5-Finger-Runs to Start or End a Tune

Clip from Performance & Practice, Episode #2.

The below text is a partial transcript of the video.

The run that I'm going to show you has quite an exotic sound, in my opinion. It is based on F7. We are in the key of B flat, and F7 is the dominant. It's one of those runs that I talked about in my episodes of "Live at the Flat in Greenwich Village."

Start with the left hand, and then continue with the right hand. So F7, I'm going to start from F natural. And then I skip to B natural, a tritone up, and then all the way chromatic to F.

With the right hand, I'm playing one of the five finger runs. So B natural, C sharp, F, G, A - very exotic. Then I put together the two things, and that's your run.

I often use these runs as a very simple introduction to a piece. So I'm going to play for you a composition by Earl Hines, entitled "My Monday Date." And I'm going to start with the run, then go into the melody at rubato, then with time, and so on.

At the end of the piece, I squeezed in another five fingers run based on the C pentatonic. I also changed the key, from B flat I went to C.

The fingering that I'm using on this C pentatonic is the thumb on G, A, C, D, E.

In the left hand, I play a nice C major triad spread as a tenth with the G in between. If you cannot spread the tenth because your hands are too small, you can play the single note - or a fifth - or the octave, with the fifth if you want.

You could practice something simple as this pentatonic with the five fingers easily in every key, using the same fingering. Most importantly, after you played the last note with the pinkie and then pass on with the thumb, you have to be very quick.

Remember that the sound has to resemble a glissando.

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