In fact, there are million ways to play a piano accompaniment. I probably know merely a few of them. Through years of practice, I’ve developed my unique style of piano accompaniment especially for vocalist solo in pop and jazz feel. I would like you to know that there is really no strict and rigid rules on how to learn an accompaniment. You can give a few great pianist the same lead sheet or chord chart, we will all play it in different ways. I might be able to imitate some other pianist but definitely I can’t copy exactly the same thing spontaneously. At the end, we are all specialists in our own style. But I can tell that the best musician is still the one who can play whatever created in his/her mind. I am not at that level, yet. However, before I play the accompaniment, no doubt that it is created in my brain first before the neurons trigger my fingers.

This video is created by John Axsom. He teaches a basic accompaniment pattern which is very useful and easy to learn for beginners. He showed you how to play a folk song Hava Nagila with three simple chords: E, Am, Dm

The lesson is simple to learn because:
1. only three basic chords involved
2. all the chord voicing is in the most basic form: triad which consists of 3 notes only for each chord. Later on, you shall venture into more complex voicing. For a nice chord voicing, there should be at least 4 notes in a chord.
3. not much changes in hand position.
4. simple rhythm.
5. same interval for the left hand bass part. So it just require you to move your left hand by shifting it up or down for different chords.
6. No black keys anyway, don’t afraid of the black keys. It is actually easier to press the black keys. You’ll hardly miss it.

Suggestion for further practice:
Use the same chord progression, but play it in different keys.

More piano lessons for beginners:

How to play a major scale on the Piano
Piano Wizard versus Piano Hero