"Have Some Piano Improvisation Fun
With The 5-Step Piano Fill!"

This little piano improvisation technique is definitely one you'll want to keep up your sleeve... you'll be able to use it whenever you want to...

The 5-step piano fill is an easy one to master. Basically, what it involves is using five notes of a scale to arrive at a target note, which is the next melody note you will play...

The 5-step fill is great for when you have two beats of pause in your music. This could be a two beat rest or it could be two beats that you are holding a given melody note prior to playing the next one.Here's how to do it:

My description here is illustrated in the video below, so you can easily put this all together...

Let's say that you are playing a song that includes ending a certain phrase on a melody note C. While you are holding this C, you are playing a C Major chord in your left hand - it could be the Cmaj triad or Cmaj7, for instance. In my example, I am using the standard I'm In The Mood For Love, and I'm focusing on measure 4 leading into measure 5.

The fourth measure includes playing a melody note C for three beats. For the last two of these beats, I'd like to come up with a little piano improvisation fill to make my playing a little more interesting. My next melody note is the D above this C. The D will be played on the first beat of measure 5 - this D is our target note.

Given that we have two beats to incorporate the fill, we know that if we use four eighth notes, which equal two beats, that can smoothly lead to this target note. What we will do is start on a note a fifth away from this target note - below it or above it. We have a choice, so let's try both.

We are in the key of C Major and it is apparent that all the melody notes of the song up to this point have come from the scale of C Major; therefore, it seems a good choice to use notes from this scale for our piano improvisation fill. Now, including the target note (D), count up five...

Did you land on A? Good! Okay, what we will do is play A and continue going down the C Major scale from that point, playing G, F, E, then D. So, again, that's five notes, including A, G, F, E, D (our target note).

Now, to put this to use right away... in the fourth measure of our original melody, the C gets held for three beats. Well,we are going to change that ever so slightly...

We are going to play the C on the second beat as usual (so we have established the melody here), but on the third beat we are going to play four eighth notes (the A, G, F, E descending)and land on D on the first beat as expected - of course, when we play that D, our chord changes to E minor in this song.

Go ahead and do this - and listen... that's the 5-step fill!

Good job!

Okay, take the very same approach from below that target note D. Including the D, what's a fifth down? You're right if you said G. Good! Okay, starting on this G and going up the C Major scale in eighth notes - playing G, A, B, C - we automatically land on our target note D on the first beat of measure 5 again.

Play it and listen!

How are you doing with this?

It's such a simple piano improvisational technique and can be quite effective... here's a helpful hint: when playing fills, bring your volume down (play a little softer), so the melody stands out more. You don't want to confuse the listener...

A simple way of putting it is like this: pretend someone is listening to you play the song and they have never heard it before - well, that person should be able to distinguish the melody from your fills (without really thinking about it, usually).

Why? Because you have made the melody more important by allowing it to stand out by playing it with a little more volume than your "decorative" playing.

Following the instructions in the last paragraph automatically makes you sound more professional. Consider reading it again.

You've signed up for your lessons below, haven't you? I hope so, because there is more of this coming your way. Again, piano fills are certainly a major part of piano improvisation and I absolutely love sharing this stuff with you, so this is just the tip of the iceberg as we continue together on this musical joy ride!