Hands together - the most painful step!

[bachopoven]

In my and perhaps most people's opinion, putting hands together is a big problem. In my case, it's THE ONLY problem.

Hands separate is fun and easy. I am again speaking from my experience, but I suspect it's most people's too.

Hands together is difficult and we better talk about it because when putting hands together:

1-You can't see both hands at the same time,
2-You can't control both hands at the same time, or it becomes exponentially difficult when hands are put together. The human mind has a hard time working that way,
3-Reading the score needs mind swithing back and forth,
4-and, to make that worse, you have to read both clefs at the same time in many pieces,
5-and, to even top that, notes are in different positions on the treble and bass clefs.
6-depending on the piece, you all can add to the list.

So with all reasons making hands together a pain, I am sure you'll want to share your secrets with us. Thanks!

[ThEmUsIcMaNBJ]

Obviously when you play hands together vs. hands seperate it's going to be harder.  You have to do an extra step!  But it's just like everything else, the more you practice it the better you get.  And since piano is almost always playing hands together you get quite a bit of practice!  I remember when I started, reading both lines of music with a new clef to worry about seemed impossible!  But now I'm a pretty fluent sight reader.  I would have to sit down and closely analyze how I play, to find out how I exactly read both lines at the same time, because it's so natural!  

However I always take Bach pieces hands seperate first to find the best fingerings.  And I would agree with you completely that after I have learned the piece hands seperately trying to put them together is a pain to say the least!    

[bachopoven]

I usually get a good number of responses, but this one, noone has presumably much to say. Either the subject has been beaten down before, or most of you guys don't share this issue with me (or think that it is a necessary devil, and only practice can perfect it.) Thanks anyway.

[RiskyP]

It's a painful step, sure, but there are many others too that are just as painful for me. By painful I mean hard. Proper voicing of chords at all times and provideing a good interpretation require at least as much practice time for me as starting to play hands together.

[MeLisa]

1) You are not supposed to look at your hands
2) You dont control the music , you let the music control you.
3) Not every single notes is 'read', we read intervals, chords, line and spaces

In some pieces its actually easier to play hands together, if one hand serves as a steady rhythm for the other to play complicated (relatively speaking)  rhythm such as syncopation, dotted, compounded etc.

Hand Separate in my opinion is only useful during the stage to decide optimum fingering. If you need it beyond this stage, something is wrong (imo)

In my and perhaps most people's opinion, putting hands together is a big problem. In my case, it's THE ONLY problem.

Hands separate is fun and easy. I am again speaking from my experience, but I suspect it's most people's too.

Hands together is difficult and we better talk about it because when putting hands together

1-You can't see both hands at the same time,
2-You can't control both hands at the same time, or it becomes exponentially difficult when hands are put together. The human mind has a hard time working that way,
3-Reading the score needs mind swithing back and forth,
4-and, to make that worse, you have to read both clefs at the same time in many pieces,
5-and, to even top that, notes are in different positions on the treble and bass clefs.
6-depending on the piece, you all can add to the list.

So with all reasons making hands together a pain, I am sure you'll want to share your secrets with us. Thanks!

 

[bachopoven]

Great advice Melisa. Don't look at hands.

But for the time being, at my level, I have to build up all technique at hands separate. I will try to keep my eyes at the score when putting hands together.

And at my stage, letting the music play is beyong my reach. And another good advice - don't read notes, look at forms - that is another thing I need to work at.

Thanks all. My goals for now are therefore:
-Sight reading (using theory),
-Play without looking at keys,
-Practice a lot of hands together.

[RiskyP]

I don't think there is anything wrong with looking at your hands. First of all, it helps to memorize. Second, once you have a piece 'completely' memorized, you won't have to look at your hands anyway. There is no reason not to look at your hands while learning... it just makes it harder for some people. On the other hand, if it is easier not to look than don't. Horowitz always looked at his hands when learning a piece - he said it was easier that way.  

[bachopoven]

Maybe Horowitz can play by just hearing a new piece. (Well, I can't.) Otherwise, anyone would have to look at the score first till they memorize the piece, then they can look at the keyboard only and their hands to perfect the piece.

But when I think about it now, I wonder if any of these tips really help with the problems of hands together. Maybe the best answer is, "Practice."

[MeLisa]

Sure there is nothing wrong to look at your hands, just as it is not a crime to look at your hands while typing this messages. Not everybody can touch type and not everybody can sight read. But there are people who can 'Really' sight read, its not a myth, some people has to see to believe. Once you believe that sight reading is NOT a myth, it is really up to you to decide if you want to look at the keyboard or not. I have to admit it's difficult not to look at the hands when trying to play huge jumps or obscure chords, but people can do it, so can I.. one day.


Beginners has the tendency to memorise. A good teacher will allow it knowing that its not realistic to expect her to sightread at this stage. A good teacher will force you to learn to read.. there are many tricks up her sleeves guiding you to read.. and this process takes years. So its unrealistic to expect to be able to read with just a few months of lessons. Another reason advanced pianist memorise is for security during performance.

If you memorise every piece, 10 years from now, you may be able to play a large number of pieces beautifully. But to memorise advanced pieces would take you months if not years, if you can read, the time to learn new pieces is considerably shortened. and you have unlimited repertoire.

Sight reading is extremely hard to do, you can try it on your own and I wish you luck but when the time comes when you are about to give up, get a teacher. Be warned that not all teachers can sight read.. but all you need is some luck to meet with one pianist who can sight read to make you a believer that sight reading IS NOT A MYTH. If you have not met such person, I can fully understand why you dont believe it can be done.

I don't think there is anything wrong with looking at your hands. First of all, it helps to memorize. ..  

[Ktari]

Hey ^^ My suggestion to you would be to try to refrain from thinking of your hands separately: left hand plays this, right hand plays this. I prefer to think of my hands as one entity, like, one hand with 10 fingers I guess? So instead of controlling two things you only pay attention to one. I'm mostly against learning things hands separately and then putting them together -it seems like you learn, then relearn after you put them together. Just start together!

P.S. About seeing your hands, think about dancing and driving... or any other analogy that would apply: you don't look directly at the other dancers to get your relative position on stage, nor do you stare at other cars when you're driving on the road. Often just seeing your hand in the corner of your eye is enough