Links
What’s the Purpose of Rising Triads?
Rising Triads was written because Mr. Lewis wanted to write something with lots of rolled chords in it. This is one of those pieces that’s intended to be an etude. If you are not aware of what an etude is, it is essentially a piece of music that studies a specific aspect of piano performance, which in this case, is about rolling chords.
There are two levels to consider here. First off, depending on the level of the student, it may be difficult for the beginner student just to learn the entire piece. On the other hand, once a student has learned how to play Rising Triads, the next level would be to make sure that the top of each chord is the loudest of the three notes. So this etude is labeled as a beginner composition, but it could work fairly well as an intermediate one as well.
A Confession to Make
Here’s a fun fact about the name, Rising Triads. It was inspired by the name of a video game called, Rise of the Triad. Mr. Lewis has never played that game before, so this is not a recommendation for that game. Alex Lewis has merely only heard the name of that video game and has probably influenced the naming of this piece as well. Nothing more, nothing less.
Contents
Rising Triads starts off with two hands; the left hand playing whole note octaves and the right hand playing triads that roll up on beats two, three, and four. And remember that if possible, you should be playing the third note of each of those rolled chords the loudest. This can be thought of as a secondary melody, which can be weird because there isn’t really a primary melody in this section.
Then it changes to something different. The left hand is now the one playing rolled half note chords and the right hand actually has a melody in the form of eighth notes. This change in the music was sounding cool to Mr. Lewis’ ears.
Then it goes back to the original arrangement of left hand octaves and right hand rolled chords, finally ending with a chord progression that goes from Ab major, to Bb major, to C major.
In Conclusion…
Have fun! If you’re a beginner pianist, and perhaps an intermediate pianist, this etude might be a good challenge for you. Have fun playing Rising Triads.
Leave a Reply