Need to strengthen my left hand

[jdneul]

Ok I have been playing piano since march 2020, and have finally started to work really hard on improving my speed on both hands, but to do this it seems I need something to help strengthen my left hand.
Any suggestions would be welcome (nothing overly expensive please)?
Thank you 

[ivorycherry]

Play your scales or songs in different ways: staccato, super quietly, legato, or in rhythms like long-short, short-long, etc.. This will improve your technique for your hands. I would probably do long-short, short-long rhythms for scales on your left hand to improve stability and speed. Maybe some Hannon for your level would also be helpful.

A saying my teacher has that can be applied to scales, songs, single measures of a song, etc. is, “You gain control by manipulation”, but not like in real-life, but in piano. By playing a part or something many different ways, you start to get a lot more perspectives on it and understand more ways for it which improves your understanding of that part of something very thoroughly instead of just playing it one way and having a narrow understanding of it.

Hope this helps,
Alex

[thirtytwo2020]

Like ivorycherry wrote, a period of intelligent work on scales and your favorite exercices with the left hand separately should get you a long way.

When I want to improve my left hand playing in some way, I often try to look very closely what the right hand does when faced with the same problem. In other words, try to really thoroughly analyse why the right hand can play faster than the left. Maybe you'll get some more specific ideas than the rather general "strengthen the left hand". I think that expression might even lead you down the wrong track if what you want to primarily develop is velocity. What kind of work comes to your mind spontaneusly when you write about 'strengthening' the hand?   

[lelle]

Well it depends on what you mean by strengthening. I believe there is some muscle development involved in playing as I have quite more muscular hands from playing. But I don't think it's strength you can get to quickly by using weights or squeezing rubber balls or other hand exercise tools. I think you kind of have to play the piano itself to develop the necessary muscles. So keep practising and maybe find a teacher to direct what you need to focus on.

[gospelpiano12]

I've been playing since March or last year and I have improved a lot just by taking all of my pieces and learning the left hand part in both hands. I know it seems weird, but I'll learn the treble clef part in both hands. I do that just because the right hand usually gets all the fun bits; arpeggios, riffs, etc. and it gives the left hand some practice. I am a beginner myself so I could be wrong, but it works for me and I don't normally confuse the parts when each hand is playing it's own part.