A blocked chord sounds its pitches together. A broken chord sounds them in sequence. C–E–G is still a C-major collection whether you press all three at once or play C, E, G, E one note per beat. The rhythm and order change the accompaniment's texture.
Place left-hand 5 on C3, 3 on E3, and 1 on G3. Play C–E–G–E with 5–3–1–3. The notes are separate attacks, not a chord held with three fingers. Let the hand remain relaxed over the small span; do not lift unused fingers high or lock the wrist.
Left hand · bass clef. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
Left hand · bass clef. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
The Same pitches, different timing figure compares two distinct instructions. Its blocked chord has three whole-note heads aligned vertically in the bass staff. All three begin together and last four beats. Its broken version has four separate quarter-note attacks across one bar. Each attack contains one pitch. The letters used are still C, E, and G, but E appears twice in the broken version. Four attacks do not imply four different chord members. Read the horizontal order to find when a pitch returns, rather than counting noteheads as a chord label.
Locate the broken pattern in the bass clef. C3 is in the second space up from the bottom, E3 in the next space up, and G3 in the top space. Moving from one of these notes to the next higher one skips a letter, so both ascending moves are thirds. The final E3 returns down a third from G3. The contour is therefore up, up, down. The finger sequence 5, 3, 1, 3 follows the left hand's orientation, with the thumb at the higher end of this position.
Each written quarter note occupies one beat. Say C on 1, E on 2, G on 3, and E on 4, then begin the second bar with C on its next 1. That return is down a third from E, not down the entire C-to-G span. The two-bar player repeats the same four-note order without changing harmony. Its second bar is useful for checking whether the return to the start happens on time. There is no written extra pause between the two copies of the pattern.
Compare the blocked and broken instructions at your keyboard without adding a melody. First sound the blocked chord, release it, then play the broken bar while counting. Notice that releasing one broken note as another begins produces a sequence, whereas keeping all the keys down gradually accumulates a chord. Both may use the same letters, but they do not give the same durations. This page's quarter notes ask for individual one-beat events. No pedal is needed to connect the pattern, and the score does not ask you to preserve every previous note underneath it.
Selected event 1: C3 · 1 beat · Left-hand finger 5
Stopped. Select a note with Next note, or play with sound.
Left hand · bass clef. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
Tempo: 60 quarter-note beats per minute. The count-in lasts 4 beats. Durations in the selected-note readout use quarter-note units. Tempo changes and Reset stop playback and select the first note. Audio starts only on request, plays once, and stops when hidden or off-screen. The tones are synthesized pitch guides, not a piano recording. A short release gap separates notes. Next note advances to the next attack in either hand. Held notes stay highlighted. There is no moving cursor. Start at low device volume.
Another common pattern is low, high, middle, high: C–G–E–G. This order is often called Alberti bass. We use slow quarter notes to learn its order; it often appears in shorter note values in classical music. Neither pattern requires a sustain pedal.
Selected event 1: C3 · 1 beat · Left-hand finger 5
Stopped. Select a note with Next note, or play with sound.
Left hand · bass clef. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
Tempo: 60 quarter-note beats per minute. The count-in lasts 4 beats. Durations in the selected-note readout use quarter-note units. Tempo changes and Reset stop playback and select the first note. Audio starts only on request, plays once, and stops when hidden or off-screen. The tones are synthesized pitch guides, not a piano recording. A short release gap separates notes. Next note advances to the next attack in either hand. Held notes stay highlighted. There is no moving cursor. Start at low device volume.
The low, high, middle, high player changes the route through the same three keys. Its first note is still C3 with finger 5, but its second note is G3 with the thumb. The third is E3 with finger 3, and the fourth returns to G3 with the thumb. Compared with the first pattern, the second and third positions exchange pitches, and the fourth changes too. It is therefore insufficient to remember only that the accompaniment uses C major. You need the order of its four events.
Read the shape of this bar on the staff before playing. The first movement, C3 to G3, is a fifth because the letter count includes C, D, E, F, and G. The next movement falls a third to E3, then rises a third to G3. Across the bar line, a repeated copy would fall a fifth to C3. That is a different reset from the first pattern's E3-to-C3 return. The visible one-bar player ends at G, so any repetition you practice yourself must include this additional return.
