Piano L.H. composition

I have composed piano songs for several years, but my left hand(normally accompaniment) parts tend to all sound the same. Does anyone have any suggestions for left hand variety?

Try taking a piece you've already written and writing a totally new left hand part. I'd have to hear a piece of yours to give more specific advice, but try varying the rhythm, the register, change the harmonies... just try to go wild. I like writing parts for left hand, it's so interesting. Since the melody's usually not in the left hand, I can go wild and not have to worry about covering things up. Wild doesn't necessarily mean fast, just different and new. Maybe if you try rewriting a left hand part, post the before-and-after files for us to examine!

Umm lets see. Try some unconventional harmonies! Not necessarily very gritty, but try extending into some extended tertian chords, quartals or quintals. Also try tuplets and things in the left hand to spice up a melody. The sky is as they say the limit, but other things to try are parallel octaves in a harmonic pattern, to build intensity. Or you can take a page out of Jazz and throw in some tritone substitution.

But on the whole, you are your worst critic. Your style is your style, so don't hate it if those parts are "you" so to speak. Greatest of luck

You say the left hand is normally accompaniment? Well first off, try spicing it up a bit. Give the left hand a solo, whether it stays in the bass or shifts over the right hand to the treble. As the principal pianist at my High School, I can tell you that I see a lot of solo and cadenza/codetta work for the left hand with right hand playing relatively simple accompaniment.

Next, ask yourself this: are you giving the left hand a bunch of blocked chords, or structured arpeggios? Often, simply breaking up the chord and undulating between its definitive pitches can change the chalkiest of tunes to a flowing melody. Look, if you will, to Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata, third movement. Master Beethoven starts out by simply outlining the LH chords in progressive climbs, shifting between chords with scales packed with passing tones. Later in the piece, he whirls out rather overpowing glissandi in the LH that don't just prodive the harmony, but also, a countermelody. Even later, he shifts to a near-ostinato by having the left hand jump between a melodic yet harmonic note and a pedal tone. All these little things trasform what would be a simple piece into a quite dazzling finale.

Finally, ask yourself one more question: are you wanting the LH to sound more obligatory, or more melodramatic? This is where the skills of true composer really shine through--knowing when to have a quote "boring" accompaniment , and when to explode from the confines of THE BOX and dominate the lower end of the keyboard. Again, turning towards the Waldstein III. In the somewhat tumultuous coda, Beethoven has both hands playing straight-up blocked chords at I think triple-forte (must consult my score) for an effect that looks plain on paper but sounds dazzling when executed cleanly.

I hope that I have been somewhat of a help... if there was anything you did not understand, please tell me and I'll try to be a bit clearer.

extended tertian chords, quartals or quintals.

(Not sure of the US and UK equivalents) What are these, please?

- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -

What about writing the accompaniment for both left & right hands with melody suspended in the middle, Lisztian fashion?

M

Tertian harmony = based on the third, Quartal harmony = based on the fourth, Quintal harmony = based on the fifth.

I assume anyways.

Please correct my if I am wrong.

Thank you for that. Not sure I still understand though -probably me being thick. Are they individual chords (parts sounding together), progressions, or how to arpeggiate chords (say) for an accompaniment.

Asking because I composed something depending on chords of bare fifths (with corresponding fourths here and there to complete the octave. Example:

G---G

C---D

G---G

-----D

C(down to) G

Sometimes with a minor second separating the 5ths, like:

Eflat

Aflat

G

C