Improving the left hand..

[pet]

I have recently realized that there is a HUGE difference between my left and right hand.  Right now, I am playing Mozart Sonata in D major (k. 448) for two pianos and Kleine Suite Op. 31 by Ferrucio Busoni for Cello and Piano.  There is a lot of unison between the two hands in both piano parts, and I constantly have troube with my left hand keeping up with my right hand,whether is is scalar passages (excluding regular scales) or not.

I do practice my scales religiously, and can play them very well, and I am accustomed to playing a lot of Bach (I usually choose pieces where both hands have equal difficult parts). I just finished performing Mozart Sonata K. 310 which has a lot of scales in both hands, and I did fine with that.  So it seems when both hands have to play in unison, and it is not a straight up and down scale, my left hand always trips up or drops out altogether.

Do any of you have a remedy to fix this problem? 

Thanks!

[plunkyplink]

Slow practise with the left hand. Lots of it.

[krittyot]

Horowitz's answer would be "Hanon".

 

[nanabush]

I'm playing the Italian Concerto, and I find it's helping my left hand tremendously, mostly for running passages, and in some select spots, some very awkward leaps.  My finger independance on my left hand has increased, because there are some spots with very strange fingering, while having to hold a note with the same hand.  Check out the 3rd movement, it's got alot of neat stuff for left hand...
  This piece right now I feel is a notch above my level, so it's really working my left hand, but if this isn't quite at your level, (I'm not familiar with the piece you mentioned), then it may not help.
   This may be completely useless  because you may not want to learn a 7 page piece just to increase your left hand dexterity, but w/e it's helpin me alot.

[pet]

Thank you all for your responses.  Nana..I will look into that piece.

[pizno]

I'm with you, Pet!  Same problem, that I have been thinking about lately.  The left hand is just spastic, in comparison to the right.  You already do scales  - but I have been doing more of them, and trying to concentrate on speed.  I realized that I'm not very good at descending.  But I'm getting better!  I think things like Hanon are probably the answer.

[ramseytheii]

Another thing to do is practice the LH and RH playing figurations mirror imaged of each other, so you are using the same fingers and going in opposite directions.   Sviatoslav Richter wrote this about painting lessons he took from Robert Falk:

"From time to time I used to go and practice painting at his studio, and it was on one of these occasions that he made the following comment, which I immediately applied to the piano: 'Do you know what's the most difficult thing about painting?  It's to draw a perfect circle.  But it's less difficult if you use both hands and draw two circles simultaneously.'  It's exactly the same with the piano.  Symmetry!  Everything has to be symmetrical.  And then he told me that when you practice a lot, you reach the point where 'the water begins to boil' and that it's this moment that is essential."

Walter Ramsey

[sissco]

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,17336.msg185618.html#msg185618 Have a look there

[turner]

There are quite a few pieces written for the strengthening of the left hand.  Chopin's Revolutionary Etude is an obvious example.  If that's beyond reach, Moszkowski's Etude Op. 72, No. 2 in G Minor is also mentioned frequently as a good left hand piece. 

We are so lucky as piano players, because our repertoire is so vast! This means that if you look carefully, sooner or later, you'd find pieces that need lots of work from the left hand.  Just off the top of my head: Chopin's G Major Prelude, Op. 28, No. 3, and last movement of Beethoven's 1st Sonata in F Minor.

Good luck! 

[superstition2]

We are so lucky as piano players, because our repertoire is so vast!

Not so lucky if you're a left-handed player like me with fingers that are twice as fast on the "wrong" hand. I hate my right hand. If I had the money, I'd build or buy a lefty piano.

[turner]

Hmmm

Supersitition2: Couldn't you turn this "not so lucky" to a "lucky"? Since you have the opposite problem, you have so many more pieces to choose from for developing your right hand!


*******************************

Not so lucky if you're a left-handed player like me with fingers that are twice as fast on the "wrong" hand. I hate my right hand. If I had the money, I'd build or buy a lefty piano.