The two patterns also repeat different pitches. In C, E, G, E, the middle pitch appears on beats 2 and 4. In C, G, E, G, the high pitch appears on beats 2 and 4. Both have four attacks and the same total duration. This gives a specific listening question. After identifying the low starting C, listen for whether the recurring pitch is E or G. Use sound only if you choose it, then return to the score to connect what you heard with the order of noteheads.
At the keyboard, alternate one bar of each order with a deliberate stop between them. Keep the same counting speed and the same starting hand position. The stop gives you room to choose the next order instead of allowing the previous sequence to continue by habit. If the second pattern keeps turning into the first, identify the earliest divergence, beat 2. Prepare the thumb on G for that beat before attempting the whole bar again. A wrong fourth note may be the result of having started the wrong route two beats earlier.
The combined player places a whole-note E4 above four left-hand quarter notes in the first bar. On beat 1, right-hand finger 3 starts E4 while left-hand finger 5 starts C3. Those events coincide, but their durations differ. The right note lasts four beats, while the first bass note lasts one. Beat 2 changes only the bass, to E3. The repeated letter E now occurs in both hands at different octaves. That does not mean the right hand should repeat its own E4.
On beat 3 the bass reaches G3 with the thumb. The upper E4 remains the same written whole note. On beat 4 the bass returns to E3, again without a new right-hand attack. At the following bar line, both hands have a new event. The right changes to G4 with finger 5, while the bass begins its second C3, E3, G3, E3 pattern. Read that boundary as the end of one held melody note and the beginning of another, rather than as a reason to interrupt the left-hand pulse.
Use the grand staff to distinguish a held pitch from an absent part. A whole-note head remains visible over the bar even though there is only one right-hand attack. It occupies the whole four-beat duration. The empty horizontal area after that head is not a sequence of rests. Conversely, four left-hand noteheads indicate four starts, not a single bass chord whose notes happen to be spread across the page. Vertical alignment shows the shared beginning, while the different symbols tell you what continues after that point.
Try the two-bar coordination with the right hand on its written E4 and G4 but the left hand temporarily repeating C3 on every beat. Preserve the left hand's four quarter-note durations and the right hand's whole notes. This removes bass pitch changes without removing the need to keep the upper key held. If the right hand repeats anyway, the issue remains even with a single bass key. If the holds become secure, restore E3 on beats 2 and 4, then G3 on beat 3, while keeping the same two upper notes.
Learn the left-hand pattern alone before adding the sustained right-hand notes below. Start E4 with the right middle finger on beat 1 and hold for all four beats while the left plays C3, E3, G3, E3. In the next bar hold right-hand G4 with finger 5. Keep the left hand softer if touch response is available.
Right hand now: E4 · 4 beats · Right-hand finger 3
Stopped. Select a note with Next note, or play with sound.
Left hand now: C3 · finger 5
Right hand above · left hand below. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
Tempo: 60 quarter-note beats per minute. The count-in lasts 4 beats. Durations in the selected-note readout use quarter-note units. Tempo changes and Reset stop playback and select the first note. Audio starts only on request, plays once, and stops when hidden or off-screen. The tones are synthesized pitch guides, not a piano recording. A short release gap separates notes. Next note advances to the next attack in either hand. Held notes stay highlighted. There is no moving cursor. Start at low device volume.
Check that the melody does not re-strike with each bass note. Next note advances through attacks in either hand, so the right-hand whole note remains selected while the left-hand highlight moves. That is also what your hands should do. The audio is an even-volume pitch and timing guide, not a demonstration of expressive balance.
Once you can play two bars at 60 BPM with an even left hand, compare the two patterns at the same tempo. Do not change tempo and pattern together when deciding which sound you prefer. A repeated pattern is an accompaniment option, not a requirement for every melody.
An uneven accompaniment can have several causes that sound similar in a full performance. A late G may come from locating its key, choosing its finger, or delaying the thumb attack after E. Begin by playing C3, E3, G3, E3 alone without a clock and naming the fingers before their notes. Then count the same pattern with equal beats. If pitch finding is secure but beat 3 is late, isolate E3, G3, E3 with fingers 3, 1, 3. Preserve equal intervals between those attacks instead of repeating the whole two-bar example.
Check the return across the bar line separately. In the first pattern, the last E3 must lead back to C3 on the next beat. Play G3, E3, C3 as a short connection with fingers 1, 3, 5, then restore their positions as beats 3, 4, and the next 1. The exercise is not a new accompaniment order to memorize. It tests the connection between successive copies of the existing pattern. A pause here can make each individual bar seem correct while the repeated accompaniment loses its pulse.
