Nocturne, stride and ostinato – free course

Three more ambitious textures, three worlds. The Romantic nocturne, with its left hand in wide arpeggios bathed in pedal. 1920s jazz stride, where the left hand leaps between bass and chord. And the ostinato, a stubbornly repeated figure that serves baroque music, film scores and minimalism alike. Each demands a freer left hand — and each turns a simple melody into a real piano piece.

1. The nocturne: wide arpeggios

In Field and Chopin, the left hand spreads the chord over more than an octave: bass, then fifth, then tenth (a third an octave up), and back down. With the pedal these notes merge into a halo, over which the right-hand melody sings like a voice. The secret: the interval of a tenth (e.g. C3–E4), richer and more open than a close third.

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=60
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] "C"g6 fe | "Am"e4 dc A2 | "F"c6 A2 | "G7"B2 d2 "C"c4 |]
[V:LH] C,G,CE GECG, | A,,E,A,C ECA,E, | F,,C,F,A, CA,F,C, | G,,D,F,B, C,G,EG, |]

Each left-hand bar rises and falls on a single chord: the pedal can be changed every bar (and in the middle of bar 4, where the chord changes). The melody is slow and decorated with small passing notes (F–E, D–C): it's bel canto transplanted to the piano.

Tip: for a nocturne to sound, the melody must sit above the arpeggio, at least a third clear of it. If the left hand climbs to G4, place the melody around C5–G5.

2. Stride: the acrobatic left hand

Stride (James P. Johnson, Fats Waller) alternates a low bass on beats 1 and 3 with a mid-range chord on beats 2 and 4. It's a four-beat waltz with more punch: the left hand's leap makes the music swing.

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=132
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] "C"z2 eg a2 g2 | "F"a2 f2 c2 f2 | "G7"g2 f2 d2 B2 | "C"c4 z4 |]
[V:LH] C,,2 [E,G,C]2 G,,2 [E,G,C]2 | F,,2 [F,A,C]2 C,2 [F,A,C]2 | G,,2 [F,B,D]2 D,2 [F,B,D]2 | C,2 [E,G,C]2 C,,4 |]

Notice how the basses alternate: root then fifth (C then G, F then C). It avoids monotony and draws a real bass line. The A over the C chord (bar 1) is an added sixth, a typical colour of early jazz.

3. The ostinato: the power of repetition

An ostinato is a short figure repeated unchanged while everything moves above it. It creates trance, obsession, hypnosis. It's the favourite weapon of film music and minimalism — and a wonderful way to compose: once you've found the ostinato, the right hand is free to invent.

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
K:Am
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] e6 d2 | c4 B4 | c4 d2 e2 | e8 |]
[V:LH] A,,E,A,B, CB,A,E, | A,,E,A,B, CB,A,E, | A,,E,A,B, CB,A,E, | A,,E,A,B, CB,A,E, |]

The ostinato circles around A (A–E–A–B–C–B–A–E) and never changes. Yet the music moves forward: the melody draws the path, and each right-hand note colours the ostinato differently (the B in bar 2 creates tension, the return to E releases it).

Common mistakes: a nocturne arpeggio climbing so high it collides with the melody; stride that's too slow and loses its energy, or too low (avoid close chords below C2); an ostinato that's too long or too busy — a good ostinato fits in one bar and sticks in the memory at once; forgetting to make something evolve above the ostinato (melody, dynamics, register).

Your workshop

In the piano roll, compose 8 bars of nocturne in C major over the chart C | A minor | F | G7 (twice). Left hand in arpeggios spanning a tenth, slow melody above C5.
Write 4 bars of stride over C | F | G7 | C, alternating root and fifth in the bass.
Invent a one-bar ostinato in A minor. Repeat it 8 times and write a melody on top that starts very simply (whole notes) and grows more active (eighth notes) in the last 4 bars.
Try your ostinato by first improvising over a modal backing in A.
Self-check: for each texture, play the left hand alone — can you play it without strain (no stretch wider than an octave to hold)?