The Best Help for Successful Two-Handed Piano Playing – Fine…!

​​This month we have been learning different ways to work on the challenges that we all have with playing successfully with both hands together at the same time on the piano.

Honestly speaking, this is an ongoing “thing” for pianists at all levels of playing - mainly because our music gets more advanced as we learn more on the piano and we’re playing much more complex rhythms, melodies, and chords that are independent in each hand.

Here’s a quick review of what we’ve covered so far.

• First, we talked about using scales and specific exercises that have simple rhythms and finger patterns to get started with playing two-handed music.
• Second, we looked at the importance of practicing arpeggios to learn new finger patterns in each hand and also learned some alternative exercises that you can practice in these first steps.
• Third, we moved into more advanced music with some easy pieces by Bach and other fun beginning piano pieces that will put your two-handed practicing to good work.

Each of the links above takes you to the written blog and in each blog are at least two videos that show you what we talk about in the lesson, at the piano – so you can play through them with me.

This final week we’re going to go over the best ways for you to put all of these steps together in your practicing to have the best success and also include some tips that will answer most of any questions that you may have as you really dig into this type of work.

Developing a good practice routine that will target your two – handed playing is really important to help you achieve the best success.

This first video lesson provides you with five specific levels to advance through that will pace your practicing and gear it towards coordinating your two handed playing through the easiest material to more advanced exercises and pieces.

• You will want to spend the first ten – fifteen minutes of your practicing on this material each day.
• Scales – always start with scales! First learn them with just one octave, then move to two, then three and up to four octaves for the most advanced level.
• The move to Hanon exercises and I’ll introduce you to Czerny exercises as well which are a bit more challenging than the Hanon exercises. I’ll also show you where to find these exercises online.
• Next you will learn how to play your scales in different note values so you’ll have to move your fingers faster as you play through them. Only do this after you have learned the scale.
• This level takes scales into a deeper level as we learn to play them in contrary mode and in thirds. I show you how to do this at the piano so it will make it a bit easier to understand.
• The final level incorporates more difficult Bach pieces than we learned earlier and music by Beethoven and other composers. These pieces are fabulous for developing coordination between your two hands and really utilize all the other levels that you’ve worked through.

​Make sure to go through this video and each level one at a time to really get the most benefit from this specific practice plan. Remember to dedicate daily time to this to see the best results. 

​Now let’s look at what you need to do when you have worked really hard on your scales, exercises and easier pieces, yet you’re still really having a hard time getting both hands to work together correctly in a more advanced piece.
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If you’re stuck in a particular piece and just can’t seem to get your hands to play the right notes and rhythms together – correctly…try these tips to get you over this little speed bump.

• Slow down. This is the first problem solving technique that any musician needs to start with when working on a challenge.
• Try breaking down the piece into just one or two measure at a time. First slow down and then break it down into smaller parts.
• Practice your hands separately to make sure that you are secure in all of the notes and rhythms before putting the other hand in the mix.
• Use a metronome to help you play slowly and increase your tempo at a very playable rate and use it for each measure that you break down to practice on specifically.

​Use this video and lesson to help you anytime you are struggling with your two-handed playing even after practicing through the different levels in the first video. 

Be patient with yourself as we are always learning and always correcting things in our playing. It’s just part of the process. The key is learning the best way to overcome our different challenges so that we can play what we want to and how we want to, on our piano.

If you like my tips and lessons, you will love the courses over on my website. Whether you are a beginner looking to get a solid foundation to build on or you are looking to take you existing skills to that next level, the online music courses on my website - https://www.pianolessonsontheweb.com will help you do just that.