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Topic: my left hand is too loud  (Read 14050 times)

Offline cwjalex

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my left hand is too loud
on: August 17, 2014, 02:45:19 AM
i have been playing for about a year but only have taken lessons for a few months.  when i first started learning i didn't pay attention to the volume of my left hand and played both hands at the same level volume.  the first things i learned were bach inventions and like solfeggietto, so the fact that both hands were at the same volume didn't jump out at me as sounding wrong.  now that i am taking lessons and playing more advanced pieces i have realized that my left hand is much too loud and i am having trouble making it quieter.  i feel like when i am playing i am barely hitting the keys on my left hand in order to get it to sound right.  is this normal?  do people play their right hand just a little louder so they don't have to play their left hand so light?  in every single piece should my left hand be significantly quieter than my right hand?  im also having trouble with fast 16th note runs on my left hand keeping them quiet when indicated.  i know i will get better it at with practice but any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

Offline outin

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Re: my left hand is too loud
Reply #1 on: August 17, 2014, 03:16:23 AM
You learned Bach inventions on your own and now you are playing more advanced pieces? The inventions are rather advanced for a beginner already so I don't know what you've jumped into. You've only played for a year? Things don't just develope overnight, you know...

Your teacher is there to help you learn this stuff, but yes, depending on your instrument, you might need to play the right hand more to bring it out instead of just trying to play the left hand quiet.

There are some techniques to help you get the balance, you could do a search on this forum, but I think it might be better to let your teacher adress the issues. There might be other technical things  that need to be worked on first.

Offline j_menz

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Re: my left hand is too loud
Reply #2 on: August 17, 2014, 10:48:13 PM
Can you play the left hand softly on its own?
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline cwjalex

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Re: my left hand is too loud
Reply #3 on: August 18, 2014, 06:33:34 AM
Can you play the left hand softly on its own?

yeah but i have played for so long with both hands at the same volume that now when i sit down to play i have to consciously tell myself to keep my left hand soft.  im learning mozart sonata 8 in a minor now which has a lot of 16th notes that is supposed to be played softly that i'm having trouble playing.

Offline bronnestam

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Re: my left hand is too loud
Reply #4 on: August 18, 2014, 10:01:23 PM
Remember that it is not the weight you put behind the pressure that makes the volume, but the velocity. The faster you press, the louder noise. So you need to control your left hand a bit more in order to make the down movements slower. Take your time and really get to know yourself and your hand movements, make a lot of exercises. For example, try a simple C chord. Put your fingers on the keys, then "bounce" very, very gently so that the keys start to move. Soon the hammers will start to get in contact with the strings and then you will have a soft sound, and then you increase the amplitude of the "bouncing" in order to make the sound louder.
(I am not sure this works with a digital piano, though ...)

Don't just fall into the common trap of wanting to play just a lot of pieces UP TEMPO (fast and furious, that is), but find a lot of easy, slow pieces where you can experiment even more.

One thing I know I tend to do by myself is to "overplay" the keys with my left hand, that is, not letting one key go fully before I press the next one. In the lower register, this creates a distorted noise which is not very nice to listen at in long terms, so I'm working with this. For this, you need to play slowly and to really observe your fingers and how you move your wrist, arm, etcetera. Study what happens if you try to make the movements just from your knuckles, or from your wrist, your forearm, your shoulder - eventually you will feel how your muscles in your back are working. Get aware of your body works, how you keep the best balance, stay relaxed ... (If you are too tense, you will not just waste your energy and risk injuries, but also lose control.) Yes, this is hard to do if you are struggling with learning something fast and technical, that's why you should work with easy pieces and exercises when you do this. Be patient, because these little picky details will eventually pay off.

But there are few problems that will get fixed just in one sitting, so be prepared that you must work with this for a very long time.

Offline j_menz

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Re: my left hand is too loud
Reply #5 on: August 18, 2014, 10:51:01 PM
yeah but i have played for so long with both hands at the same volume that now when i sit down to play i have to consciously tell myself to keep my left hand soft. 

Your problem isn't physical, then. You are capable of doing it, you just need to concentrate on it. If your mind wanders, you'll go back to default.

Practice a few bars. Don't just try and make the LH "softer", try and accent different notes in it. Try and do a crescendo, just with the LH, then a decrescendo. Then with the RH. The aim is not to make the LH "softer", though that may be the obvious problem at the moment - it's to develop control over each note wherever it lies.

The Bach Inventions you have done should have helped here, and may still do so.  Since you know the notes, go back to them, and practice emphasising different lines - LH soft, RH louder; RH soft LH louder. Then shape each phrase in each hand with crescendos and decrescendos. That you know the notes will make it easier to concentrate on this aspect.

In the end, these relative dynamics will be something you are naturally aware of, and able to control. In the meantime, it will take mental effort to stay focussed.
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline dima_76557

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Re: my left hand is too loud
Reply #6 on: August 19, 2014, 06:07:03 AM
@ cwjalex

One thing you probably haven't tried yet because it is so counterintuitive: play that left hand really fortissimo 5 to 10 times in a row while keeping the right hand really soft. Then have a cup of tea/coffee and after the break, play the piece as your sound image dictates but without interfering too much physically. I'm quite sure this will work for you. :)
No amount of how-to information is going to work if you have the wrong mindset, the wrong guiding philosophies. Avoid losers like the plague, and gather with and learn from winners only.
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