Step by step

15. Left hand accompaniment

1 Now you can really ramp things up by getting the left hand involved in your improvisation. Start by simply playing the root note of each chord an octave below your right hand. You can either use just your thumb for this, or alternatively use finger 5 on C, 2 on G, thumb on A and 3 on F. Change to the relevant notes as you change chords in the right hand.

2 For a stronger, more confident sound, switch to playing the root notes using octaves in the left hand. In other words, if your left thumb is playing a C root note under a C major chord, stretch finger 5 of your left hand down to play the C an octave below at the same time. Keep the octave interval the same as you switch to the other root notes.

3 As an alternative, you could use power chords in the left hand. As shown previously, this involves playing the root note and a fifth above it simultaneously. For C major, this would be C-G, with thumb on G and finger 5 on C. Similarly, the G power chord would be thumb on D, 5 on G, A would be thumb on E, 5 on A and F would be thumb on C, 5 on F.