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When learning H.S. do you always start with the LH? The RH? Or does it depend?
Why?
I seem to gravitate towards LH first but I'm not sure why and it's not 100 percent, more like 70-30 LH first.
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These days I usually start off trying to play hands together, slowly. I'll play hands separate only if I have to, for passages that are particularly troublesome (and usually it's the right hand that will give me trouble, and it's usually because of some complicated rhythm/fast run thing going on).
Maybe another way to put it is like this: If a piece is so hard for me that I can only tackle it hands separate, it's probably too hard, period, and I'll end up getting frustrated. ymmv.
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Whichever hand has the problem. When I was trying one of Bach's two part inventions (teacher & I agreed to put that aside for now) it was alternate between them evenly. Mostly it's only one hand that needs it though.
- Debussy - Le Petit Nègre, L. 114
- Haydn - Sonata in Gm, Hob. XVI/44
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These days I usually start off trying to play hands together, slowly. I'll play hands separate only if I have to, for passages that are particularly troublesome (and usually it's the right hand that will give me trouble, and it's usually because of some complicated rhythm/fast run thing going on).
Maybe another way to put it is like this: If a piece is so hard for me that I can only tackle it hands separate, it's probably too hard, period, and I'll end up getting frustrated. ymmv. You can start with hands together because you've got a lot of piano hours under your belt m'dear! Good for you! I either crawl at a snail's pace hands together or tackle which ever looks harder to my eye.
18 ABF Recitals, Order of the Red Dot European Piano Parties - Brussels, Lisbon, Lucern, Milan, Malaga, St. Goar Themed recitals: Grieg and Great American Songbook
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There are many different possible reasons about if, which hand, why, why not, etcetera.
Any good reason that works for you and works for your student (or teacher) is fine. If you find that sometimes you do it differently, see if you can identify your reason for changing.
Don't continue practicing a piece with separate hands if it isn't going to do any good. It can be a big waste of time, or it can be essential, or somewhere in between - depending on the piece and on the performer. Every piece requires you to use your judgment.
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Monica, Thanks but I'm the other kind of beginner, the kind that just went into book 3 of Piano Adventures. My teacher (and the conventional wisdom around here) want me to start with hands separate on the new pieces. I did like your Canon. As a recovering cellist, I'm supposed to hate that song but I'm sorry, I can't.
Andy, failing "rock, paper, scissors" that seems as good a plan as any and it may be what I already do unconciously. Then again, I may very well lean towards left hand first because it helps to set the sound of the harmonic progression in my ear.
David_a, it looks like you're our vote for, "it depends". One place where I do split with the conventional wisdom (around here) is that I don't take the hands separate parts to a very high level of completion but rather I put the hands together pretty much as soon as I am able to start putting it together. At that point, I'll start to identify problem areas and working on those "chunks" 'till they are at the standard of the easier chunks and then start working on some combination of speed, expression or not looking at my hands on the position changes. That breaking down process just might also include going hands separate again for a while to solve the issue.
Kurt
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Another reason to start with LH first is that it is often the easiest, in terms of being rhythmically patterned and simpler. (Or that could just be a function of the new age music I tend to play most.) So getting the LH down first may make it easier to keep the tempo consistent when you add the RH in.
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It depends on the piece. If it's all melody in RH and simple chords in the left, I start with the RH melody. If the LH part looks more difficult, I start with the left. Some pieces just don't make any sense at all without using both hands, so I just break them into small enough chunks and learn them hands together. Basically, I do whatever works best for that particular piece. Sometimes I start one way and find that another way works better. Anything you have to do to get it to work.
mom3gram
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One hand is dominant, and with me it is almost always the right hand. I cannot play a difficult passage unless my right hand play is absolutely automatic. Then my attention can shift to my left hand, where my problems almost always lie.
So I practice the right hand until it is automatic. Then I am free to concentrate on the left hand.
Sam
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LH first, for a number of reasons. a. It carries the momentum of the piece. If you stop or make a mistake in the melody (typically in the RH), the music doesn't "crash" b. Most chord harmonies are built upon the root, usually the lowest note in the LH c. Most people are right handed and have a clumsier LH, so give it priority d. Eventually since the melody is what you will eventually be concentrating on, you need the LH to be more on auto-pilot.
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LH because it is typically the backbone of the piece. Additionally, the majority of us are right handed, so it helps give additional stamina to the left hand.
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