Practicing one hand at a time up to speed

[quietnoise]

What is the accepted method of practice when learning a new piece?
Is it better to learn a part up to tempo in each hand before trying them together? Or is it better to practice slowly hands-together and build up to tempo that way?
I know that hands-together is a different discipline, and playing hands-separately up to speed won't instantly mean you will be able to play hands-together at tempo, I'm just interested in finding out how a pro pianist would approach this, and whether one would learn a section of music more quickly by practicing hands separately up to tempo first.
Is it really down to the individual, or does the brain assimilate information better using a certain method?
Interested to hear your thoughts.

Steve

[megadodd]

Pro pianists just sightread in tempo hands together alot of pieces? ))

Hands together from the start works best for me, and when it's a tricky part I do hands separately just to get the movements down and make sure I don't tense up while trying to hit a note in the induvidual hand.

So basically, hands together, but isolating problems hands separately, and sometimes the problems just occour hands together, then I practice hands together. So that's as simple as I can put it.

Once you get routine down, one will know what works best also.

And on a side note, as always. When you got it up to tempo hands together, go back and practice it slowly. Every misstake should make you want to drown a cat. And we love cats.

[bruced]

I agree with the previous post.  

There are advantages to learning a piece, hands together, from the outset.  The musical aspects of the piece are much more readily absorbed and understood when the piece is learned hands together.  In many instances, it takes both hands to understand the harmony and the harmonic progressions of a work (or section of a work).  In many works where the main ideas (i.e. melody, themes) are interwoven between the two hands, it's difficult to conceive those themes until the hands are played together.  

Learning a piece, hands together, has one immediately focusing on balance between the two hands, something that cannot be accomplished until one starts putting the hands together.  

It has also been proven (according to my teacher and many she has consulted) that those who consistently learn their repertoire hands together from the start become - over time - much better readers of music than those who always learn hands separately.  Get accustomed to reading and playing two staves at once. 

As many do, I often isolate a difficult section or passage and practice it with the hand that needs the practice, but I feel that always studying pieces hands separately to start with slows down the learning process.  Once the separate hands are learned, one has to take a giant leap backwards and start putting the hands together.  Putting the hands together at the outset at least makes the learning process a continuously advancing one.  

For the purposes of memorization - and for very solid memorization - some advocate memorizing hands separately.  This undoubtedly helps secure the piece since it helps avoid those memory lapses where one hand isn't waiting for the other.  Those who do memorize hands separately, however, do say that the learn the piece first, hands together and then memorize the piece hands separately.

Individual cases may vary, and some beginning pianists may be unable to learn hands together, but I strongly advocate, for those who are beyond the beginning stages of learning, to practice - and learn - hands together from the beginning.

Regards,

[j_menz]

For what it's worth, I couldn't agree more. 

In pretty much all intermediate/advanced pieces, balance between the hands is an essential part of the musicality of a piece and practicing hands seperately, apart from isolated bits that are proving problematic (and even then only for a short, concentrated period), will operate against achieving this.

Hands seperate also fosters an instinct that there are two, and only two, elements to a piece; one in the left hand and the other in the right. Plenty of pieces (and not only the obvious 3 or more part contrapuntal examples) are more complex than that. You should endeavour to be able to think about all of the elements together and at once.

Further, there are plenty of pieces where fingers or hands must interact, crossing over or under one another. Practicing these hands seperately is a complete waste of time.

[pianoplayjl]

What is the accepted method of practice when learning a new piece?
Is it better to learn a part up to tempo in each hand before trying them together? Or is it better to practice slowly hands-together and build up to tempo that way?
I know that hands-together is a different discipline, and playing hands-separately up to speed won't instantly mean you will be able to play hands-together at tempo, I'm just interested in finding out how a pro pianist would approach this, and whether one would learn a section of music more quickly by practicing hands separately up to tempo first.
Is it really down to the individual, or does the brain assimilate information better using a certain method?
Interested to hear your thoughts.

Steve

I think it is up to your brain on how it assimilate  information and then pieces it together for you. I think it depends on the  pianist and his ability to learn pieces. Ones who learn faster peices obviously have more efficient methods of practicing. For me it is hands seperate every time unless there areparts where it is easy enough to do hands together or the only way to practice that part is hands together. The purpose of hands separate it to get the fingering ntoes and fingering right in each hand. You have to do it slowly and get every detail rgiht so that you don't have to correct mistakes while you are doing the piece hands together. I find that it is hard to quit habits while practicing a piece i.e. fingering becuase you are used to it. But it is never too late.

JL