Here are some Snake Dance variations to try to 'get by ear'.

The audio clips are set to loop - it's good to listen to things over and over, until you really 'own' them!

 Build-ups

For an easy starter, play this four-part build-up (below, left) to the final 'basic' version. Join in as soon as you realise what version is being played.

Then follow and play the slightly faster three-part version on the right.

 Crossed hands starter versions

Play the same build-up with the hands crossed 'loco' (below, left) and "8vb" (below, right). (Just be guided by the sound!)

 Beginner's agility challenge!

Play the melody in the bass with the left hand playing fifths below and above, alternating.

 More simple LH rhythms

Here are two LH rhythms using combinations of minims and crotchets (half and quarter notes). Play a RH-under crossed-hands version of each, too.

 Longer rhythmic patterns

The left hand rhythmic patterns in the following versions are longer than one bar.

Here's a medley version.

 Left hand off the beat

Now try some versions with the left hand playing 'off the beat' - on crotchets/quarter notes 2 and 4 (below, left).

Things immediately develop - two things, actually (below, right).

And a couple of 'agility challenges' in the same vein.

 'Flapping Fifths'

Another way to develop rhythmic variety is to hold one or other of the two left hand notes down. Follow this 'theme' as it develop through the examples below.

We can 'rock' the left hand fifth in crotchets, or add quavers into the mix.

Here are two proper performances incorporating those ideas.

 Anticipation

Either hand could use a little anticipation - playing a few notes before the beat. Here are two left hand options.

You need quite a bit of 'nerve' to serve up an accompaniment as sparse as this!

 Harmonising the melody

You can harmonise the melody with thirds, sixths and tenths. (Always!) Here are a couple of demonstration versions.

Incorporating the broken left hand intervals from the previous section gives us advanced arrangements like these.

 Ornamenting the melody

Every pianist worth his/her salt has a collection of well-practised 'grace-note figures' ('ornaments'/'embellishments'). The practice demo version (below, left) is over-packed with them. The version on the right incorporates thirds and ornaments, and is a bit more realistic.

 Medleys

You can easily combine any two versions to get a longer performance. Here are some examples to copy or use as a springboard for your own version(s).

They are mostly fairly obvious - a rhythmic pattern followed by a RH-under variation - but listen carefully for slight singularities in the second half left hand. It is rarely purely 'to pattern'.

 Miscellaneous

Here are a couple of 'Diary' improvisations which didn't make it into the course.

The Snake Dance is far from exhausted - the snake dances on forever, in fact. Listen at dusk as the stars twinkle into life over the dunes, and you are sure to hear, sinuous on the cool night air, a variation drifting by your ear...