Scenario: my piano score often has a left hand note struck at the same time as a right hand note of the same name like two E notes — I call it a minimum harmony. To improve on the minimum, I have two basic choices:

• 1) I can change the left hand E to a simple two-note chord
• 1b) better still, change to a broken two-note chord to get more ups and downs.
• 2) I can change the left hand E to another note, perhaps a G (or B). But what if the adjacent left-hand note is also G? I would say stay with the original E.

For my own enjoyment or for any audience, variation within the left-hand accompaniment is higher priority than richer harmony between left vs right. Stagnant tune on left hand is worse than having the minimum harmony of two E notes on left^right. In fact, the minimum harmony is the first technique to create a basic left-hand accompaniment.

• 2b) if we choose #2, then we need to change the adjacent left-hand note, to break the monotone.
• 3) another choice — change to another note, possibly a lower G