Is there any possibilities of reconizing the movements of both of your hands?

[alison128]

Hi, I'm currently practising a few pieces, and I really wish to know is there any possibilities of recognizing what are you playing both of your hands simultaneously? I mean can u focus on two hands together? It's quite hard for me. I have tried to practise HS but then when it comes to HT, i began to mess up.....I wish to know is there any ways to control what are playing on two hands more efficiently?

[Bob]

For general motion, if they move in parallel or contrary/opposite motion, you can focus on one motion there. 

For notes, if you think of the chord (if you've got that down), then it's just thinking about one chord instead of several individual notes.

You can adjust after awhile of practicing.  Your mind will adjust. 

After enough practice either hands separate or hands together slowly, things will become automatic. 

If it's two separate lines moving along at the same time, usually they're still linked with harmony (you can think of one chord) but that is tougher (or impossible) to really focus on both at once.  I think that's like listening to two conversations at the same time. 

[stevebob]

Simultaneous independence/interdependence of the hands is certainly possible.  Until it becomes second nature, I can think of a couple things that may help.

Try playing passages in which both hands are playing the same notes in unison but one or two octaves apart.  (Hanon exercises are a good example, though I'm sure you can find, or improvise, more musical ones.)  When the movements are identical and synchronized in this fashion, you may find it easier to focus on your image of each hand individually and your mental connection to it.

Another strategy might be to practice HS, and then incrementally add the notes played by the other hand.  While practicing the right hand's part, for example, include only the left hand's notes that fall on, say, the first beat of each measure.  Then reverse the exercise, letting your right hand drop in the occasional notes while the left hand plays continuously.  The pattern or frequency of gradually appending the opposite hand's notes is up to you; experiment to find what yields the best results.

[keyboardclass]

That's actually a fascinating topic.  I've been mentally practicing lately by visualizing my hands on a keyboard.  I can only 'see' one hand at a time just like in reality but also only see the amount of keyboard each hand is using (I assume also like reality).  Because of that they sometimes overlap!

[ggpianogg]

I find there is really no need to keep track of "both hands together" so I never even tried that. What I'm usually doing is either not looking at all (if I feel comfortable with a piece) or I'm looking somewhere in the middle between both hands, thereby my peripherial vision is catching a glimpse of both my hands. I'm not really looking at BOTH hands simultaneously per se, but this slight vision coverage that I have makes me not miss any notes. And from time to time my eyes jump for a micro second to one of my hands - that's probably in spots where there is a difficult movement for me, so I immediately direct my attention there to make sure I don't screw up.

I'm assuming this is how everybody else does it though, am I wrong?

[stevebob]

[...]

I'm assuming this is how everybody else does it though, am I wrong?

I think that's a reasonable depiction of how we manage our eyesight resourcefully at the keyboard, given that it can't encompass its entire width or focus, in the literal sense, on each hand simultaneously.

I had assumed that the original question concerned the mental awareness of the "mind's eye" that enables the independent control over each hand and, concurrently, the synchronized and interdependent coordination of both of them together.

[adaubre]

Hi, I'm currently practising a few pieces, and I really wish to know is there any possibilities of recognizing what are you playing both of your hands simultaneously? I mean can u focus on two hands together? It's quite hard for me. I have tried to practise HS but then when it comes to HT, i began to mess up.....I wish to know is there any ways to control what are playing on two hands more efficiently?

I think that the hands separate stage is very much technical in nature in terms of fingering/position but because you need to "train" your fingers/brain to play them together eventually, you don't want to play hand separate too long (ie: beyond a very technical/cerebral stage).  Obviously at the beginning, the hands together will be slow, but as you pay less attention to what your fingers are actually doing (which is the tendency with HS) you will find that progress will be made quickly.  Its kind of like letting your fingers go in the direction that "makes sense" based on the music that needs to come out of the piano.

As for the necessity of focussing on two hands together:  When I play I hardly look at my hands - I feel the keys when I touch them and they know where to go based on the music that needs to come out of the piano.  But to get there, I had to go very slowly HT at the outset.  

[nystul]

You shouldn't have to *look* at your hands very often at all, unless the piece requires big shifts in hand position or you are just getting started.  But that's a separate issue.  Playing different phrasings with hands together (as in Bach for example) can be quite a mental trick.  I think you just have to take it slow enough to shift your concentration to every aspect of both hands until the things start to become automatic and you can go faster.

[pianisten1989]

Play as slow as you need to focus on both of your hands. Though, sometimes you should try to focus on one hand, and let the other hand to its thing, since you really can't focus on both of them all the time.

And maybe I missunderstood something.. But why should the two hands have different motions? They are exactly the same, but somehow teachers use to mess it up in the beginning with letting the left hand to one note each bar, while the right hand to all the tricky work. I really don't like that...
 
Anyhow, practice Sloooowly