Unable to play accompanying softer then melody, help!

[choykaiwen]

Lately, I realise that I am unable to play my left hand softer then my right hand (and vice versa). This makes it hard to express the effect of a melody and the bass line accompanying it. Can anyone suggest any exercises or advice to me please?

[landru]

You are not alone - I have exactly the same problem and I am stumped on how best to address it, so I second your your plea for help!

[bella musica]

Imagine that the hand playing accompaniment is just lightly stroking the keys and the hand playing the melody is kneading them like clay...  Or try playing the melody in an exaggerated fortissimo and the accompaniment in an exaggerated pianissimo, just to get the feel of one hand being louder than the other.  Just fool around and see what different kinds of touches you can come up with. 

[bernhard]

Have a look here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3530.msg31559.html#msg31559
(how to bring out a melody – 3 different ways – Importance of a mental representation: hear in your mind and the fingers will comply)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[quasimodo]

Work HS at the required nuance.
In general, right from the start when you learn a piece use the proper nuance.

[musicman]

My teacher taught me a very effective way of learning to play very softly. I play the accompaniment very very loud, and very very slowly, several times. Then, if it's a section that you can divide between two hands (such as a semiquaver group of the type you find in Beethoven or Mozart etc), play it quicker between the two hands. Then play it with the one hand. This is fine for fast passages but it will also work well where you have a slow accompaniment (eg in a Chopin Nocturne).

[stevehopwood]

Ehup, choykaiwen

I teach my students to do this using a method that has yet to fail - "shadow playing", most of my kids call it. I learned it at music college when working on Bach Fugues, years ago and have adapted it for use with less advanced students.

The problem is one of teaching two sets of muscles to work differently, so:

1) LH alone. Move the fingers as though playing the notes, but do not actually depress the keys (advanced players depress the keys about half way, but this is too much for most kids).

2) Keep on silently 'playing' the LH. Add the right hand playing the melody.

3) Keep on silently 'playing' the LH. Play as loudly as possible with the RH - make the sort of sound you would hate were you to have to listen to it.

4) Moderate the tone of the RH and actually play the LH. You should find you can play the LH very softly and make the RH sing.

Ta-Daa. Instant muscle control. Most people find they can make a melody sing after a few minutes of this. Others need longer, but everybody succeeds within a few days.

There are just a couple of points to bear in mind:
1) When 'shadow playing' your LH, make sure you do actually move your fingers or you are wasting your time 
2) The process I have described is the easy bit and usually takes minutes. Making the instrument truly sing, creating a magical sound that makes everybody else jealous - that takes a lifetime of study. 

Steve 

[Bob]

Just learn to play soft.  Very tricky.  You have to know the piano well.

Tilt your hands slightly.  It's easy to tilt both hands out a little toward the pinkies.

Maybe use more weight from the body into the melody notes and more fingers for the rest.

[ingagroznaya]

You have to realize that you can not control your hands because you're too busy thinking about the score ( notes played with both hands simultaneously). Don't overload your mind. Free it.
Step down from your usual level. 5 fingers, 5 keys. Forget the piece you're working on.  Use Do Re Mi Fa Sol' or  C D E F G  Up and down. Slowly. And I mean Go Slowly, as if you'd play whole notes with both hands - C, D, E, F, G - up, F, E, D, C - down. Gently! You are going too fast. Look at the keys and your own fingers after each note. Just like Steve said, note that you aren't pressing the keys all the way down with your left hand, while with the right hand - keys are all the way down. Stop after each note. Are you happy with the sound? Play just C with both hands till you can actually control the volume.

After you are happy with your left hand being soft enough, switch the dynamics and try to keep your left hand loud, while right hand plays soft. If you can gain control of your hands with this easy exercise ( every one can ), you can gain control of the dynamics in any peice you will play after.

Iron/feather hand alone ( or mental representation as Berhnard called it ) does not work for a reason he explained in his link. Mental representation works for teachers and professional musicians, not for someone who has never done it before or having troubles with mechanics of the process..

Good luck! You can do it. Just don't give up too soon.

Play only C, D, E, F, G and nothing else. Not before you feel in charge of your own hands.

[Bob]

Be sure you can relax your hands.  It's being firm in the right places in your hand, relaxed in others.  Controlled relaxedness and dropping into the keys.

[rlefebvr]

Ehup, choykaiwen

I teach my students to do this using a method that has yet to fail - "shadow playing", most of my kids call it. I learned it at music college when working on Bach Fugues, years ago and have adapted it for use with less advanced students.

The problem is one of teaching two sets of muscles to work differently, so:

1) LH alone. Move the fingers as though playing the notes, but do not actually depress the keys (advanced players depress the keys about half way, but this is too much for most kids).

2) Keep on silently 'playing' the LH. Add the right hand playing the melody.

3) Keep on silently 'playing' the LH. Play as loudly as possible with the RH - make the sort of sound you would hate were you to have to listen to it.

4) Moderate the tone of the RH and actually play the LH. You should find you can play the LH very softly and make the RH sing.

Ta-Daa. Instant muscle control. Most people find they can make a melody sing after a few minutes of this. Others need longer, but everybody succeeds within a few days.

There are just a couple of points to bear in mind:
1) When 'shadow playing' your LH, make sure you do actually move your fingers or you are wasting your time 
2) The process I have described is the easy bit and usually takes minutes. Making the instrument truly sing, creating a magical sound that makes everybody else jealous - that takes a lifetime of study. 

Steve 

This is actually a lot harder to do well then it sounds.

Works really well however.


I use the same idea stated by ingagroznaya a lot. However I use scales 2 octaves and play soft to hard on the left hand and hard to soft with the right hand. Control that for 1 or 2 minutes and you really improove your control.

[wenat]

Most of the time I don't have much problems getting across to students about the balance of the accomp vs. melody, but have had a couple of problems with this one student....so thanks for the tips Steve and Ingragoznaya