The Shadow Rhythm Technique - Simple But Pro Sounding Piano Chord Pattern
This is a quick and easy technique to make basic rhythm sound great, called The Shadow Technique.
You can apply it to most chord progressions, and it's ideal for beginners on the piano wanting a simple way to improve their playing.
Let’s take a basic chord progression with 4 beats per bar.
C – Gsus4 – Fsus2 – F
A basic rhythmic pattern would be to play 4 beats per bar with the chords in your right, with your left held underneath:
Right Hand: X X X X
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Left Hand: X
If we apply the shadow technique in the left:
Right Hand: X X X X
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Left Hand: X x x x
The left hand plays an octave of the root of the chord in the left, and softly plays the higher octave with the thumb in between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th beats.
The most important part here is to play those left hand off-beats nice and delicately, which is why I’ve called it the Shadow Technique, because they’re just like a shadow, or echo, of the right hand rhythm.
And you can apply this to any chord progression!
Teaching piano techniques like this is always easier via a video format, so you'd like to watch the video lesson on this, follow the Youtube link below.
It's only 3 minutes!