Arpeggios & Broken Chords
A chord one note at a time: the 1-2-3-5 hand shape that covers an octave, the accompaniment patterns behind half of all classical music, and the wrist rotation that keeps them even.
Builds on: 3.3 Triads Under the Hand
A chord, unpacked
Play a C major triad and you hear three notes at once. Play the same three notes one after another and you have an arpeggio — from the Italian arpeggiare, “to play as on a harp”. Nothing about the harmony changes; only the time. Yet arpeggios are the reason pianists can sound like a whole band: the left hand spreads a chord across a bar while the right hand sings over it, and the ear hears both the harmony and a moving line. Nearly every accompaniment you will ever play is some kind of broken chord.
The 1-2-3-5 shape
A one-octave arpeggio in the right hand takes four notes: root, third, fifth, root again. The fingering is always 1 2 3 5 going up and 5 3 2 1 coming down. Look at what that means for the hand: the thumb and the pinky sit an octave apart, the second and third fingers fall on the two notes between, and the whole hand is open but not stretched. The left hand mirrors it: 5 3 2 1 up, 1 2 3 5 down.
Because the shape is the same for every major chord in root position, once your hand knows it for C you can slide it to F or G and play those chords’ arpeggios without thinking about individual keys. That is the whole point of drilling shapes rather than notes: the hand learns a distance, and distances transfer.
Rotation, not reaching
The mistake everyone makes at first is to keep the hand still and stretch each finger out to its key. That is slow, tense and uneven. Instead, let the forearm rotate slightly, like turning a doorknob: as you play from the thumb outward, the hand tips gently toward the pinky, carrying each finger to its key so the finger itself barely has to travel. Coming back down, it tips the other way. Done right, an arpeggio feels like a small wave rolling through the hand, and every note comes out at the same volume — the sign you are looking for.
Accompaniment patterns
Left-hand broken chords come in a few classic recipes. Root–fifth–third–fifth (C G E G) is the folk-song standby. The Alberti bass — named after Domenico Alberti, who wore it out in the 1740s — goes low–high–middle–high (C G E G with the hand fixed over one triad) and drives Mozart’s sonatas. And the plain rolling arpeggio, root to octave and back, carries everything from Bach’s first prelude to a thousand ballads. In all of them the hand stays still over one chord and the fingers alternate — which is exactly why they can go fast.
Play the pattern long–short–long–short, then short–long–short–long, then evenly. Alternating the rhythm forces every finger to take its turn being fast, and the even version comes out cleaner than if you had only drilled it evenly.
The thumb is the heaviest finger and loves to accent every note it plays. In an Alberti bass that would put a thump on every other note. Listen for it; play the thumb notes softer than you think you need to.
The exercise runs the right-hand shape through C, F and G, up and down each; the second one hands the Alberti bass to the left hand over the C–C–G–C progression from the chord lessons. Keep the wrist loose and the volume even, and let the shape, not the eyes, find the keys.
🎹 Exercise — C, F and G Arpeggios, Right Hand
Each chord one octave up and back with 1 2 3 5 3 2 1 — three chords, one hand shape.
- Let the forearm rotate toward the pinky on the way up; keep the fingers close to the keys.
- Play the demo, then match its evenness before you match its speed.
- Move the whole hand between chords instead of stretching for the new root.
Press the highlighted key to begin — any input works.
🎹 Exercise — Alberti Bass, Left Hand
Low–high–middle–high over C, C, G and C. The hand stays over one chord; only the fingers alternate.
- The thumb sits on G for the whole pattern — do not let it accent every other note.
- For the G chord the pinky drops to B and the second finger takes D; the thumb stays put.
Press the highlighted key to begin — any input works.