Notice whether the thumb note sounds louder than the surrounding notes when you did not intend an accent. That observation does not establish a technique diagnosis from text. Compare the pattern alone with the combined version at an unhurried pulse. If the unwanted accent appears only when the right hand is holding, remove the right hand again to check what changed. Seek a coordinated movement that remains comfortable. Do not press harder to obtain even timing, hold unused fingers rigidly above the keys, or persist through discomfort to finish a repetition.
Balance is a separate listening problem from even spacing. If your keyboard responds to touch, compare a deliberately quiet left-hand pattern with a more audible right-hand E. Keep the same pitches and rhythm while changing only the relative loudness. If touch response is absent or not enabled, the keyboard may not respond as expected to this experiment. Continue with the written timing rather than guessing at model-specific settings. The page's synthesized combined playback has fixed event levels, so it cannot tell you how quietly your own left hand is playing.
Use the existing combined score to imagine a simple alternative before playing it. If the bass were blocked on C3, E3, G3 for the whole bar, there would be one bass attack with the upper E4. In the printed broken version, there are four bass attacks beneath the same upper duration. The melody has not become longer or shorter. The accompaniment has more internal activity. This comparison explains why a broken chord can make sustained melody notes sound active without requiring the melody itself to repeat.
You can test that comparison at the keyboard by playing the first bar once with the blocked bass from the figure and once with the written broken bass. Release before changing versions, and keep four equal counts in each bar. Listen for the different number of beginnings beneath E4. Do not add pedal or accelerate the broken version. Those changes would make it harder to identify which difference comes from the accompaniment order. Use only the single first bar for this experiment so that the right-hand change to G4 does not add another variable.
Inspect what would happen if you kept every bass key depressed during the broken pattern. C3 would remain after beat 1, E3 would join it on beat 2, and G3 would join both on beat 3. On beat 4 you would need to release and re-press E3 while C3 and G3 continued. That would leave three pitches sounding instead of the single written E3. The harmony would still contain C-major notes, but the texture would differ from the successive quarter-note line. Compare that accumulating sound with releasing each previous bass note as the next begins. Chord membership alone cannot tell you whether you followed the written durations.
A useful final check is to begin at bar 2 rather than always at bar 1. Find right-hand G4 with finger 5 and left-hand C3 with finger 5, then play the second bar alone. The identical finger number belongs to different hands and different pitches. Starting there checks whether you understand the written combination instead of depending on the preceding E4 hold to prepare it. Then join both bars. Keep the exact bass order you selected; substituting the other pattern halfway through changes the score even though the harmony remains C major.
Turn the left-hand C-major chord into the low–middle–high–middle pattern.
Use only C, E, and G; order the three pitches through the bar.
Left hand · bass clef. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
Play C3, E3, G3, E3 on beats 1, 2, 3, 4 with fingers 5, 3, 1, 3. The extra E is a repeated chord tone, not a fourth distinct pitch. The pattern still uses C major.
Write the notes and fingers for the Alberti pattern used here.
Compare the second and fourth positions.
Left hand · bass clef. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
Alberti order is C3, G3, E3, G3 with 5, 1, 3, 1. The top note appears on beats 2 and 4. C–E–G–E is a different broken-chord order, even though both use the same three pitches.
In the first combined bar, should the right hand press again when the left plays G3?
The right hand has one whole note while the left has four quarter notes.
Right hand above · left hand below. Finger numbers: 1 thumb, 2 index, 3 middle, 4 ring, 5 little.
The right hand presses E4 once on 1 and keeps it down through 4. The left presses a new note on every numbered beat. Re-striking right-hand E on each beat would change a whole note into repeated quarter notes. Hold the right key without adding extra downward force.
MusicTheory.net lessons provide further explanations of notation, rhythm, and chords. Open Music Theory is a longer reference. The keyboard diagrams, exercises, and rock-style study here were made for these lessons. The Beethoven example uses a public-domain melody, transposed to C, not a modern published arrangement.
Robert Hutchinson's Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom provides optional explanations of staff notation. Its sections on meter, major-scale construction, inversions, and chord symbols support the corresponding theory explanations. These references do not assess physical technique or certify a playing level.
Casio CT-S300 product information is the reference for the likely instrument. The lessons do not depend on a particular button sequence, USB connection, or automatic accompaniment.