Tips for both hands wanted

[eichenberg]

Hi

I started PGS 2 weeks ago. I now played for 20+ hours and I like it. I started with the Rookie Bootcamp and I did only move forward when I reached 100% accuracy. I also did some additional courses. I really struggle with some both hands exercises. Two examples:
- The "difficult" rhythm for left and right hand in lesson 84
- I downloaded the song "Over the Rainbow". Both hands separatly is completly fine. But both hands (combined with position changes for both hands) causes a massive brainoverflow and I cannot play anything (I struggle even on very low speed). ;o)

So I know that the way to overcome this is practice, practice and practice. But here is my question:
- What do you recommend to train this both hand stuff? Are there some Exercises (Hanon?) or specific Courses you would recommend?

As mentioned. As long as the handposition for both hands stay more or less the same and if the rhymthm is not too complex, it already works pretty fine.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions and comments.

[sw1tch73ch]

The trick to getting the hands working independently, and still together (they do their independent things at the right times relative to each other) is to practice really slowly when you first combine your hands for each of the lessons. It is the fastest way to playing together at full tempo.

[eichenberg]

Thanks for the reply. This is the way I'm doing it now. But are there some good additional exercises which could help?

[sw1tch73ch]

There is a both hands course that should open up at some point. The trick is just to practice playing with both hands together; there aren't any short cuts. That said, knowing each hand's piece very well does help. There is a saying that you don't practice something until you get it right, you practice it until you don't get it wrong, even until you CAN'T get it wrong. Then when you combine hands, you are not learning each hand over again, just getting the timing together of how they merge.

It is a lot easier to write that than it is to practice it, but it is essentially the shortest path. Practice a lot and and slowly so you practice it right. When you don't fumble over the tricky bits, you can move forward (either by increasing the tempo or by doing the next lesson or section).

I haven't really explored external options for "hands together" work - just spending time practicing in Playground Sessions takes all my available time and energy at this point.

[FlatPanda]

One addendum to sw1tch73ch's answer: for me it's always like a "click in the brain" when the two hands melt together. It's really like an "aha moment", when you feel, "ooooh, that's how they feel together!".

But yes... practice, practice, practice (right hand); practice, practice, practice (left hand); and then practice x 100 (both hands).

[Westman77]

playing since 2 months now - and i have a piece i stuck on since 2 weeks in another app... sweet lullaby.
slow but sure i believe if you can play this you can play everything lol.
just a joke but for a beginner like me it feels like that... this piece... i find it SO hard - no idea if my brain ever can do this....

[emptynoise]

For the most part I the same with the other responses here, practicing slowly is very helpful. If I have to I'll tackle hard sections without any tempo at all, instead going for 100% accuracy at my own pace until I feel like I can do it quickly and fluently enough to focus on timing it to a slow beat.

The other half is that I think of "both hands" as more of a task switching problem. At any one point in time I can focus on my left hand, my right hand, or both hands doing something together. So for what Westman posted I would see bar 1 beat 1 as both hands hitting their first note together, then switch to the left hand for the rest of the bar. Then on bar 2 beat 1 switch to focusing on the right hand until the simultaneous input on bar 3 beat 1... ect. Instead of thinking of it as both hands together doing different things it's instead both hands coordinating together to do actions that may involve one or both hands at a time.

If I wrote that example out in some kind of simplified tablature it would be

Code: Select all

5   3
3   
1   
    1
    2
    3
5   5
...      

which is at lot easier to digest at first. I don't actually write this out or think about the fingerings to that degree and I don't encourage it, but a lot of that is just a matter of practice. So practice, practice, practice. Then practice some more. If you have enough leeway to have your mind wander during practice make the practice harder (dynamics, expression, ect...) or take a break... before doing more practice lol.

[FlatPanda]

@emptynoise: what you write is often how I feel. When I'm starting to staple together the two hands of a piece, I try to find a flow of the hands. When do they blend? When do they go apart? Is there a flow, or are there beats which are played together and I can use those as a mental pivot? This kinds of things.

Gets more complicated with broken chords though