Lesson video

Hi, I am Dr.

Southall and I'm gonna be teaching you this music unit about harmonic progressions and bass lines.

So, let's begin.

In this lesson, we're going to be using a triadic harmony to add arpeggios and an Alberti bass to a ground bass pattern.

There are three key terms for this lesson.

The first is arpeggio, which means "a group of notes "from a chord played one after the other, "either ascending or descending." The second is Alberti bass.

"A group of notes from a chord played in a specific pattern "of lowest note, highest note, middle note," followed by highest note again.

And finally, we have octave, "an interval of eight notes," for example, "a C, and the next C, "higher or lower, are an octave apart." This lesson is in three parts, and we're gonna start with part one, which is Understanding arpeggios.

"An arpeggio is similar to a broken chord, "where the notes of the chord are played "one after the other rather than at the same time.

"One pattern we can use is lowest note, middle note, "highest note, middle note." Let's have a listen to an example.

(gentle keyboard music) So, if you listen to that carefully, it follows the notation that's on the slide, and we're going from C to E to G, and then back to E.

Let's listen one more time.

(gentle keyboard music) And this is an example of an arpeggio.

"We can apply arpeggios to every chord in the scale.

"This example turns these triad chords into arpeggios." So, that first triad chord starting from the lowest note goes C, E, G, but they're played all together as a chord.

But in the picture underneath, the representation shows you the arpeggio, the corresponding arpeggio, and that goes C, E, G, E.

If we go to the second triad chord, you've got D, F, A, and the corresponding arpeggio is D, F, A, F, played as individual notes.

Here's a check for understanding.

"What is the pattern used for an arpeggio?" Is it a: the highest note, the lowest note, the middle note, and then the middle note again? Is it b: the lowest note, highest note, middle note, and then highest note again? Or is it c: the lowest note, middle note, highest note, middle note? Brilliant.

The answer is C.

An arpeggio pattern that we have used is lowest note, middle note, highest note, middle note.

"True or false? This is the correct arpeggio pattern." Let's listen.

(metronome pinging) (gentle keyboard music) Well, the answer is True, because it starts on the lowest note, then you hear the middle note, then the highest note, and then back to the middle note.

And it's a repeating pattern, so the whole way through, there were four bars of it, it goes lowest, then middle, then highest, then middle, and then back to lowest, then middle, then highest, then middle, and so on.

Let's do some practice.

I want you to practice the arpeggio patterns for the seven chords that are in C major, and your success criteria are to play the chords as a block chord first, so all the notes together, then as an arpeggio.

So, remember those are gonna be individual notes.

I want you to use your right hand with your thumb resting on the lowest note of the chord, and remember that our arpeggio pattern is low note, middle note, high note, middle note.

Play each arpeggio at a consistent tempo.

In other words, the speed feels the same and the note lengths feel the same as well.

To help you, here are the seven chords in C major.

So, we're now going to look at someone else playing these arpeggios, and I want you to see if they are being played correctly.

Try and use that key vocabulary to really focus your response and make your feedback accurate.

Let's watch the video.

(gentle keyboard music) Okay, hopefully you've had a bit of time to watch that, and you can repeat it of course if you just rewind the video.

But let's look at some model feedback.

"The arpeggios are played correctly in the right hand.

"The pitches are played accurately "and at a consistent tempo "with the thumb on the lowest note of each chord." In other words, it's a really good example of the task that we were asked to do.

Part two: Understanding Alberti bass.

"An Alberti bass is similar to an arpeggio, "where the notes of the chord "are played one after the other, "rather than at the same time.

"It developed as an accompaniment pattern "and became very prominent in the Classical period" between 1750 and 1820.

Let's watch a short video of a famous Mozart sonata that starts within accompanying Alberti bass.

(lively keyboard music) Did you spot the features? "As it's a bass pattern, it is often played in the bass, "but we are going to use it here "as a right hand accompaniment to our ground bass.

"The pattern is lowest note, highest note, "middle note, highest note." (lively keyboard music) So, let's listen one more time, and this time have a look at the notation that's written at the bottom of the slide, and see if you can follow along to get a real feel for the features of this particular pattern.

(lively keyboard music) "This example turns the ground bass into an Alberti bass." Here we have a number of chords, and underneath you can see them transposed into Alberti bass patterns.

So the first chord is C, E, G, and transposed to an Alberti bass, this is played with each note individually as C, G, E, G, lowest note, highest note, middle note, highest note.

The pattern again repeats with the next chord.

So, the next chord is D, F, A, but transposed to the Alberta bass pattern, we have D, A, F, A, lowest note, highest note, middle note, highest note.

"We can apply our Alberti bass to every chord in the scale.

"As we move up the scale, "our thumb moves to play the lowest note of the chord.

"The most comfortable finger technique is 1, 5, 3, 5." Let's look at that pattern in a video.

(gentle keyboard music) Let's do a check for understanding.

