A number of you have emailed me, repeatedly expressing your frustration with the same issue:
“How do I make each hand play independently?”
“I never learned to use my left hand properly. It’s really underdeveloped compared to my right hand. Now, I need tips to improve the coordination in both hands.”
“My biggest problem is left hand independency.”
“My left and right hands always seem to want to do the same thing, at the same time.”
Can you see the pattern in these remarks? When I studied piano years ago, my hands would not listen to what my brain would tell them. Today, this problem occurs once in awhile, only when I tackle challenging pieces.
If this scenario sounds familiar, then I have an important message for you.
My friend Yoke Wong, a longtime music educator and accomplished musician and composer, has developed a one in a kind piano instructional home study courses called “Hand Coordination, Runs and Fillers.” This piano course is designed to help piano players tackle the issue of left hand independence and hand coordination.
After some gentle persuasion on my end, Yoke has agreed to offer some bonuses to any customer who would like to order this course, from this link.
Yoke will include the following bonuses:
- An online metronome study guide with practice exercises to improve technique.
- Carl Czerny virtuoso’s original exercise sheets. These are the same exercises that he used to get his fingers into fluid shape, with fast runs and daily warm ups.
Check it out now and get the bonus that will make the real difference in your music, “Hand Coordination, Runs and Fillers.” This is the time to build your skill. Don’t forget to share your successes with us once you start using these study tools.
Time after time, I have come across pianists who cannot read music well and rely on memorization to save them. Do you admire pianists who can just pick up any piece of sheet music and play without stumbling? If you want to take your sight reading to the next level then check out the piano course "Mastering The Art Of Piano Sight Reading!"
The weary teacher often wishes she could make this demand at the point of a pistol, and thus insure results. The continual repetition of “hands up,” “wrists up,” is exhausting. Yet pupils do not realize the importance of this injunction. They continue to play with their wrists sagging below the keyboard, which not only presents a poor appearance but makes the playing weak.
The wrist should be held in a level line with the elbow and middle knuckles, for ordinary playing. Sometimes it should be raised higher when much force is required, and sometimes dropped to mellow the tone, as in chords. But the “standard” position is the level one.
In order to alleviate some of the stress in their lives, more and more people are looking to take up hobbies. For some, they pick up a childhood hobby that always brought them pleasure. Others choose, instead, to learn something new. A hobby growing in popularity, today, is the piano. However, before you go out to buy yourself a baby grand piano, you should know that it takes practice and dedication to master this instrument.
The first thing you will learn is how to sit. Posture is very important when playing the piano. Make certain the bench is at the right height and your shoulders are relaxed with your arms parallel to the floor and your hands resting directly in front of you on the keyboard. Your elbows should be slightly ahead of your body, not tucked at your sides, and your feet should be resting on the floor. You want to have freedom of movement for your arms.
Discipline is also important. Set aside a regular time to practice every day and make certain you won’t be disturbed while you play. Start gradually, with fifteen minutes every day, and work your way up to longer sessions. You will find that, as you practice and get more familiar with the keyboard, your fingers become more flexible and you make fewer mistakes. Even if you can’t do an hour a day, so long as you do at least fifteen minutes your skill will improve.
Go to a music store and pick up several practice books. Even experienced piano players use these books to help improve their skills. not only will they give you exercises to help you learn the piano, they will also help teach you musical theory as well as help you understand chords, tonality and scales and how melodies and harmonies come together to create music.
These books will also contain music for your level of experience. They often have a chapter that explains the purpose behind the exercises, and techniques for you to learn, as well as a sample piece that will help you put everything together into an actual piece of music. Don’t expect to master everything at once. Try practicing each hand separately, at slow speeds, before you bring them together.
Some people will find that playing the piano comes easily to them; others may take longer to learn. Remember, though, that you are practicing the piano for fun. This isn’t a chore and it isn’t a race. Take the time to learn your fundamentals and master your techniques, and you’ll soon find yourself able to play your favorite songs.
A useful tool for many people who play the piano is the metronome. This device can help you keep time, from slow beats to fast ones, and everything in between. Even people who have an innate sense of timing may find themselves surprised at how easy it is to change tempos slightly when playing, especially when you’re enjoying yourself.
