Pianists: can you help with simple question?

[martian]

i have a basic question about which hands to use when performing a high octave solo middway through a song.

for most the song its usual stuff, right hand is playing chords whilst the left takes care of the bass.

then half way through, for a min or so there is a solo played over the current rotating chords, but about 1.5 octaves higher than the current right hand chords.

so my question is, should i play that solo with my left hand crossed over the right (whilst the right remains playing the same chords)? or should the left hand take over the chord progression and play the solo with my right?

thanks,

[Amberience]

I'd cross hands, but that's mainly just so I could look cool.

[Stupid American Pig]

I would just do it however you could play it best.

[martian]

cross hands is how ive been playing it. but im self-taught and still very much learning so was curious as to how it would be done by others.

thanks,

[Stupid American Pig]

Im self taught here as well, so I dunno. Plus I never play anything all that challenging

[SaviorNeeded]

Once in awhile I use my nose.

Tom

[sonarman]

I take it this is just piano and vocal? Obviously, if you had a bass player then you could play the chords with the right and solo with the left. Generally speaking, crossing over is not a good idea. It all depends on the kind of song it is and what kind of chords you're using. One suggestion is to keep the Left hand playing bass and get the Right hand to play a mixture of chords and solo. Or (like Stride piano) the Left plays a mixture of bass and chord. Or you could keep both hands as they are and play a kazoo solo?

[martian]

when the solo is played there are no bass notes to play through that whole section, its just treble and chords. straight after the treble solo ends though the bass notes come back in whilst the chord hand continues.

the chords are all 4 fingers, the solo requires at least an almost full hand, and is played over an octave higher, so they defintely need to be played with separate hands.

[sonarman]

In which case, play the chords with the left and the solo with the right.
As I said before, it depends on the chords - if they have the bass note as their root then it should sound okay.
Are you reading this from score? You may find that the chords are a little too heavy for the solo. For example, if the chord says Dm7, don't feel that you have to play D,F,A,C in that order. You could get away with playing just D and C in the Left and let the Right worry about the minor 3rd. A lot of piano arrangements are pretty terrible so its up to the pianist to make them sound good.
One bit of advice a jazz piano teacher gave me, 'If you hit a duff note,
hit it with conviction then everbody will think it was deliberate'.

[bluedad]

One bit of advice a jazz piano teacher gave me, 'If you hit a duff note,
hit it with conviction then everbody will think it was deliberate'.

works for me!