HELP!!- Styles of learning to play the piano.

[quark]

Is there any school of thought that promotes playing ambidextrously?  In other words, to train the left hand to be just as dextrous as the right hand, including playing melodies with the left hand?

Can someone name any pianists or even organists, living or dead who did this or even came to close to.  The genre does not matter to me.

Thanks

[allchopin]

I would think that just about every master from the 18th century (or so) to the current time has been quite seemingly ambidextrous in their playing, all the way from Rubenstein to Rubinstein (ba doom, chsshh).  Bach probably was ambidextrous because his preludes and fugues exhibit similar melodies and copying one hand to the other.  I know that Liszt could do just about anything with his left hand, all the while making a cake and doing his taxes.  The best way to work up your left hand, I have found, is to play left-hand etudes, and to work it up to match your right in speed and agility.

[bernhard]

Is there any school of thought that promotes playing ambidextrously?

Is there any school of thought that does not?

[quark]

I am new to the piano so please excuse me if I am lacking in knowledge.

From what I can tell so far, the left hand plays a bass line and the right hand the melody.  There just seems to be more activity in the right hand.  I have not seen any lessons that teach your left hand to have as much activity as the right hand.

[quark]

allchopin ,


Thank you!

[Clare]

It's true that lots of pieces have the melody in the right hand, but many pieces of an intermediate or higher standard will at least have one or two bits where the melody will change to the left hand, or even be combined.
Also, as allchopin mentioned, fugues by Bach will always have lots of melodies working together in both hands at the same time.
If you look around, there are many, many studies which feature the left hand or use both hands similarly at all sorts of levels. If you can get your hands on a book of studies by an assortment of composers, I'm sure you will find a few. There are even studies around which say they are specifically fo the left hand.
So, hunt around! You will find left-handed stuff.

[quark]

Clare,

Thank you so much for your reply.  Can you recommend any software based studies that follow the left-handed method or any of the things that you described in your reply at the beginners level?

[eddie92099]

There are also many pieces written for Left Hand alone, the most notable being Prokofiev's Fourth Concerto, Ravel's Concerto for Left Hand, Britten's Diversions for Left Hand and Orchestra etc.
Ed

[bernhard]

 Can you recommend any software based studies that follow the left-handed method or any of the things that you described in your reply at the beginners level?

Ed suggested:

There are also many pieces written for Left Hand alone, the most notable being Prokofiev's Fourth Concerto, Ravel's Concerto for Left Hand, Britten's Diversions for Left Hand and Orchestra etc.
Ed

Nice beginner's pieces Ed!

If what you want is for your left hand to be able to do the same sort of patterns of the right hand (and therefore most pieces of the melody/accompaniment format are unsuitable), you will have to look into polyphonic music.

At the beginner-intermediate level, have a look at these 3 Konnemann's compilations:

1. Early dances (Ed. Agnes Lakos)
2. Introduction to Polyphonic playing (Ed. Agnes Lakos)
3. The Baroque pianist (P. Vappavuori & H. Hynninen)

Slightly more difficult are:

4.  J. S. Bach's - 18 Little preludes

If the pieces in these collections are too easy, then go up a notch and try:

5. J. S. Bach - Two voice inventions.

Which can be followed up by:

6. J. S. Bach - Three voice inventions.

From there, anything by J.S. Bach (Preludes & fugues, Partitas, French & English suites, etc.) will give you not only ambidexterity as well as hand and finger independence.

Also, have a look at this related thread:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=stud;action=display;num=1067980504

Finally, most people experience problems with the left hand because they do not have the habit of using it in an integrated, co-ordinated way in their daily lives.

Consider the way you cut a steak with knife and fork. Most people (yes, I ask these questions from people ) tell me they do it with their hands. But actually they do it with their arms.

When it comes  to piano playing, beginners will be all right on the right hand since they are using the whole arm in a coordinated way to play. But the left hand is used only form the hand down. Since people are not used to total left side co-ordination, they do not use it when playing the piano.

