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Continuing the never ending quest for better learning habits..........

My teacher has encouraged me many times to learn the LH or RH parts first by playing the one hand's part with 2 hands. The idea is to free your mind to absorb the sound, chord progressions, and logic, without the technical challenges of doing it all with one hand. I kind of took it on board, sort of used it, but kept forgetting.

Well, this week I had to start learning something new, owing to the fact that I picked up the wrong stack of piano music when I was packing to come home. (My mom now has my Haydn Sonata and Chopin preludes, and I have her Brahms. Life happens.)

I have a book of easy Chopin that I bought in the "dark ages" when I was trying to work on my own. Easy Chopin it may be, but the frustration of trying to get the LH to behave had led me to drop it in frustration.

But I love the sound of Walz in A minor (Posth). I wondered if applying the "two-handed learning" technique might help me make sense of the LH jumps and chord shifts that look so simple but refuse to come right for me.

Yup.

2 15 minute sessions to get to where months of struggle hadn't come close.

How many years of banging my head against the wall did it take me to come to this lightbulb moment?

I once tried to change hands - HS of course - but it didn't work.
This - playing the one's hand part with 2 hands - sounds easier. I am going to experiment with the next Little Prelude BWV 927 and see what happens.
Happy Sunday!

I think everything is out of my reach. The only choices are keep practicing to extend my reach or stop trying and forget about the whole business of improvement.

Never stop trying
I have no time to stop