Practicing left hand only to solidify pieces

twocats · 2026-01-12T12:08:59+00:00

Yesterday I met up with a small group of friends; we've started to meet up every month or so to play for each other and help each other (and socialize!). Th...

pseudonym58

FWIW, when I'm practicing either hand alone, I like to keep the other hand resting on the keyboard in approximately the place where it would be if I were actually playing the notes, moving it around as appropriate. This is to ensure that the balance and weight distribution in relation to my shoulders etc. remains approximately the same.

TC3

pseudonym58 that's very smart and I'm going to steal it. 😁😁

ShiroKuro

In the topic of being exhausting, or making one’s brain hurt, I agree, this is a sign that the work being done is challenging in a good way!

BTW, unless I missed it, I think one of the things that hasn’t been mentioned in this thread in terms of the difficult of playing LH only is that, it’s one thing to learn a piece from the beginning HS. But to my mind, the thing that’s hard is to go back to LH only practice after you’ve been playing it HT and gotten it well into your fingers. (Maybe that came up?? Last week was crazy-busy with work so I’m a little out of the loop).

I feel like for beginning pianists, coordinating hands-together and having hand independence while playing HT are the challenging skills. But after you’ve been playing for years (decades 😅 ) your sense of music-making as a full body activity is so ingrained that it can be (perhaps somewhat paradoxically) harder to separate the two hands… and maybe that’s why it’s hard?

ShiroKuro

twocats improving small details that I didn't previously notice in my left hand.

I think this is maybe one of the other reasons LH-only feels hard — namely, I find that I put my LH on autopilot a lot (certainly more than I should). Which isn’t to say I’ve memorized the LH part, but more that, sure, my eyes are grazing over the bass clef notes as I’m reading along, so I know what I’m playing, but I’m not focusing on the LH part because of my attention is given to the RH. It’s like my attention to the LH part is very cursory. Switching that attention from cursory (during HT) to hyper-focused during LH-only allows for that noticing to occur.

ShiroKuro

AaronSF somehow I feel like you’re missing the point of this discussion…. The point about “brain hurting” is not just “oh, I don’t know how to play this yet…” which is a standard stage in the learning process.

Instead, the point is that, when you use a practice technique that’s not only different from normal practice techniques, but also might be something that you would never do in actually performing the piece (e.g., play the RH part with the LH or vice versa) it challenges your brain in different ways.

What we’re talking about here is a kind of pianistic cross-training. So, maybe something like, “no (brain) pain, no (brain) gain” to perhaps really run the metaphor into the ground 😃

AaronSF

ShiroKuro
I have no idea what you mean by "normal practice techniques." Practicing the hands separately is a completely normal practice technique. As is slow practice. As is slow practice, hands separate. These techniques often reveal where you are having problems and allows you to correct them.

Look, I don't always enjoy having to do this sort of practice, but I do enjoy the result, which is a much improved performance once hands are put back together. It's also been my experience that I am not always able to deduce what problems I'm having. That's why I have a teacher who misses nothing. And she always knows how to correct what I didn't even know I was doing wrong (or not "right" enough).

Playing well requires attention to so much detail that it is easy to play a piece so it is "good enough" and shrug off the detailed work needed to take it to the next level. I did that for years, being satisfied with less than I am capable of...an outgrowth of being self-taught when young. I'm glad to say my current teacher wants more for me and shows me how to get it.

pianoloverus

ShiroKuro Instead, the point is that, when you use a practice technique that’s not only different from normal practice techniques, but also might be something that you would never do in actually performing the piece (e.g., play the RH part with the LH or vice versa) it challenges your brain in different ways.

The point of practicing the left hand separately is not to challenge your brain IMO even though that might result from that type of practice. The point is to improve the LH, to notice things that one may not notice when playing hands together, to be able to listen to the left hand part and evaluate its success to a degree that might be not possible when playing hands together,etc.
On a separate note I don't think playing the right hand part with the left hand or vice versa is of any of any benefit and have never seen it suggested on any thread on any piano before. I have seen suggested and it might be beneficial to play the left hand part with both hands just to be able to hear how an ideal version of the left hand would sound and then try and achieve that with the left hand alone.

ShiroKuro

AaronSF "normal practice techniques."

You're right, this is vague. I have a sense of what kinds of things people normally do when practicing, and of course things I do and practice approaches I've learned over the years, and yet my current teacher (who is one of the best I've had over all these many years) will still have me do things that I've not heard of, and many that she will preface with by joking "this one is really mean" because it's hard or challenging in an unexpected way. So I was thinking of those things.

Practicing the hands separately is a completely normal practice technique.

Yes, but most people don't do it after they can play HT. People tend to do HS at the beginning of learning a piece, or in very limited ways. So taking a piece that you have been working on for a long time, and suddenly playing the whole piece LH-only, can feel challenging.

You and I are also in agreement about the benefits of having a teacher. I much prefer working with a teacher, it is a huge benefit!

