Question: Both Hands? Or one at a time?

[count_yorik]

Hello, sorry if this has been posted before, but I am relatively new to the piano and seem to be making pretty good progress teaching myself. However I've been wondering what is the best approach to learning a new song/piece/tune...

Should I learn the piece concentrating on both hands at the same time?

or

Should I focus on one hand at a time? Then put the separate left and right hand parts together once I've got them memorised?

Any advice/ideas/comments welcome.

Thanks

[nia_kurniati]

For me, I do it by one hand first but per phrase. Then I play both hands still per phrase. Then I go to the next phrase and so on.

[hyrst]

Congratulations on your motivation and effort.  I hope you are enjoying your learning and that it is going well for you.

I don't think there is a fast rule about learning sep or tog.  Much has to do with qualities in the piece you are learning and ion your own learning style.  In most cases, I would recommend reading hands together at first, but if a piece is difficult for you to read, or hard to coordinate or has a risk that you might not read it correctly (say there are lots of accidentals or chords), then the first reading might be best done sep.  If it is polyphonic music, I would recommend an early seperate reading.

Where things are working well for you, play together.  This helps learning as a whole and identifying where hands balance or mirror each other. 

However, do some single hands to check reading.  Play single hands to listen for tone in each part.  Play sep when hands are countering each other and coordination is required - e.g. when first putting together staccato against legato.  Also work sep in any place that requires discovering efficient movements for fluency or tone.

Some sep work is needed for reading and polishing, but besides the details I recommend hands tog - learn once and refine rather than 3 times.

But. my suiggestions are based on my own learning style.  I have students who read and memorise sep or a bit at a time then put a phrase tog.  Experiment with what works for you.

[count_yorik]

Wow, thanks for the information!

If it helps I'm learning Fur Elise, I want to learn all the parts to it too (like the quick section), not just the main theme everyone is familar with. This is the first van Beethoven piece I'm about to learn too... I know moonlight sonata would probably be easier, but I already know how to do left hand chords and right hand notes... Fur Elise sounds/looks busy on both hands.

The idea of learning each section or phrase separately then together seems like a good method. As I think it'd be a lot harder to learn an entire piece each hand separately then try and put them together... at least for me.

Thanks again!

[hyrst]

For Fur Elise, try breaking the main theme section into chords / arpeggios.  This needs to flow from left to right in most bars, smoothly and fluently, so tog is a good idea here.  There are a lot of chord repeats.  For my students, I colour the arpeggios so they can  see if it is the A- or E chord and if it is going all the way or half way up.  I would tend to look at it one bar at a time, playing the first treble note at the end of the phrase.

For the other themes and interlude/s it would help you to work sep to get your notes and rhythms.  The difficult parts are only a couple of bars each, but three bars have complicated/ornamented rhythm, a few bars are techmically demanding for the right hand and one section has challenging reading with the right against challenging technique with the left.  Again, looking at these sections one bit at a time helps you see your progress as well.

Fur Elise is actually a lot easier than Moonlight Sonata - unless you have a transcribed piece, which would not sound as good - even though there are some fast sections.  Good luck.

[slobone]

For me, I do it by one hand first but per phrase. Then I play both hands still per phrase. Then I go to the next phrase and so on.

That's about what I'd recommend, only adding that I like to move to hands together as soon as possible.

Another time when hands separate is helpful is when you're polishing the phrasing, and want each hand to "sing" as a separate voice. But that's only really necessary when the two hands are somewhat independent of each other.

In Furry Elisa, for example, the melody is in the right hand, but you can still bring out some melodic quality in the left. The LH notes shouldn't be played just mechanically.

[mrba1979]

I personally like using separate hands at first only to understand the fingering and make notes on what I would like to accomplish with each phrasing.  However I do not spend much time with each individual hand, neither do I memorize.  Sight reading has become easier when I stick to understanding the notes I am playing rather than trying to think of what comes next.  I think this goes with out saying, but never assume a piece is easy based on how it sounds.  When my wife asked me to play "Reverie" by Debussy I thought sure I could use an easier piece since I had just finished performing the "Great Gate."  How wrong could I have been!?  At one point I almost gave up! In the end though the piece made me a stronger yet more delicate pianist.   

[gyzzzmo]

For me it depends on if its hard to play. In your case, Fur Elise for example, the first part isnt so hard, you dont make many mistakes if you play it slowly with 2 hands. In the second part, the right hand gets technically more difficult. You'll make many mistakes, even if you play it slowly. Thats the point you should focus on one hand.
The same for other pieces: Do you make too many mistakes if you play it slowly? -> Focus on 1 hand, then the other, then together.

good luck,
gyzzzmo