The piano is an instrument that has been popular for hundreds of years, and has continued to delight people even today. Just remember to take the time to practice every day, and make certain your hands are limber enough to play the songs you want to play. If you are looking for a great place to start, check out Rocket Piano today!
Does anyone really think that drills are fun? It is not likely. You have to do the same drills again and again … and then again and again. It is possible to make them more enjoyable, though. Once you have found a way to make them more enjoyable then the practice on the piano will lead to much better results. Some of the most popular and valuable drills that can be done when beginners take keyboard lessons are described below.
Arpeggios
While the name is fancy, Arpeggios are really great for beginning keyboard players. The hand-over-hand drills allow the beginning piano players some important benefits. The mastering of the Triad is the one benefit. This is key to the successes in piano playing. But, there is even more… The beginning pianists will also have the opportunity to use the keyboard with this exercise. Once this is mastered, more melodic songs will be next in the line of music to learn to play and they will use all five fingers to do it.
Articulation and Elision
These drills also have a fancy name and they work very well for piano students that are beginning to take keyboard lessons. In order to master the keyboard, several different drills will be used. For example:
- A series that contains multiple notes (two or more)
- Two or more notes at the same time
- Staccato
- Legato and Staccato while using two different hands
- Piano and forte while using two different hands
Scales
The set of musical notes that start at a certain note are called scales. They are also commonly referred to as “boring”. There are a couple of very good reasons that piano students that have begun keyboard lessons should not learn the scales. One reason is that if they feel it is too boring they may just give up before they even get to their second lesson. .
Skill Drills
The short but technical drills that put focus on a certain skills are called skill drills. Be sure to do your research about which of the many types of skill drills will be most useful for your needs as a beginning keyboard player. It is good practice to use several different skill drills so that you can work on a wide range of skills on the piano. You may also discover drills that will allow the player to work on the areas that need the most attention in their piano playing. It is true, no matter how hard it is to admit, that we all have short comings that could use some fine tuning.
So why is it necessary to do piano drills? One really great aspect is that you can use them as part of your warm up. Just like warming up the oven before you cook, the piano drills will warm you up and make your fingers more nimble. You will also be giving yourself opportunities to practice certain areas that you do not have the time to practice during your main lessons.
While using piano drills in addition to the keyboard lessons for beginners, learning the specifics of playing the piano by using Rocket Piano is also a great idea. If you incorporate the right drills they will become much less boring. Using Rocket Piano can also improve all areas of your piano playing and make them much more exciting.
Intervals
An INTERVAL in music is the distance in pitch between two notes. The interval is counted from the lower note to the higher one, with the lower counted as 1.
Intervals are named by the number of the upper note (2nds, 3rds, etc.) with two exceptions: The interval between notes that are identical is called UNISON) also called a PRIME INTERVAL); the interval of an 8th is called an OCTAVE. The intervals below are all shown with C as the lower note:
Melodic and Harmonic Intervals
Intervals are called MELODIC INTERVALS when they are sounded separately and HARMONIC INTERVALS when they are sounded together. Because we are studying chords, we will be dealing with HARMONIC INTERVALS. When melodies are played, this involves the study of MELODIC INTERVALS.
Mary had a little lamb = E – D – C – D – E – E – E (Melodic Intervals)
C major Chord = C + E + G (played together, Harmonic Interval)
Side Note: As you will learn later, 3rd and 5th intervals make up the major chord. A lowered 3rd interval (minor interval) and 5th interval make up the minor chord.
Perfect And Major Intervals
The interval between the keynote of a major scale and the unison, 4th, 5th, or octave of that scale is called a PERFECT INTERVAL.
For example, the difference from C to G (in a C major scale) is called a Perfect 5th. The difference from C to F is called a Perfect 4th. The 8th note of the scale is referred to as the Perfect Octave. The difference between the same note is called the Perfect Unison.
The interval between the keynote of a major scale and the 2nd, 3rd, 6th or 7th of that scale is called a MAJOR INTERVAL.
For example, the difference from C to D (in a C major scale) is called a Major 2nd. The difference from C to E is called a Major 3rd. The difference from C to A is called a Major 6th and the difference from C to B is called a Major 7th.
This lesson is not even half of what the Hear and Play course covers on intervals! To see how you can learn intervals with tons of written and interactive exercises, along with 19 other lessons, please visit the link below:
http://www.hearandplay.com/go/?p=a479147&w=300pg
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