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus The point of practicing the left hand separately is not to challenge your brain IMO even though that might result from that type of practice.

Hmm, I think maybe you're underestimating the benefit of challenging your brain. I think there is physical technique, as in, can your fingers do what you're trying to make them do, and then there is mental technique, knowing a piece inside out, and having the brain space to play something that's quite musically complex.

The point is to improve the LH, to notice things that one may not notice when playing hands together, to be able to listen to the left hand part and evaluate its success to a degree that might be not possible when playing hands together,etc.

I agree, but this is all brain, not hands or fingers.

On a separate note I don't think playing the right hand part with the left hand or vice versa is of any of any benefit and have never seen it suggested on any thread on any piano before.

It may not have a physical benefit (technique-wise) but I think the reason it's suggested is that it forces you to read the score and/or memorize the music in a different way, and makes it impossible to rely on muscle memory.

Again, I think you underestimating the value of engaging the brain in unique ways.

pianoloverus

ShiroKuro Again, I think you underestimating the value of engaging the brain in unique ways.

Almost all good pianists practice hands separately at least occasionally for at least small parts of pieces. The idea of practicing the entire LH separately is just an extension of this idea. In general, I think looking for "tricks" should not be the main focus for dealing with a technical problem. You should be asking why a certain method of practicing, what you call a trick, helps solve the technical problem. For example, in the piece where you were having difficulty playing your thumb softly enough, most of what your teacher suggested was perfectly reasonable and not anything at all unusual except in your own experience, but even more basically you should be asking why it was difficult to play the thumb softly(and how you can improve the technique for doing this) and what the general technique for playing softly should be.

There were books that were popular some time ago about "How to beat the math SAT" and they had lots of tricks about how to do this. These appealed to students because they felt these tricks would solve all their problems. But the best "trick" is really understanding the math involved.

ShiroKuro

BTW @AaronSF here's an example of something my teacher had me do recently that was definitely a brain challenge. I wrote it here on PT for another member who was trying to bring up the tempo on a piece...

You might not agree, but as far as I can tell, this is the kind of thing that people don't usually do as part of their "normal practice technique," unless they're working with a teacher like the one I'm working with right now.

Play HS and figure out a slightly faster tempo to aim for initially. Make sure your fingering works for that tempo. Then, instead of going back and forth between HS and HT practice, do something where you’re playing the full RH part but only certain beats in the LH, and then switch to playing the full LH part but only certain beats in the RH. When you do this, you have to make sure you’re using the same fingering as you would if you were playing all the notes. Also, which beats you play needs to be consistent, not random. IOW, say you only play beats one and three in the LH and you do that across four measures. Then you switch to only beats two and four in LH, etc. So it’s systematic.

Initially you probably want to drop beats in the measures where the hand only plays eighth notes instead of 16th notes, but you will also want to do it where you play the full set of notes when it’s eighth notes and you’re dropping from those sets of sixteenth notes (say, just play the first note in the set, or the third note in the set of four). Does that makes sense?

My teacher has me do things like this sometimes, she always prefaces it by saying “this will do your head in” or “ok, I’m going to ask you do something that’s really mean.” 😆 Depending on the music, it’s crazy hard, and you’ll have to actually play much more slowly initially, which might seem counter intuitive because the goal is increasing the tempo.

You don’t need to do it for long, just a few repetitions. Then go back to HT, play through it below your initial goal tempo, and then try speeding up again.

(from this thread: https://forum.pianotell.com/d/2200-bach-prelude-in-f-bwv-927/4)

Monviso

ShiroKuro
Huge thanks for this tip. I shall try!
(I haven't been able to have a teacher since I went back to the piano, so I'm particularly grateful for any nuggets I can pick up)

Monviso

I don't know if this strays from the initial intent - and I apologise if it does. But yesterday I tried a new approach: after several days of LH only, yesterday I added the RH but without sounding it. (This is a piece which was already well in control and acceptable HT). I found it challenging - so I assume it's doing me good!
This whole exercise has made me realise how much I favour the RH - and that is despite being left-handed. I thought I was being musical in the LH, but isolating it has made me realise that I could do a lot better.
Thanks so much for opening up new possibilities for me!

ShiroKuro

Monviso without sounding it

Oh yeah, this is another practice trick I’ve done but had forgotten about, assuming we’re talking about the same thing. My teacher has had me put my RH fingers on the keys but without depressing the key. Is that what you mean?

We did this in a piece I worked on where there’s a fast passage where the RH plays 16th notes (4/4 time) for 12 measures. As is common, the melody is in the top notes (RH pinkie) and the thumb plays the same note throughout those 12 measures. Even though I was trying to bring out the melody, my thumb was very prominent and so she wanted me to work on quieting down the thumb. But because it’s such a fast passage, I was having a really hard making my thumb quiet.

First she had me just play the melody notes. Then she had me just play the thumb, sounding the note but very quietly. Then she had me play all the RH notes, but the thumb was to land on the key without depressing it, and so without making any sound.

