How To Depend Upon Your Hand Independence

It's uncommon for any beginning piano player to not struggle with hand independence. I myself remember having the issue as a beginning piano player. I'll also have to admit that there have been times after reaching an intermediate level that I've struggled with hand independence. I would be trying learn to play a song or piece of music that has a lot going on in both hands and I would have to revisit those fundamental concepts that pulled me out of struggling in this area. I want to share those with you in this article.

First of all, let me give you some good news about hand independence (at least for popular music chord piano players). The necessity to have strong hand independence is more so for classical repertoire. This is actually the character of classical music to have what seems like two melodies permeating from both hands as they progress through a song. Just listen to Mozart's "Piano Sonata No.11 in A Major and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Popular music relies on melody and harmony which allows you to sing the melody and accompany it with harmony (chords). Even if you're playing solo piano where the melody is not being performed by a vocalist, but is in your right hand, it's not common for it to speed by in 8th and 16th notes. If this were the case, you wouldn't be able to sing it. This is why it would be virtually impossible to put lyrics to the most rhythmic classical pieces of music. (auctioneers and rap music artists notwithstanding)

As far as harmony is concerned, it can be quite lively with rhythm (think of the bass part of "Linus and Lucy"). There's also other songs where the bass part is the driving force of the song. But most songs don't have overactive left hand parts and even the ones that do can be tamed or played at a slower tempo.  As a piano player, your left hand is in a comping role. Or shall I say accompanying role with the right hand.

The right hand is actually playing the rhythm of the melody (of course I'm referring to solo piano). More times than not, your left hand will be playing the bass note of the chord. When it's not doing that, it's playing another note (the bottom note of a slash chord). It can also be arpeggiating the chord. Let's take a look at these concepts.

Let me say at the beginning that you should not tax your left hand beyond playing one note per bar of music until your proficient enough in your right hand to execute the chords you need to play. If this means that you have to leave your left hand out until you get the first few bars of music under your right hand, it's okay to do so.

Begin playing your right hand chords with the bass note of the chord only. Hold that bass note until the chord chord changes and you play the bass note of the new chord. I know this seems simplistic and of course you're going to notice it sounding this way. But if this is the skill level you're at for the moment, don't be discouraged. You're developing the skill of left hand comping and it won't take as long as you think to get to more advanced levels.

What's next for your left hand? Try playing the root of the chord in octaves. Why octaves? It fills out the left hand of our piano playing and it's the most simple dual note accompaniment because it's the same two notes.Beyond playing octaves in the left hand, you have the root and fifth of the chord. It's similar to octaves because it is a consonant interval. It's just two different notes.I'll give you one more left hand part to accompany your melody. It's called a "voicing in 10ths", You're going to play the root, fifth and third of the chord in that order. You can play it harmonically (all notes at the same time) or you can play it melodically (all notes separately) You'll find that your hand has to be big enough to reach the interval of a 10th in order to play these notes at the same time. If you can't, don't fret over it because playing them melodically creates movement in the left hand that fills it out nicely.

These left hand bass parts are simple and that's what you need to allow your hand independence to develop. Your right hand is often playing the bulk of your chords so I'll repeat myself by saying you need to be proficient with your right hand as you progress through a song or piece of music.

Of course there are other intervals of the chord you can play in your left hand, but until you've developed the skills to accompany your right hand with simple left hand parts, it's premature to move into other intervals and patterns.

Two more things: Slow down. It's a common thing for piano and keyboard players to speed through their music when trying to learn, but slowing down will actually help you to progress faster when you're trying to get any concept under your hands.

Also, take your right or left hand out if you find it necessary. If and when either hand doesn't want to cooperate, it makes sense to let the other one rest while you work with the hand that's giving you trouble. You will be amazed at how concentrating on just one hand for a few minutes will build the skill that it needs to do it's job. This works even better when you alternate between both hands and reverting back to using just the hand that's giving you trouble.