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It sounds simple enough but there are more aspects to consider. Below is a short example of one of the many ways that stride piano can be realised by a pianist. This then leaves the right hand of the pianist to play the melody, or other more intricate chords or melodic lines. The bass note normally lands on the first and third beats of a four-four bar with the chord arriving on the second and fourth beats respectively. If the pianist could play the bass line chords and the melody, you do not need additional musicians. This technique was largely born out of pure need and economy. The desired effect is to create a bass line plus an on-going chord pattern with one hand. It involves the left hand of the pianist literally ‘striding’ from the low range to the mid-range of the piano. Stride piano playing is on the face of it, quite a straight forward playing technique. Increasingly, the harmonic and rhythmic complexities of the stride pianist moved the music into a very different world to the age of ragtime. The stride player was not restricted to music only in the ragtime vein but far more orientated towards popular compositions of the day. Perhaps the fundamental difference between ragtime and what became established stride piano playing was the type of music that was played. Take a look at the works of the famous ragtime composer Scott Joplin and you’ll quickly spot the stride style in his music. To some extent, the advent of ragtime music heralded the style of stride piano playing with the characteristic left hand striding from bass to mid-range in the piano keyboard. In some ways, this was the aim of the stride technique and in this article, I will look more closely at the technique and the work of these and other pianists. The thing that strikes you when listening to these performers is often that there seems to be more than one pianist playing such is the complexity of the rendition. Each of these piano players amongst many others has come to be celebrated as being amongst the very best of the stride piano players. And only you can do it.Even if you are not completely familiar with the term ‘stride piano’ you may well have heard the performances of such notable jazz pianists as Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller, Earl Hines, Art Tatum and possibly James P Johnson. If something is worth doing in the first place, it’s worth doing well. Nobody is asking you to cut your own hair or diagnose your own medical conditions, but I would like you to consider something I’ve learned: the rote and tedious challenges of life have meaning for others. When I give up control, the quality of those interactions decline. I have learned that the tedious and seemingly non-essential tasks in my life - like keeping a clean house, answering email, managing my Twitter account - are essential to others. We outsource our “non-essential tasks” to cheap and undocumented workers. We want four-hour work weeks and more time with our loved ones. Many of us are obsessed with becoming more efficient. If you want something done right, you should do it yourself. But it was a good reminder that important tasks in life require ownership. “We mapped out people you follow and proactively followed the people who influence them,” my friend told me. Instead of spending my newly-minted free time at the spa, I had to do some research and find out why I looked like an online predator. I looked at my Twitter account and realized that I had begun to follow spouses, boyfriends, children, colleagues, and service providers who are connected to colleagues in the HR blogging community. I first noticed something was wrong when I started seeing tweets from elementary school teachers and dentists in my feed. If I liked her services, I only needed to recommend her company to other busy professionals who use social media platforms. She volunteered to help me follow amazing people on Twitter, clean up my Facebook profiles, and manage my LinkedIn account. Last year, a friend offered her company’s social media services.
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