"Which is the correct pattern for an Alberta bass?" Is it a: lowest note, highest note, middle note, highest note? b: highest note, lowest note, middle note, lowest note? Or c: lowest note, middle note, highest note, middle note, The answer is a, lowest note, highest note, middle note, highest note.

That is the feature of the Alberti bass pattern we've been looking at.

"True or false? "An Alberti bass pattern is a melodic pattern." And why? It's false.

"It's primarily a bass or accompaniment pattern.

"Although it's musically interesting and can sound melodic." Time for an independent practice.

"Practice the Alberta bass pattern "for the seven chords in C major." Your success criteria is to play the chords as a block chord first, altogether, and then follow it with an Alberta bass pattern.

Use your right hand with your thumb on the lowest note of the chord, and fingers three and five for the middle and high notes.

Remember the pattern, it's the low note, then high, then middle, then high.

And play it to a consistent tempo.

Good luck.

For reference, here is the C chord and the C Alberti bass pattern.

I'll sing it to you.

It goes: ♪ La, la, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la, la ♪ Good luck.

Okay, let's have a look at someone else having an attempt at this, and I want you to watch the video and think about what feedback you could provide about the the quality of what they do.

So, is it played correctly? If so, how do you know? And if not, what's your feedback? And as always, focus on using really clear specific technical vocabulary that we've been using throughout this lesson.

Let's watch.

(gentle keyboard music) Here's a model answer.

"The pitches used are accurate "but the order of the notes is incorrect.

"The 1st and 4th chords are played as an arpeggio.

"They are all played with the correct "right hand finger pattern." So, it's not all Alberti bass in this example.

Final part of today's lesson: Adapting a ground bass.

"We can add arpeggios or an Alberti bass "to our existing ground bass "to create variation and interest.

"The constant quaver pattern also gives the music "rhythmic drive.

"Can you think of any other instruments in pop music "that commonly use a constant quaver pattern "for the same purpose?" The high-hat in a typical drum kick groove will follow this sort of pattern.

"We can still make the ground bass notes clear "by choosing chords which include the bass note." For example, if the bass note was C, then the chords we should be choosing are C, which is the three notes, C, E, and G, or the chord F, which is the notes, F, A, and C, or the chord, A minor, which contains the notes, A, C, and E.

And all three of those example chords contain the note C, which is our bass note.

Here we have arpeggio chords over the ground bass.

Remember, the chord that we pick can be different as long as it includes the bass note.

Let's watch a video so you can hear these being played.

(gentle keyboard music) "The ground bass notes are also in the arpeggio chords." And, "The C bass note is played an octave lower "so the chord and bass pattern don't overlap.

"Alternatively, we can turn our chords "into an Alberti bass." So, look at those notes before we watch the video, and you'll see that they follow a different pattern.

And that pattern is the Alberti bass pattern.

It goes lowest note, highest note, middle note, highest note for each of the chords being played.

Let's see this in the video.

(gentle keyboard music) Time for a check for understanding.

"Which pattern is shown here?" Have a look at those notes and look at the way in which they follow each other.

Is this an example of a: ground bass? b: arpeggios? Or c: and Alberti bass? The answer is C, an Alberti bass.

What about this one? What pattern is being shown here? Again, look at the notes and look at the pattern that they form and decide whether they are a: ground bass, b: arpeggios, or c: Alberti bass.

The answer is arpeggios this time, b.

Well done.

Time for some more practice.

I want you to develop your ground bass by adding one of the following options, arpeggios in the right hand, or an Alberti bass in the right hand.

Your success criteria is as follows.

Play the chords as a block chord first, just like before.

Once you've found those accurate notes, you're gonna create an arpeggio, which is low note, middle note, high note, middle note, or Alberti bass, low note, high note, middle note, high note.

When adding the ground bass, play the C down the octave.

And finally, play this at a consistent tempo, just like before.

Good luck.

Let's do a little reflection upon your performance.

"Did you use arpeggios or an Alberti bass?" The answer is, hopefully, yes.

"Were the notes of the chord and the pattern accurate?" I hope so.

"Did you have to move any bass notes down the octave?" And, "Did you play it a suitable and consistent tempo?" Alright, that's it for this lesson.

Let's do a quick summary of the main points that we've covered.

The first one is that "Arpeggios and Alberti bass patterns "are a variation on the triad chord "and add interest to an existing chord sequence "and ground bass.

"The arpeggio pattern is this:" You can see it from those notes.

We're going lowest, middle, highest, middle.

Look at those quavers at the end in the final bar.

An Alberti pattern is different, and it goes from the bottom note, the lowest note, to the highest note, to the middle note, to the highest note, which you can see clearly in those quavers again, at the end of the pattern.

"We've learnt to play arpeggios and an Alberta bass "and added one or both to a ground bass pattern.

"When playing both hands together, "we sometimes have to move notes down the octave "so the parts don't overlap on the keyboard." I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Goodbye.