Simple Ballad Accompaniment

In this video, I am demonstrating how to accompany either yourself or someone else on the piano by a simple rhythm pattern.  This is a very popular but simple pattern, and can be used for many ballads.

When accompanying, you play a bit differently, because you are not playing the song with the melody line.  Instead of using chords in your left hand, you will use the chords in your right hand and your left hand will be playing a bass note. The melody of the song is being covered by the singer.

In this video, I am playing the chord that is noted on the chord chart with my right hand with a simple quarter note pattern.  The left hand is playing the ROOT note of the chord being played in the right, and it is held until it is time to change to the next chord.

The chords I am using in this song are the I (1), IV (4), V (5), and vi (6) chords, which are very popular in popular music, and also praise and worship music.

Please watch this video demonstration to explain more in detail:

This style can be used for such songs as:

Hey Jude (Beatles)
Hallelujah (Rufus Wainwright)
Let It Be (Beatles)
I Can Only Imagine (Mercy Me)
And many others…

Try it for your favorite ballads. I always recommend doing google search online for the song you want and then put “chords”. Typically you come up with guitar chords, but you can use these chords for the piano as well.

Have fun! And, please sign up to receive my a newsletter for new postings regarding tutorials for accompaniment styles!

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