Melody and Harmony

[johnvw]

Hi to All,
As a very mature aged beginner, the Piano certainly has its frustrating limitations.
I am (learning) two beginner modified pieces, without success. I recall being advised to learn the Melody then the Harmony, with luck, God may smile upon your endeavours ……no so.

I just can not put the two together, although separately they are quite reasonable.

I have restarted learning each Treble and Base clef bars, a few at a time, with better results.

Perhaps the short answer is, we all learn differently, and for me at this time that appears to be the most effective. Although in the long term ( wishful thinking ) it may prove detrimental.

From the members experience has learning separately or M and H together proved more successful ?

My sight reading is near non existent, although I realise it’s importance. I tend to initially read then muscle memory takes over with very limited visuals of the score.

The enjoyment far surpasses the constant frustration, but becoming aware of different / better approaches would always be welcomed.

Thank you for your replies, in advance

John

[brogers70]

I started at age 40. At first putting the hands together was a huge challenge. To coordinate two or three bars of a melody over an Alberti bass harmony made my head explode. It seemed very, very difficult.

It will get easier with time. Practicing hands separate can be helpful, as you have noticed. When putting the hands together you can try a couple of things

1. Play very, very slowly. Ridiculously slowly, so that you have time to stop and think between each beat, or each half or quarter of a beat.

2. Play the RH melody normally, but in the LH play only the note(s) that falls on the beginning of the first beat of each measure.

3. If the LH accompaniment is in arpeggios, just play them as block chords on the downbeat.

It will get easier, in fact, much, much easier over time.

[johnvw]

Dear Brogers70,
Thank you for the reply and encouragement. I can certainly relate to the head explosions. My memory / recall seems to be far more sympathetic to patterns, ie M and H together, rather than individual M and H, at this early stage.
Most encouraging to find no other members have experienced difficulty with M and H.

I wonder what approach they may have found more successful ?

 Best Regards
John

[anacrusis]

When you are tackling something challenging to you, it's often a good idea to learn one hand at a time, and then put them together. When your skills grow and your sight reading improves, you can eventually learn to read things hands together.

[johnvw]

Dear Anacrusis,
Thank you for the reply. This advise seems the most obvious and would appear to be applied to most beginners. The piece is ‘Memories’ from Cats ( well above my pay grade ).

Singularly, both Melody and Harmony were fine ( concentrating on the first third of the score ).

When combining, a whole new World. I finally resorted to relearning both H and M, bar ( measure ) by bar, with greater success.

Combining H and M may improve over time. Starting Piano late (72) in life certainly presents many limitations, but the perceived rewards are worthwhile.

I have new found respect for Piano players of all grades, because it is really tough.


Regards to All
John

[lelle]

When combining, a whole new World. I finally resorted to relearning both H and M, bar ( measure ) by bar, with greater success.

Never hesitate to break things down into super small details if that's what you need to learn them. Bar by bar, beat by beat, or even note by note. Sometimes that's what the gears in our brain needs to know how to turn.

It's certainly going to improve as your brain chews on it. There are tons of stories of people improving at the piano even when starting late.