There are two ways of fixing this. First, start to use your left hand - or should I say -  the left side a lot in daily life (e.g., when brushing teeth, when opening doors, when washing dishes, when moving stuff - you get the idea). Second get an inverted piano (they are expensive, but they exist!). these pianos are built so that the treble is left and the bass is right. This means that you can play a piece with your left hand playing the treble part and the right hand playing the bass part. The perfect solution, even if you do not hate Bach!

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[quark]

Ed suggested:


Nice beginner's pieces Ed!

Yes Ed, thank you so much for the pointers!

If what you want is for your left hand to be able to do the same sort of patterns of the right hand (and therefore most pieces of the melody/accompaniment format are unsuitable), you will have to look into polyphonic music.

At the beginner-intermediate level, have a look at these 3 Konnemann's compilations:

1. Early dances (Ed. Agnes Lakos)
2. Introduction to Polyphonic playing (Ed. Agnes Lakos)
3. The Baroque pianist (P. Vappavuori & H. Hynninen)

Slightly more difficult are:

4.  J. S. Bach's - 18 Little preludes

If the pieces in these collections are too easy, then go up a notch and try:

5. J. S. Bach - Two voice inventions.

Which can be followed up by:

6. J. S. Bach - Three voice inventions.

From there, anything by J.S. Bach (Preludes & fugues, Partitas, French & English suites, etc.) will give you not only ambidexterity as well as hand and finger independence.

Also, have a look at this related thread:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=stud;action=display;num=1067980504

Finally, most people experience problems with the left hand because they do not have the habit of using it in an integrated, co-ordinated way in their daily lives.

Consider the way you cut a steak with knife and fork. Most people (yes, I ask these questions from people ) tell me they do it with their hands. But actually they do it with their arms.

When it comes  to piano playing, beginners will be all right on the right hand since they are using the whole arm in a coordinated way to play. But the left hand is used only form the hand down. Since people are not used to total left side co-ordination, they do not use it when playing the piano.

There are two ways of fixing this. First, start to use your left hand - or should I say -  the left side a lot in daily life (e.g., when brushing teeth, when opening doors, when washing dishes, when moving stuff - you get the idea). Second get an inverted piano (they are expensive, but they exist!). these pianos are built so that the treble is left and the bass is right. This means that you can play a piece with your left hand playing the treble part and the right hand playing the bass part. The perfect solution, even if you do not hate Bach!

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Bernhard,  I thank you for your informative and insightful response.  I had already started to use my left hand more ( I even use my left hand for my mouse!).  I am a software developer, so I will get plenty use out of my left hand in this way!

I shall look at the list that you gave me and see if I can located the pieces.  At some point, I surely hope that I can find some software out there for southpaws!

Also, I did a Google search on "left handed piano" and came up with a hit.  There is a gentleman in the UK who built a left-handed piano.  He also invented a MIDI Keyboard module that will covert all of the notes on a keyboard to "mirror" opposite values, which costs $125 British pounds, or approximately  US $230.

www.lefthandedpiano.co.uk

Best regards,

Gigi

[bernhard]

You are welcome.

By the way, my comment on Ed's pieces was a joke. . They are advanced pieces (perhaps not to him...) of a virtuosic ( another joke) character.

And thanks for the site on left handed piano. I always wanted one, but the price put me off! Not anymore.

I am a software developer

If you cannot find the software you want, you may consider developing it! I am sure there will be plenty of interest in it.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Clare]

I can only think of one reasonably easy study off the top of my head but if you own Burgmuller's book of progressive studies, there's one in it called Ballade and there is a lot of left hand melody in it. I think there are other studies in there which use the left hand for melody too.
This book is really widely available.

[quark]

Bernhard,

Thank you for your recommendations.

Being a newbie, the joke was on me!

Best regards,

Gigi

[quark]

I can only think of one reasonably easy study off the top of my head but if you own Burgmuller's book of progressive studies, there's one in it called Ballade and there is a lot of left hand melody in it. I think there are other studies in there which use the left hand for melody too.
This book is really widely available.

Clare,

Thanks for the suggestion!  I'll look it up.


Best regards,

Gigi