harmonizations II: common tone practice

​'Common tone practice' allows a pianist to change harmonies while maintaining a common note each time. In this way, chord progressions can be formed in which a particular note keeps recurring. This technique can be used to arrive at new chord constructions, as well as to modulate to a different key.

In April 1923, The Etude Music Magazine published an interview titled New Lights on the Art of the Piano with pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943), discussing among other things exercises for pianists. This exercise written down according to the instructions Rachmaninov gave in this interview, has the full range of all chords to be practiced.