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tonebase Piano Course

Chords and Octaves: from Beginner to Virtuoso

Taught by renowned pianist

Dominic Cheli

In this course, Dominic Cheli teaches the basics of playing chords and octaves, and how to play them by relaxing the hand, what fingers to use, how to use your body, voicing considerations, developing high-speed octaves, and more.

  • checkmark icon
    Difficulty: 
    all-levels
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    Duration: 
    1
     hours
     hour
All courses on tonebase include subtitles in English and Spanish

Course Syllabus

How to Play Basic Triads

In this lesson, Dominic Cheli teaches you how to play basic triads, voicing chords, using different parts of your body depending on the musical passage, and an intro to playing octaves.

Playing Chords and Octaves in Inversions Across the Keyboard

In this lesson, Dominic Cheli teaches how to play chords and octaves in inversions across the keyboard. He specifically discusses the importance of where to use the 4th finger, tips on broken octaves, and relaxing the hand.

Rolled Chords and Accompanimental Chords

Dominic Cheli teaches how to play rolled chords and the wide variety of options, as well as how to play accompanimental chords in either hand.

Relaxing the Hand to Develop Speed and Accuracy in Chords and Octaves

In this lesson, Dominic teaches how to develop speed and accuracy in chords and octaves with a focus on relaxing the hand, paying attention to middle notes, using the 4th finger, and how to lead the hand for octave playing.

How to Elevate Your Chords and Octaves to the Highest Level

In this lesson, Dominic teaches how to play some of the most difficult chord/octave passages in the repertoire by using focused and safe amounts of tension in the hand, micro rubato for long passages of octaves, and the pedal's role to glue sounds together.

Click here to download the course workbook PDF and see the full syllabus →
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Dominic Cheli
meet YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Dominic Cheli

Dominic Cheli’s career includes debuts at Walt Disney Concert Hall and at Carnegie Hall. He has CDs out on the Naxos and Delos labels and is the Head of Piano at tonebase.

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Dominic Cheli
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