At higher grades you must be able to discuss with the examiner musical features such as texture, form, style, and period of a piece of music. My own web pages to help with these parts of the test at Grade 5+ and at GCSE are available here!
Can you think of a piece you play that has a texture built on arpeggios?
Arpeggio and broken chord patterns sometimes form more than an accompaniment.
Sometimes they provide the melodic interest as well.
A piece like this is said to have a texture built on arpeggios or broken chords.
Burgmuller's pedal study, Harmonie des anges, is an example many pianists know. This prelude by Glière is also a good example:
Listen to this next piece:
Debussy's Ondine was played there by Libor Novacek. You will have noticed that arpeggio patterns told a lot of the story of the piece.
Imitate either of these pieces by improvising using broken chord patterns at the piano; let one hand set up a chord and the other simply copies the pattern of notes. It is surprisingly easy to compose this way - and composers such as Michael Nyman and Einaudi have built very successful careers out of it!
