HOW TO PLAY HANDS TOGETHER WHILE PLAYING PIANO AND PRACTICE TIPS

Adults who are not piano experts are often surprised at how difficult it is to play hands together. They play the tune on RH and it looks pretty good. They play chords with LH and it is pretty good too, and then they try it manually together and it is an epic fail. So, what happened and why is it so hard?

Piano lessons Chicago adults suggest that playing hands requires patience, and it feels like a mystery how to teach an adult to play together and minimize or eliminate frustration. First, let us look at our hands and what we ask of them. We have two hands that do different things… they play different notes. Our left hemisphere controls our right hand, and the right hemisphere controls our left hand. It should also be noted that the brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When we multitask, the brain doesn't multitask, it switches tasks quickly, and the piano hands don't work when they play together.

What is the solution? Knowing each hand separately very well, that means a lot of repetition and the good news is that our brains are programmed to detect repetition. If we repeat something often enough like a chord on the piano, it becomes autonomous. This is the solution to the puzzle. This happens when we replay the scene on the piano and we can play our hands together and do amazing things with the keyboard. Through repetition, our scale becomes autonomous, our chords become autonomous, the part of the song becomes autonomous, and we can play hands together.

How can you apply this to the piece you are currently working on? Online music classes for beginners suggest to try this simple formula to play HT song. It goes like ... LH times 2, RH times 2, HT times 1 and repeat up to 3 times. Do NOT be tempted to play only the HT role. Repeat this once and then return to HS. Take bars of each new song and give it a try as working with small parts is more successful than working with large parts. If you try this pattern for the first time with a back piece, you will probably succeed in playing LH and RH separately, and probably won't if you first try it as HT. If you go back to LH only, you will focus much more on what your LH is actually doing. The same is true with RH. If you replay the HS section after trying the HT, the focus goes to a deeper level. You pay more attention. If you try this HT again, it will be better, maybe not perfect but better. Each time you go through the cycle, you become more familiar with each hand and become more autonomous. As you progress and get better at this, switch to this pattern: LH times 1, RH times 1, HT times 2. Repeat up to 2 times. Keep playing HS for a while so both sides of your brain can understand what you're asking it to do. Our adult brains are adaptable and get the job done. It's not a mystery. The shortest way to enjoy playing with two hands is through DEFINITION, REPETITION and PARTIAL HAND practice.