5 Left-Hand Techniques for Jazz Piano

When playing solo jazz piano, your left hand does a lot of the work in creating an interesting arrangement.

In this article I’ll show you 5 essential left hand techniques you can use to spice up your jazz piano repertoire.

1. Chord voicings

First and foremost, most of your jazz playing will consist of chords played in your left hand - while your right hand plays the melody or solos above.

It’s common to play ‘closed position’ chord voicings (1 3 5 7 or 5 7 1 3) - like this:

IMAGE: 2-5-1 played with closed voicings. G7 inversion.

You can also play ‘shell voicings’ which look like this (1 3 7 or 1 7 3):

IMAGE: 2-5-1 played with shells. A - B - A and B - A - B.

Or you can play ‘rootless voicings’ - even though you’re not playing the roots of these chords, rootless voicings still sound good for short sections (3 or 4 chords in a row):

IMAGE: 2-5-1 played with rootless voicings in left hand - no bass line. Melody above. A - B - A and B - A - B.

Vary the rhythms to which you play your chords - avoid playing every chord on the down-beat (even though most real books notate the chords on the down-beats). Nudge certain chords forward or backward by an eighth note to keep the rhythms interesting.

2. The 1 - 5 bass line

In your bass line, it’s normal to hold down the chord’s root for the duration of the chord. However, at times this can sound slow paced and you might want to add some energy.

A simple trick is to play the root of the chord for two beats, and then the 5th of the chord for two beats (that is if the chord is held for four beats) - like this:

IMAGE: 2-5-1 with root - 5th in bass. 4 beats for ii chord, 4 beats for V chord.

If a chord is only held for two beats, then you can halve the note lengths and play the root for one beat, and the 5th for one beat:

IMAGE: 2-5-1 with root - 5th in bass. 2 beats for ii chord, 2 beats for V chord.

Or if you have a chord that’s held for a long time - like two measures - then you can play root - 5th - root (above) - 5th:

IMAGE: C min 7 with 1 - 5 - 1 - 5 bass line (2 bars)

Or sometimes I play root - 5th - 9th (above) - 5th, which sounds slightly more colorful:

IMAGE: C minor 7 with 1 - 5 - 9 - 5 bass line (2 bars)

This is a subtle way to add just a bit more energy to your playing when the song needs it.

3. Chord Arpeggiation

Instead of playing every chord in ‘unison’ (all notes played at once), vary your texture by playing some chords as an arpeggio (one note at a time played in an ascending sequence).

Here’s how I could arpeggiate the following chords:

IMAGE: arpeggiation - C maj 7 - D min 7 - E min 7 - D min 7

When using arpeggiation, I recommend sticking to 3-note chord voicings, which you can play to the following rhythm:

Eighth note - eighth note - quarter note.

Voicings I recommend include 1 3 5, 1 5 7, 1 5 3:

IMAGE: arpeggiation voicings for C maj 7. 1 3 5. 1 5 7. 1 5 3.

As with most of these left hand techniques, arpeggiation will add energy and variety to your playing.

4. Stride Textures

Traditionally, playing in a ‘stride’ piano style requires the pianist to jump back and forth between the chord’s root, and the chord, in quick succession. To play in this style takes some skill and practice.

However, you can play a more relaxed variation on stride with minimal practice.

Play the chord’s root in your left hand on beat one (e.g. for C min 7, play C in the bass).

Next, while holding down the pedal, move your left hand up the keyboard to play a chord voicing a beat or two later (rootless chord voicings work great):

IMAGE: stride technique for C minor 7 - C for 2 beats, then rootless voicing above.

You don’t have to come down to play every single bass note - it’s usually enough just to play the first chord’s root note, then the 3rd chord’s root note - and to skip the in-between chords:

IMAGE: 2-5-1 with stride texture rootless voicings

Try to avoid playing every chord on the down-beat - instead, play some chords an eighth note early, like this:

IMAGE: 2-5-1 with stride texture rootless voicings - chord played 8th note early

Here’s another example using this ‘relaxed stride’ texture:

IMAGE: C maj 7 - D min 7 - E min 7 - D min 7

This stride piano texture allows you to play bass line and chords together in your left hand, while your right hand only has to play the melody.

If you’re not familiar with rootless chord voicings yet, I’ve notated my top jazz piano chord voicings in a free guide:

Click here to download my Jazz Piano Chord Voicing ebook.

5. Walking bass lines

Playing a walking bass line in your left hand is a great technique to add energy and variety to your arrangements.

A walking bass line plays quarter notes (beats 1, 2, 3, 4), and the goal is to get to the next chord’s root note as the chord is played.

So for a ii-V-I in C major, your bass notes will be D, G and C - and each root note is played on the first beat that the chord is played.

Next you have to fill in the in-between notes - you can move to the next chord’s root notes by ‘leaps’ (intervals of a 3rd, 4th, 5th or octave). Make your bass line uses the chord tones of the chord - 1 3 5 7:

IMAGE: sheet music. Walking bass line for 2-5-1. leaps.

Or you can move by ‘step’ (walking up or down the scale in steps):

IMAGE: sheet music. Walking bass line for 2-5-1. Step movement

You can also move chromatically (by half-steps, sometimes stepping out of the scale) - it sounds great to approach a chord’s root note from a half-step below:

IMAGE: sheet music. Walking bass line for 2-5-1. Chromatic - half-step below each root.

I’ve notated my top 6 walking bass lines for the ii-V-I, which you can download (free):

Click here to download the Walking Bass Lines sheet music guide.

Vary Texture Constantly

The key is to sounding great is to VARY your left hand’s texture throughout the song:

Switch back and forth between all of the techniques we’ve looked at - chords, arpeggiation, the root + 5th bass line, stride piano texture, and walking bass line.

Practice Tip

Choose 3 songs from your repertoire, then apply one left hand technique at a time:

• Left hand chords texture (simple)

• Root + 5th bass lines (adds subtle energy)

• Arpeggiation (3 note chord voicings)

• Stride textures (root - chord - chord, root - chord - chord)

• Walking bass line (‘walk’ to the next chord’s root in quarter notes)

Recommended Jazz Songs: All The Things You Are, Misty, Autumn Leaves.