B Section Stride Voicings
In this lesson, we introduce a stride left hand style for the bridge of the tune. If you listen to various recordings of this song, you will hear that the bridge of “In A Sentimental Mood” is usually interpreted with a stride left hand.
In the previous lesson on the bridge, we voiced the chords using three note spread voicings. This is a useful voicing technique to clearly visualise the harmony and voice leading. The stride left hand then gives us different voicing possibilities.
Bass Notes & Rootless Voicings
When playing in a stride style, the left hand takes complete control of the harmony by playing both the bass notes and rootless left hand voicings. This technique frees up the right hand to add melodic decoration and embellishment and also allows us to command a bigger range on the piano.
Stride Drills & Exercises
In the lesson we introduce a number of step-by-step drills for learning stride piano. We start by playing a stride left hand style over a single chord type, we then create a stride cycle around the 1625 progression, and finally we introduce the melody in our right hand.
Related Lessons
The stride left hand style drives forward the pulse of the tune and frees up our right hand for melodic embellishment and decoration.
We create a stride left hand style for “Georgia” and we explore some useful beginner stride piano drills using the harmony of the tune.
We will work on our recognition of major 9th, minor 9th, & dominant 13th rootless voicings using a left hand stride drill.
Practice Tips
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A stride left hand creates more melodic freedom in the right hand and it also allows us to command a bigger range of the piano.
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Start by playing a single chord type in stride style with a low bass note and a rootless left hand voicing.
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Next cycle around the 1625 progression focusing on accuracy and fluidity.
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Once you are comfortable with the left hand stride movement we can introduce the melody in single notes or octaves.
The step-by-step instruction in this course is very effective. Great also to have the rootless voicings drills done in the context of an actual song (and one with such a beautiful melody to boot). I also have become quite a fan of the idea of being able to play something at least four times in a row both smoothly and without mistakes. At first it seemed a bit daunting but It really works! Hayden, thanks for this course
Really enjoyed this lesson – but would like the left hand notation stride patterns as a download here (to practice against), but the download provided was just the lead sheet.
Thank you! 🙂