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So the thing is, I can learn most new RH parts pretty fast even if it is a difficult piece like flight of the bumble-bee. The problem is that my left hand isn't on the same level so if I practice for say 5 minutes for my RH than I need about 20-30 min for my LH , how can I bring my LH to the same level as my RH. I'd say my right hand is at advanced level but my left hand is at low-intermediate at best.

BlueJay
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nour osama
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  • Can you give some detail of _how_ you have tried to improve your right hand, beyond giving about 4 times the practice time to L.H. What are you doing with the L.H. during that extra time? Also, what is "better", I get the impression you might simply mean _faster_. – Michael Curtis Feb 15 '19 at 20:21
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    @MichaelCurtis by better I mean more efficient in learning , learns faster than my left hand despite me doing regular left hand training , in almost any thing I play I can't look away from my left hand otherwise I make mistakes not the case with right hand even if the left hand plays fairly basic chords I still need much more time to play it confidently than my right hand so is there any thing specific I should do? – nour osama Feb 15 '19 at 21:52
  • @DavidBowling as I said already practice way more than my RH – nour osama Feb 15 '19 at 21:53
  • I think there are enough specifics now. "I can't look away from my left hand." – Michael Curtis Feb 15 '19 at 22:34
  • Do you practice scales and arpeggios regularly? If so do you do that with hands separate or hands together? – JimM Feb 15 '19 at 23:26
  • I get a similar thing happening when I learn a Chopin piece. My right hand, I might get right on the first try at speed. The left hand though be it wide arpeggios or octave leaps or both means I have to slow down to get it right. So, when I can speed up is very much dependent on how fast my left hand can go, not so much on my right hand, at least for Chopin. – Caters Feb 16 '19 at 00:39

2 Answers2

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I hope you get more and better answers than mine, but I'll offer a few suggestions.

...in almost any thing I play I can't look away from my left hand...even if the left hand plays fairly basic chords

I'm using this comment as the point of departure.

Firstly, this could involve a major psychological factor. You may be afraid to trust your left hand. Sometimes when a person's confidence falters we fulfill our own expectations and deliberately fail. Of course we deceive ourselves and tell ourselves that 'really I tried.' It's hard to tell when this is happening versus truly failing at a difficult challenge. Maybe you can reflect on this and find out if you are undermining your own confidence.

I'm not sure what 'fairly basic' is to you.

This is easy for me at a fast tempo...

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...this is hard for me at any tempo...

enter image description here

Figure out what the range of easy to hard is for your left hand. Of course do something simple with the right hand, you need both hands active. You need to cover every possible type of passage, just give yourself an assessment with a variety of passages. Take note of specifically what you can already do and where you start to fail. Leverage these points with the rest of your practice. Focus practice on what you can't do.

Are you using good, solid fingerings? If you are letting yourself get away with poor fingering, stop now and fix that. If you are using bogus fingering, you probably will never get your hand to improve.

Train your gaze away from your left hand.

An obvious thing is to simple close your eyes. Can you still play your easy passages with your eyes closed? Can you transpose it to all keys without looking? What happens when you change tempo - or even articulation - with eyes closed? How far can you move along to your difficult passage playing? You have to play around with keys, tempos, and difficulty. An alternative to playing with your eyes shut is turning out the lights. Make it dark enough that you can barely see the keyboard.

Look only at your right hand. Not look mostly at your right hand, only right hand. It can demand a lot of concentration. Keep the right hand very simple, but give it some movement. The point isn't to look at the right hand out of necessity, but to get used to visually concentrating on observing the right hand while mentally and tactilely doing the heavy work with the left hand. It's a kind of conflict of mental signals. Even though you are watching the right hand it may reflexively duplicate the left hand. Basically, this is just flipping your current hand independence problem. You've spent a lot of time watching your left hand while the right has learn how to move automatically. Flip it the other way around. Of course you eventually don't want to look at either hand. The point is to break the habit of looking at the left hand.

Michael Curtis
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An easy answer would be play the Hanon.

This is perfect to get better with your left hand, and at the same time, it will synchronize your hands.

If you want something more "fun", play Chopin's revolutionnary.

But as Michael Curtis said, what really is important is to stop looking at your left hand.

Almost all Bach pieces are perfect for your left hand, too.

Marche Remi
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