Hands are too dependent (Beethoven, Pathetique Sonata, 2nd mvt)

[clarinetist]

I do have a teacher; we meet biweekly. But it'll be a while before I see him again.

I'm learning the 2nd movement of the Pathetique sonata. This is the first experience I've ever had with trying to deal with dependence of the fingers and the hands; I've learned a lot about trying to bring out a melody and playing harmonies on the same hand.

But there's one spot I'm particularly struggling with.

You would think that if I could get through the first quarter of the piece with no problems, I could at least bring out a left-hand melody with right-hand harmonies. Turns out that I'm struggling with this.

Particularly, this measure (see attached).

No matter how much slow practice I do, I can't physically get my left hand to be brought out over the Db-Eb harmonies. What can I do to solve this issue?

[pjjslp]

Can you post a recording of what you are doing now? That may help illuminate what you need to do differently.

[piulento]

Seems like more of a musical problem than a technical one to me, so just practicing it slowly won't due - you have to open up your ears.
I guess whenever you've been trying to exaggerate the left hand in order to make it sound louder than the right you just ended up making both hands sound loud. This is nothing but a mental block. What you need to do is thinking ONLY about the melody in the left hand when playing this section. Don't think about what your hand is doing, just sing the left hand melody in your mind (or even out loud if it helps) and seek after it with your ears, and the hand will know what to do by itself.
This is a very tricky thing to do, but once you do it once it's gonna be much easier later (and in other pieces too).
I used to have a very big problem when playing scales - during the upper runs I was fine, but when I had to go back down I just couldn't for some reason. I finally realized I just had to carefully listen to the left hand and just let it lead, and once I did that I suddenly had no difficulty what so ever.

[mrcreosote]

Maybe some rotation/arm weight when you strike the first of the triplets - this way the pinky will get played louder no matter what else you do.  Then "save that thought."  Get a feel physically for what is going on and use that feeling.

[dogperson]

I would recommend a practice technique sometimes called 'ghosting'.

Play hands together, very slowly at first.  Play the left hand melody at the normal volume you would use.  Play the right hand so lightly that no sound comes from the keys.  Once your hands are accustomed to the differences in the weight between the two hands, gradually increase the weight you place on the right hand, but very gently so that the left hand melody is still pre-dominant.


You can practice this same technique with scales.  Play HT, but barely touching the right hand notes so they are not heard, and then gradually increasing the weight. 

[xdjuicebox]

Don't think of the two hands as separate motions, but different parts of the same task. This might seem a little counterintuitive is, but you have to recognize that the two parts are part of one unified whole.

You're having a balancing problem - your RH is too loud and your LH is too quiet. So practice one action where your RH plays the keys lighter than the LH.

Then you deviate from this idea a little bit - focus on eachpart by itself WHILE STILL AWARE OF THE WHOLE - then go back to practicing the whole.

It is very difficult to focus on two things at the same time, but it's very easy to focus on one thing. So just think of the two things as one thing, one very detailed thing.

Also, you have to be listening; your ears are the best feedback. Always.