Talk:Locked hands style

Dave Brubeck must be added as a block chord master. of greater interest is the fact that he did this because of an earlier injury to hand which decreased his keyboard finger reach. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Urchin magoo (talk • contribs) 04:23, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

More advanced explanations of the term

Carl Humphries writes the following about the great George Shearing's 'locked hands' piano technique in the section "Listening Guide: Post-Bebop Jazz" his book The Piano Handbook (Backbeat © 2002):

GEORE SHEARING, who also played Afro-Cuban jazz and who was born blind, developed the infamous 'locked hands' approach to jazz piano ...

In Humphries' glossary he defines the term 'locked hands' as being

A pianistic technique used in jazz, whereby the hands are allowed to move in parallel through a sequence of block chords, permitting a melody to be harmonised on the spot without having to attend to the details of voice-leading.

The website http://www.pianobible.com/Lesson_Locked_Hands.aspx defines 'locked hands' this way:

During the 1940s and 50s several pianists developed ways of playing chords melodies with both hands, known as locked hands and/or block chords. Two charastics of this approch influenced jazz players:
1. The seperation [sic] of the left hand from the pulse,
2. The use of the left-hand voicing to 'color' the melody notes.
In its basic form, the locked-hands technique requires the right hand to play a closed-position voicing below the melody note, while the left hand doubles the melody note an octave lower. The pianist must decide how to harmonize each melody note; several options are available. Each melody note can be harmonized with:
1. Notes from the prevailing harmony,
2. Notes from the prevailing harmony on most chord tones, and passing chords inserted on non-chord tones,
3. Notes from the prevailing harmony on chord tones and diminished seventh chords on non-chord tones.

The website http://www.lupitarecords.com/kcsm/PianoStyle.html defines 'locked hands' as being (among other piano techniques) this:

Locked-hands mode: This "block chord" technique was pioneered by Milt Buckner and perfected by George Shearing. It also exploits the power of octaves, with the chord being played within an octave and the jazz melody being doubled on the octave notes that enclose the chord. Usually, the left hand plays only the bottom octave note of the chord, with the right hand playing most of the chord as well as the top octave note. It is called the locked-hands mode because the hands are literally locked together when playing in this mode. This mode is particularly well suited for the rich lower-middle range of the grand piano, a range Bill is especially fond of.

Many Wiki authors don't bother to Google or do further research before they write a stub article like this one. Obviously, a single definition taken from just one book is all they need.  The Internet is a magnificent research tool; more Wikipedia authors should take the time to make use of it. K. Kellogg-Smith (talk) 14:54, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

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