My video blog (vlog 17) today focuses on the importance of playing both hands together from the start. I say from the start but actually this will probably gradually happen in the first few weeks of learning. It’s important to build this aspect into piano playing fairly quickly as my vlog explains…..
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For much more information about how to practice piano repertoire, take a look at my two-book piano course, Play it again: PIANO (Schott). Covering a huge array of styles and genres, 49 progressive pieces from approximately Grade 1 – 8 level are featured, with at least two pages of practice tips for every piece. A convenient and beneficial course for students of any age, with or without a teacher, and it can also be used alongside piano examination syllabuses too.
You can find out more about my other piano publications and compositions here.
I can’t imagine trying to go from one hand to two after one having started with one. I feel like it would be like learning everything all over again.
I always try to remember to do things right from the very beginning. I won’t rush through just to finish and then go back. I take one step at a time. Once you have practiced something incorrectly, it is very difficult to correct it later on.They say a stimulus enters long-term memory (that is, it is “learned”) after it has been attentively observed 7 times. But if an “incorrect” stimulus is first learned, it then takes an average of 35 repetitions to learn the “corrected” stimulus. So in other words if you are practicing a piece and you are playing an A key instead of B key, it will take you 35 more times to re-learn it with the correct key. Why waste all that time when you can just start off with slow, attentive practice right from the beginning?
I agree with your comments – thanks for reading 🙂