[orange22]

Hi, long time listener first time caller here.

 

My question is regarding tracking the left hand on a keyboard part. I know that this is typically not done. I’m not hugely familiar with keyboard in the game, but I know that the left hand has occasionally been tracked, specifically in cases where the right hand doesn’t play at all (i.e. some of the Billy Joel songs).

 

My conundrum is that the left hand part is particularly crucial to a song I want to do. The left hand plays different rhythms than the right hand for the most part, and without the left hand you’d be playing about 1/3 – 1/2 of the rhythms you hear. The part has the left hand playing a single 16th note pickup to the next measure, then an octave on the downbeat which sustains through the measure. The right hand then plays a 3 or 4 note chord on the 16th after the downbeat. This is what it looks like:

 

 

I should also note that the tempo is fairly slow, so it’s not as difficult as it might seem at first sight.

 

What I’ve sketched out for the notetrack is playing the 2 left hand notes as single notes, followed by a 3 note chord on the 16th, as below:

 

 

Now in addition to the fact that I’m breaking a rule by tracking the left hand, there’s also the issue that the playable keyboard range of a 10th means that I would have to move some of the left hand notes up an octave so that they’re above the lowest note of the following chord, AND change the inversion of the chord in some cases (though this is not shown in these examples):

 

 

With all of that said, my question is basically “what do you think?” Is this ok? Is it breaking too many rules? Would you do something else instead?

[Farottone]

Left hand is acceptable when, as you said, there’s not a lot on the right hand and it’s all still playable with one hand. And shifting notes up or down an octave is acceptable. Too many rules broken? If the song is fun and realistic, I’d say no.

[Nightmare Lyra]

Mixing left and right hand is okay as long as you don’t chart them at the same time during parts where it’s obviously 2 different hands. You can see my Chocolate Rain chart for a good way (or at least good way IMO) to jump between hand parts if you want some inspiration.

[orange22]

Thanks for the input guys. My instinct was that it would be ok, but I wanted to get some feedback. Hopefully I’ll be able to share the track at some point.

[sageamagoo]

If you think the left hand is important enough to chart, then it probably is. You don’t have to break any rules.

 

The rbn docs specifically state that charting important LH parts are allowed:

 

If there are sections in which the Left Hand (LH) part can be added, then that is allowed, but the part must be playable with only one hand.

[Author]

Posts