Alberti Bass Second Year Piano Students

In the first year students have learned some block and broken chords.  In the second year, the Alberti bass pattern should be studied in preparation for sonatinas and teaching pieces that use this accompaniment style.  The coordination involved in playing the pattern can be developed more easily if the student has a mental picture of the figure.  Play the figure for the student and talk about the pattern; for example, "bottom, top, middle, top," etc.  Assign exercises using this pattern to be practiced in all keys.  Divide the presentation by groups of keys used for learning triads and inversions.

Teach the Alberti bass in all keys.  For instance, C major might be the tonic chord rotating back and forth C-G-E-G-C-G-E-G, saying 5-1-3-1-5-1-3-1.  The first inversion will be E-G-C rotating back and forth E-C-G-C and second inversion will be G-C-E rotating within G-E-C-E reciting the fingering out loud.

Simplified Hanon or Czerny finger exercises can be helpful at this stage.  Work on increasing tempo over time to instill muscle memory.

Chopin and the Keyboard

Chopin advocated the unrestricted use of the thumb on the black keys, and often used it to strike two adjacent keys simultaneously, much to the dismay of the conservative pedagogues of the day; he would sometimes pass the longest fingers over the shorter ones without the intervention of the thumb if that would secure a better legato; he recommended a flat finger for a singing touch; he employed the organist's favorite device of finger substitution to sustain melodies; he favored a low piano stool, finding it more comfortable than the high one adopted by the hard-hitting virtuosos who liked to descend on everything from a great height. Above all, there was his "flutter pedalling," that continuous vibrating of the sustaining pedal, which cast a warm glow over everything he played, yet gave it at the same time its unusual clarity. He reacted strongly against the so-called "finger-equalization" schools of Czerny, Kalkbrenner and others, maintaining that each finger has individual characteristics, which are there to be enhanced, not equalized away. "The third finger," he would tell his pupils, "is a great singer," and he would then go on to unfold entire phrases with this finger taking the major share of the work.

From the Music Teacher by Alan Walker.

For more information about piano instruction NJ, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.