Choose a foreground before choosing a volume
Purpose: let a listener follow the melody while the accompaniment supports its pulse, harmony, and direction. Preparation: sustain written durations and play each layer separately with an easy, controlled sound.
A melody is a connected line, not merely the loudest note in every chord. Begin by singing or playing it alone. Decide where it moves forward, where it settles, and which note needs the most attention. Then ask what the accompaniment contributes underneath it.
Build the balance in three passes
- Melody alone: shape the phrase and listen across repeated notes and changes of direction. Keep its rhythm intact.
- Accompaniment alone: preserve its releases and harmonic movement at a quieter level. Quiet does not mean rhythmically vague.
- Together: retain the melody’s shape and reduce any accompaniment note that draws attention away from it.
Start without pedal to hear the balance and releases. Add pedal for the harmony and character after the fingers can make the basic distinction. Pedal blends sound; it cannot reliably rescue an accompaniment that is much too loud.
Diagnose the sound you actually made
A recording at a little distance often reveals balance more clearly than listening from directly over the keys. Can you sing the melody back without looking at the page? Does it disappear on a weak finger or at a hand shift? Does the accompaniment swell whenever its pattern rises?
Change one cause at a time. Soften the competing layer before asking for more force in the melody. Work on the precise transition where the balance changes, then restore its context.
In this chapter: a RH melody, two voices within the RH, a Bach texture that tests duration and balance, and a LH melody with quieter RH accompaniment. Fingerings in original studies are editorial starting points, not universal prescriptions.
1. Decide what the listener should follow
Purpose: make a melody audible over accompanying notes without making every note loud. In the first study, the right hand carries the melody and the left hand supplies broken chords.
Establish a sound before combining hands
Play the melody alone and sing its shape. Then play the accompaniment alone, quietly enough that the melody would have space above it. Combine them at a tempo that preserves both the pulse and the difference in sound.
The dynamic marks describe a relationship, not a demand for a forceful attack. If the melody is buried, first soften the accompaniment rather than continually making the melody louder.
A practical listening check
Record the four bars. Can you follow the melody without looking at the score? Does the accompaniment surge whenever the hand changes position? Repeat only the spot where the balance changed.
Variation: play the melody with a gentle rise toward the third measure and release into the fourth. Keep the accompaniment level. Then remove the dynamic shaping and check the basic balance again.
Next step: preserve a voice while other notes sound in the same hand, as on the following page.
2. Two layers inside a texture
In this original drill, the upper RH voice is held while quieter lower notes move. The upper whole note is one voice; the lower, downward-stemmed quarter notes are another. Release the held note only when its written duration ends.
Play the upper voice alone, then add the lower notes softly. Do not re-strike the held note with every moving note. If the hand becomes rigid, shorten the practice segment and release between attempts.
Repertoire application: Bach, Prelude in C, BWV 846
The first four measures show how held bass/inner notes and flowing upper notes can form one texture. This is an application of balance and duration, not a literal melody-plus-accompaniment exercise.
Listen for continuity through the broken chord and the change in harmony. Preserve the written sustained notes; avoid making each rising figure an automatic crescendo. First work without pedal to hear the releases clearly.
Source: Mutopia’s public-domain transcription, copied from the source held in the pianobook project. Four measures re-engraved; no fingering added. The source notes give provenance and the limits of this review.
3. Put the melody in the left hand
Here the LH carries a simple moving line while the RH repeats a quiet broken chord. The hands begin an octave apart. The dynamic marks indicate relative prominence, not a fixed loudness appropriate to every piano or room.
Resist the automatic RH spotlight
Play the LH alone and sing the phrase. Then add only the first RH note of each beat, keeping it softer. Restore the RH eighths without letting their greater number of attacks dominate the line.
Listen particularly to the LH F at the start of bar 2 and the final C. Keep the phrase moving through the first and settling into the second. A quieter melody note can remain clear if the accompaniment makes room for it.
A controlled exchange of attention
Repeat once while listening mainly to the LH, then once while checking the RH’s evenness. The accompaniment should remain a coherent pattern even while it is secondary. Do not try to make every RH note inaudible.
Variation: move the LH melody one octave lower, leaving the RH in place. This deliberately changes the register and balance problem. Listen again rather than assuming that the same physical effort produces the same result.
Ready to transfer: identify the leading voice in a short repertoire phrase, including any moment when it passes between hands. Mark the handoff, practice the two adjacent melody notes alone, then restore the supporting texture. More complex inner voices and chord-top voicing are developed in the following chapters.