Basics of piano arranging:
How to Layer Melody, Harmony and Bass Line

This video is part of a larger series on how to improvise at the piano. In this video we discuss the basics for piano improvisation, which are the foundation to playing anything by ear – melody, harmony and bass line. In terms of the practical application, we will create a basic piano arrangement of the church hymn "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Once the student is comfortable with the process, they may not even have to write it out by hand, but transition straight to playing their piano versions entirely by ear.

First, we extract these components from the SATB hymn: melody, harmony (chords) and bass line (where applicable). When creating a piano version, it is entirely ok to adapt the harmony; you will become more comfortable re-harmonizing chords the more you know your chord theory!

Then, you figure out a way to piece together these three foundational elements – melody, harmony, bass line. If you don't know where to begin, simply consult existing piano repertoire. In this video we consulted Beethoven's piano solo "Gertrude's Dream Waltz" (scholars debate whether Beethoven ACTUALLY wrote this piece, but that's beyond the scope of this video; my piano literature book says it's "Beethoven" so it's gonna be Beethoven for now, ha!). We noticed that Beethoven sometimes assigned the melody to the RH and the harmony + bass line to the LH. Other times, he assigned melody + harmony to the RH, and only bass line to the LH. We didn't analyze the entire waltz, as the remainder follows the same layering as the A section.

Finally, we followed Beethoven's models in writing a piano version of "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." My challenge to you is to try this method on another familiar hymn and come up with your own piano version! The more you do this, the easier it will be for you to make stuff up on the fly at the piano! Best of luck! :) You got this!!