Practicing two-part phrasing: Tan Dun Staccato Beans

[mrcreosote]

This is a very fun piece which exposes a weakness:  difficulty in having my hands phrase independently.

The 4-note LH pattern starts with a 1-2 slur and then staccatos.

The problem is when the RH has to do a 3-4 slur while the LH has just finished its slur and is doing the staccatos.

This is so "simple" it is very frustrating.

I believe the way this should be done is to put the LH in "autopilot" like in Boogie-Woogie music which I can do fairly well as far as the notes go - but even here, independent phrasing is a big failure for me.

I can do it correctly at very slow speed, but it is robotically, note by note with no mental continuity.  I believe I can learn to feel the physical finger pattern eventually and then speed that up - perhaps then the mental continuity will follow.

Hands separate doesn't seem to help much (it rarely does).