Locked hands style is a technique of chord voicing for the piano. Popularized by the jazz pianist George Shearing, it is a way to implement the "block chord" method of harmony on a keyboard instrument. The locked hands technique requires the pianist to play the melody using both hands in unison. The right hand plays a 4-note chord inversion in which the melody note is the highest note in the voicing. The other 3 notes of the chord are voiced as closely as possible below the melody note, which is the definition of a block chord. The left hand doubles the melody note one octave lower.