Then finally she had me play all the notes again. It was like a miracle how different it was, and how quickly the results could be heard in my playing.

So this is another thing I could say is outside the realm of “normal practice techniques,” in that it’s not something most people would know or think of to do.

And personally, I think of this as a brain challenge, more so than a finger challenges, because your fingers are all already where they need to be. But what is needed is attention (brain) to individual fingers and individual notes, which is made more challenging when a lot of things are happening at once in very fast music.

I think I’ve said this before (not in this thread) but I’ve been working with teachers for almost all of my 25+ years of playing piano, and between us moving or the teachers moving, I’ve changed teachers periodically, so I’ve had a lot of teachers. And I have been fortunate that a lot of them have been really good teachers (and some were mediocre 😅 ) but my current teacher is easily one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.

So I really need to start keeping a log of these practice tricks my current teacher has me do, because I sort of forget them when I’m working on other pieces. (Also because my memory is rubbish! 😛

/threaddrift

Monviso

ShiroKuro

Oh yeah, this is another practice trick I’ve done but had forgotten about, assuming we’re talking about the same thing. My teacher has had me put my RH fingers on the keys but without depressing the key. Is that what you mean?

I think so! I depress the key a fraction of a micro-millimetre - so I connect properly, but go no further.

KevinM

pianoloverus

I would not be surprised if many of those "tricks" in "How to beat the math SAT" involved describing different ways to help the student understand the maths involved. Though of course presented in a way that wasn't so conventional and could perhaps be interpreted as a trick.

Not quite the same, but when I was a child in the 1970s, my piano teacher retired, the next teacher was to my way of thinking as a young boy a dragon woman, very strict and regimental. My parents allowed me to find a new teacher. In my discussion with a potential new teacher I informed her that I didn't like the theory I had to do.

She responded with I don't teach theory I teach blogs. Blogs sounded much better to me than theory so she was hired. I soon learnt that the material for blogs was exactly the same as the material for theory. But the new teacher was far more engaging, we would discuss things, she introduced different ways of thinking about the theory some of which were helpful to me and others not, it wasn't just the curriculum followed in a narrow unthinking prescription. I still did the theory, I didn't really like having to do it but with my discussions with the teacher I better understood why it was important.

Calling a practice technique a trick, doesn't suddenly devalue the practice technique.

This was not someone looking for a quick easy win, just a student using a practice technique provided by their teacher and in casual internet language calling it a trick.

To describe their approach to learning piano as a way to avoid dealing with technical problems is insulting. From the context of the discussion it is clear that is not the case.

ShiroKuro

pianoloverus I think looking for "tricks" should not be the main focus for dealing with a technical problem. You should be asking why a certain method of practicing, what you call a trick, helps solve the technical problem.

I know why it helps solve the problem, because it gets you to do something in a different way, and it engages your brain in a different way. You seem to think a trick is a bad thing. But doing something differently from how one usually does it is an excellent way to get past a learning challenge.

I won't say more (for now anyway!) This thread makes it clear that you are in the minority here, @pianoloverus , in thinking about tricks and less conventional practice approaches.

pianoloverus

KevinM pianoloverus

I would not be surprised if many of those "tricks" in "How to beat the math SAT" involved describing different ways to help the student understand the maths involved. Though of course presented in a way that wasn't so conventional and could perhaps be interpreted as a trick.

Most of them had little or nothing to do with understanding the math involved.

pianoloverus

KevinM To describe their approach to learning piano as a way to avoid dealing with technical problems is insulting. From the context of the discussion it is clear that is not the case.

I don't think I described their approach to learning piano as a way to avoid dealing with technical problems at all. The student had some technical problem and asked the teacher for advice so it was clear they weren't trying to avoid dealing with technical problems. What I was trying to emphasize was the importance of understanding why there was a technical problem which I felt was analogous to the "trick" of actually understanding the math involved.

AaronSF

The suggestions from your teacher seem quite sensible. They oblige you to think about what you are doing with each hand and how that is reflected in what you hear. Why you refer to these techniques as "tricks" I don't know. They are not tricks but methods for learning how your hands, arms, shoulders, back work to produce sound from the keyboard. There's no trick to it; if it was a trick, it wouldn't be such hard work, as it often is. And the idea that working on hands separately stops when you put the hands together is not how it works. Pianists frequently need to do HS work throughout the learning of a piece, not just at the beginning. HS and slow practice.

And a lot of this is determined by how well you can hear and understand what you are doing. Your teacher is hearing you far more objectively than you hear yourself. If, for instance, your teacher hears that the tones produced by your left hand are uneven in playing a phrase, she may suggest you work on the LH alone at a slow tempo to eliminate the unevenness and learn to shape a phrase. Work with your teacher to learn to hear what sounds you are producing, then record yourself and try to listen with your teacher's ears (and experience). There is no magic to this, no tricks, just dedicated, hard, but ultimately rewarding, work.

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