Summary of Progression

• First four chords: Key of B flat (ii, V, iv)
• Next chord: Half diminished (you could call it seven, but it's also the II chord in the key of G minor).

So we have a II V I at the beginning in B flat, and then another II V I in the second half, which covers the first eight bars in G minor. This follows the same concept as in "Fly Me to the Moon" but is organized a little differently.