Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Steady arpeggios on left hand; varied melody on right

I was wondering if any of you might be able to suggest good practice routines to use in developing the ability to play steady left hand arpeggios along with a mixed melody on the right hand.

I'm hoping there are several step-by-step methods to follow to work up to the complex arpeggio/melody combinations.

Now I am able to roll the bass chords or vary the sequence those notes are struck while playing a right-hand melody, but I have trouble maintaining "perfect" arpeggios when the right-hand melody is uneven or syncopation is not constant.

Suggestions?

--Roy

Would being ambidextrous help?

I have the same issue, I'm playing with jazz pianist Dave Franks latest video doing something similar. It seems you have to go extremely slow and then slowly bring it up over time...days, weeks, months.

It a hand independence issue for sure...

What is the method to play it effortlessly?

I have been doing scales, arpeggios and chords with inversions for a few years and this transfers in easier smooth playing. Hand independence also improves but still giving me some difficult.

When you say arpeggios, are we talking broken chords, the 5-1-3-1 that Mozart favors, or something akin to Beethoven's Moonlight 3rd Mvt (in the LH instead of the RH)?

One possible approach:

1. Practice the left hand _alone_ until you can play it "without thinking". Use a metronome to keep the rhythm _dead even_.

2. Can you play the right hand _alone_, with metronome?

. . . If you can't, practice it until you can.

3. Slow down the metronome about 15% (e.g. from 70 to 60).

4. Try combining the hands at the slightly-slower tempo.

I suggest this because it can be really difficult to _feel_ the rhythm of a piece, if you slow the metronome down too much.

You might also try using a recorder to record the left-hand part, and then play along with the right hand. I've never done that -- but it might help.

. Charles

Mark...that video is a good example of what I'm trying to do. Thanks!

Another example coming to mind is the nearly constant arpeggios in Moonlight Sonata 1st movement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT7_IZPHHb0 Beethoven's arpeggios are more varied than what I'm trying to do right now, and in the Sonata he changes hands with them, but that's the idea of it. the Sonata's arpeggios are also more the dominant part of the piece, whereas I envision mine primarily as a backup to the right-hand melody.

My question is aimed more at developing hand coordination rather than improving my musicality, at this point.

I'll post an example arpeggio of my own, shortly.

Roy

This is exactly the place to start.

You need to be able to play the left hand from memory like an automaton. So lots and lots of LH-only practice. Only then your LH will remain steady whatever is happening in the RH.

[This is a really good approach for learning grounds, where the bass is hyper-steady and justs keeps on repeating the same set of bars under a set of variations.]

Here's an example of the type of slow arpeggio I'm talking about for the left hand. This one is C-Am-Dm-G
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAUS7YmiAyg