Left hand agility

[pies]

My left hand (main/writing hand) and its fingers (!) have always been less agile than my right hand.
How can I improve it?

[pies]

Thanks for the help; I've managed to make my left hand better than my right with all of this advice.

[chadefa1]

You also gave us a generous one hour to respond. Needless to say, you have obviously not even used the search function. A simple search gave me tons of similar posts.

Your devoted slave,

[pies]

You also gave us a generous one hour to respond.

Wrong. I posted my reply one day and one hour after the first post.

[pianiststrongbad]

I'm not sure how much I can help you as my left hand is also not quite as coordinated as my right.  But it has definately been improving over the last few years, so I might be doing something right.  Most importantly, I think it is similar to sightreading, the more you do, the better it will be.  Meaning the more music you play the more it will develop.  Bach, Chopin, Joplin, Liszt and everything else are great ways to develop it.  Maybe if you take Czerny for example and find something that has a demanding left hand part and work on just the left hand it will help.  I think the other important part is play everything evenly.  So don't take a tempo where you are squeezing some of the notes in and others are longer.  But rather take a slow tempo and make it all sound good.  Then eventually it will be easier to play faster.  Also keep in mind good fingerings do play a large roll in this.  If something doesn't feel comfortable most of time for me I notice the fingering could be better.  In some cases there is no great fingering, but by trying different fingerings out, your hand will develop also.  Hope this helps.

[barnowl]

And if you want to have great fun while you're smartening up your left hand, play some Tchaikovsky waltzes, or even better, Joplin Rags.

Along the Tchaikovsky line you might try his Waltz Opus 39 No. 9 and/or Neapolitan Dance-song, both from Album for the Young.

They're for kids, both very pretty, but if your left hand is lazy, these will wake it up.

Go to https://www.classicalarchives.com/, sign up for free,  click on Tchaikovzky, click on piano works and scroll down to the work entitled:

Album pour enfants (Children's Album)  No 8 Is the Waltz, No. 18 is he Neapolitan Song. I'm beginning piano again after a 23-year layoff and am working on both of these pieces. It really helps to hear them again and again.

Listen past some of the clunky midis, and hear only the beauty of the work, and how gorgeous it'll be when you play it.

You get up to 5 downloads per 24 hours at this site with a free membership. Lots more for $25/year.

You can buy the book - Tchaikowsky Children's Album Peter Ilyich Tchaikowsky - Late Intermediate Classical Piano Series for cheap at

https://www.music44.com/X/product/K04018-D

Dominus vobiscum.

[pianistimo]

dominus vobiscum?  make the left hand sing?  what does it mean?  not another pondering day on foreign words.

[rimv2]

Thanks for the help; I've managed to make my left hand better than my right with all of this advice.

Good to see Godowsky worked out for you then

[barnowl]

dominus vobiscum?  make the left hand sing?  what does it mean?  not another pondering day on foreign words.

The Lord be with you.

Y tú también,  .