Understanding stride piano

A left hand that strides

Stride is a jazz piano style that grew out of the ragtime pianists. Its great names: James P. Johnson, Willie "the Lion" Smith and Fats Waller. James P. Johnson, one of its pioneers, recorded Carolina Shout and Harlem Strut in 1921; he also composed The Charleston.

The name comes from the left hand, which "strides" across the keyboard: a low bass on beats 1 and 3, a chord in the middle of the keyboard on beats 2 and 4. The bass can be a single note, an octave or a tenth; above it, the right hand plays syncopated melodies.

Here, the bass is a single note: the root of the chord on 1, its fifth on 3. Over C, that gives: low C, the chord E, G, C, then low G and the same chord. The fifth is sometimes above the root, sometimes below it: that way, every bass note stays between low C and the A just above it. The right hand stays almost entirely in quarter notes, with no syncopation, so you can hear the chart.

A chain of dominants

The lesson follows a ragtime chart built around four chords: C, A7, D7 and G7. The last three are seventh chords, and each one resolves a fourth higher: A7 calls for D, D7 calls for G, G7 calls for C. Each chord thus prepares the next, right back to C.

That is what the map's Roman numerals say, reading each chord the classical way. G7 is the V7, the seventh chord that leads home to C. D7 is the V7/V, "the V of V": it announces G. A7 is the V7/ii: it announces the ii of C, D minor. The D does arrive, but major and with its seventh, and the chain goes on.

These chords bring in notes from outside the C major scale: the C-sharp of A7 and the F-sharp of D7, their thirds.

What the lesson plays

I split its sixteen bars into four phrases:

• A (bars 1 to 4): C, A7, D7, G7, one chord per bar. The right hand draws each chord: C, E, G, E over C, then C-sharp, E, G, E over A7 (only one note changes), the same shape a whole step higher over D7, and G7 coming back down. The phrase stops on G7: an imperfect cadence.
• A' (bars 5 to 8): the same start, but D7 and G7 share bar 7, two beats each, to arrive on C in bar 8: a perfect cadence.
• B (bars 9 to 12): a detour through F, the IV, for two bars, then C, and A7, which restarts the chain.
• C (bars 13 to 16): D7, G7, then C for two bars. Neither their chords nor their melody is close enough to A or B, so I give them a new letter. Yet they pick up the chain where the A7 of bar 12 left it, and take it to C: a perfect cadence.

Listen to the right hand in bar 7: the F-sharp of D7 slides down a half step to the F of G7.

How to approach it

My plan takes you through it in 9 days. Everything rests on the left hand: once it runs on its own, the right hand just settles on top.

1. Learn the chart by heart, without playing. Name the chords bar by bar: C, A, D, G, C, A, D-G, C, F, F, C, A, D, G, C, C.
2. The middle chords first, in half notes: E, G, C for C; C-sharp, E, G for A7; F-sharp, A, C for D7; F, B, D for G7; F, A, C for F. Chain them in the order of the chart, without looking.
3. Then the big gesture, very slowly: bass, chord, fifth, chord. Before each leap, look at the landing note. Steadiness matters more than speed.
4. The passages I point out: in bar 3, the F-sharps of D7, in both hands; they are meant to be there. In bars 12 and 13, the sharps come with two leaps in the right hand: from the E that ends bar 11 to C-sharp, a sixth higher, then, at the start of bar 13, up to the high A of D7. Work on them separately.
5. Then go further. Once the gesture is secure, try the bass in octaves, and let the right hand push a few notes off the beat: these are the two ingredients of stride this lesson set aside.