Strategies for hands coordination

Playing with the hands together the piano is a goal that all those interested in learning piano have in
common. At first, it is something that usually doesn’t happen spontaneously and it may even seem an
impossible task. However, the mistake lies in thinking that the hands must be independent of each
other, when in fact what we should look for is the coordination between them. The human brain is not
good at doing multiple things at once in a sense of individual summing, but it has the ability to learn a
complex coordination to the point of unconscious coordination. For this, there is a series of steps on
how to study a piece that helps be able to successfully join hands. As one progresses, how unreal it
may seem, there is a point where the hands are already beginning to be able to function in an
"independent" way and you can already begin to acquire a certain fluidity with the instrument.

Before looking at specific strategies for hands coordination, you should remember certain general tips:

● Initial practice tempo must not be performance tempo. Slowing down allows the brain more time
to understand what you are attempting to play and assimilate the new mental connections. The
brain should lead the hands, not viceversa. With practice, we will be able to play faster as more
and more music patterns became ingrained.

● When studying we should strive for playing perfect small fragments and phrases instead of
always practicing from the beginning of the work and stumbling mindlessly over mistakes. It is
essential to identify the errors and attack those errors, instead of ignoring them. Mere repetition
does not lead to success. In other words, repeating a difficult fragment of ten repetitions doing
only one well is not practical. We must choose small fragments which we can repeat several
times without doing mistakes, even if this means playing only two notes together. Over time, the
growth in piano skills will allow us to select larger pieces and learn works in less time.

● We must pay attention to the piano technique. It often happens that when we put our hands
together we do not achieve the required speed. This may occur not because of a coordination
issue, but an individual technical problem in one hand that tense it. The problems of technique
must be corrected at hands separated while those of coordination, obviously by hands together.
Technique and coordination are two topics to revise separately that complement each other.

https://www.pianourquiza.com/
 ● Pattern recognition and harmonic analysis is a must for music and piano vocabulary
development. This will allow to learn new pieces in a faster way, decoding the score into smaller
information bits.

● It is essential to start training the sense of proprioception of the piano. This means being able to
play the piano without having to constantly check visually the hand so it falls into the correct
notes. Any passage that does not require a change of position can be easily played without
looking at the hand, and with practice you can also practice the position jumps so you do not
have to watch that either. This allows you to have eyes on the score, or the lead sheet of a song,
or to play with another person, communicating with the eyes and head gestures.

Having checked the previous items, now we will look into strategies for playing with hands together:

1. Complete piece with hands separate: If you having been playing for two years of less, it
is a good idea to first check if one is able to play each hand alone from the start to the
end, with the desired final tempo and without making mistakes. This will help correcting
the individual technique problems that might arise in each hand. It’s a good idea to count
out loud the beats as you play each hand. With years, playing hands together from the
start will become a better method, but we need to lay the ground first.

2. Tap rhythm hands together: the first real step of playing hands together involves
understanding the underlying rhythm of the piece and tapping it on a table or our laps.
We should observe the score and look out for rhythm coincides in both hand. The series
of notes need to be serialized, in terms of how each hand adds up. Whatever the difficult
of a piece, there is always one of the following actions happening.

a. Hands are playing both at the same time

b. Right hand is playing alone
c. Left hand is playing alone

This allow for simplification of the piece and serialization of the rhythm, ignoring the
pitches of the note. Now we will look at an example: first measure of Minuet K2 by Mozart:

https://www.pianourquiza.com/
We can observe how there are
moment when both hands are playing and moment when just one of them is playing. A
table like the following can be made (HT means hands together, RH is right hand, LH is
left hand):

Beat 1 and 2 and 3 and

Right Hand O O O - O -

Left Hand O - - - O -

Result HT RH RH - HT -

As we can see, combining both hands means to be able to tap the last row successfully.
Counting out loud, we proceed as follows, slowly first:

● Count “One” and tap both hands (at a table or our laps)
● Count “and” and tap only right hand
● Count “Two” and tap only right hand
● Count “and” and don’t tap
● Count “Three” and tap both hands
● Count “and” and don’t tap

At first, this might be done without a metronome and without stressing over perfect tempo.
The important thing is to internalize the order of correct steps. Then, if successful, it is a
good idea to turn on the metronome, gradually increasing the speed until the desired
speed is reached. We then proceed to the next measure and start joining measures, until
the whole piece can be tapped. Foot tapping should be avoided in order to not add an
additional component to the coordination. The human voice works better.

https://www.pianourquiza.com/
3. Dropping Notes Method: As we have outlined, hands independence is not a real thing.
The brain can only focus on one thing a time, so we can only strive for coordination of
multiple task, which is not just the sum of parts but a whole new thing. Experienced pianist
can play like their hands are independent because a lot of common patterns and
articulation have been internalized over the years, giving the illusion of hands freedom.
Gradually working on works and exercises will get you there, but patience will be needed.

Dropping notes method refers to a technique of playing one hand and adding notes on
the other hand, one at a time. This will gradually increase the difficult of the passage
instead of jumping to the whole task and overwhelming the brain. Continuing with the
Mozart Minuet, the method is executed as follow:

In order to play those two measures hands together, we will play the RH to the full length
of the passage, and the LH will add each run a note. It is important to be able to
successfully play the right hand each time before adding one more note on the left. The
order of runs will be as follows:

One note on left hand

Two notes on left hand

https://www.pianourquiza.com/
 Three notes on left hand

Full passage

It is important to check for correct tempo, fingering, and good technique. Once the
passage is mastered, we can add more measures and start joining them.

https://www.pianourquiza.com/
4. Change of Position (Five finger position) hands together: Each hand has 5 fingers, but
the piano has 88 keys. This means we will be changing hand positions a lot during a
piece, even the easier ones. At any jump, we can encounter the following:

a. Both hands change position

b. Only one hand change position

Both scenarios are difficult, but option A is more difficult because we need to
glance at both hands at the same time without missing the beat. To help this, we
need to practice only the jump, from the last note of the first position to the first
one of the second position. Fingering should be carefully observed, to avoid
practice with a different fingering each time. For example, let's practice Indian War
Chant (Gillock):

Following the notes and fingering, we realize we need two hand positions for the whole
passage at the right hand. Position F-C for the first two measures and position D-A for
the last two measures. Also, there is a note that starts the new position, and it is a G4
with the 4th finger.

So, we need to practice just that change of position first, instead of the whole passage.
We should observe the last note of first position (A4 with 3rd finger) and the first of the
second position (G4 with 4rd finger)

https://www.pianourquiza.com/
Being that a change of position is just a jump, we will study this as a jump, in three steps:

1. The first set of notes is played and then extremely slowly we arrive at the second
set and we play it, with correct fingering and correct notes. It’s important to go as
slow as needed to note make mistakes. After a few successful trials, we go to step
2.

2. The first set of notes is played and we move really fast the hand to the second set,
but without playing the notes. Just hover the second set. The point of this step is
not the precision of notes, but the internalization of the quick movement of the
hand. Instead of trying to search first with the fingers for the notes, the whole hand
must move closer, and then search for the correct notes.

3. The final step involves playing at normal speed combining the two other steps,
with a quick hand and with attention to correct notes and fingering. If successful
after a few tries, we try playing from a previous point like normal, adding up more
measures and speed.

https://www.pianourquiza.com/
To sum up, learning to play with two hands is a whole other beast than playing hands alone. The four
techniques described will help with the coordination and they must be practiced until one can play
hands together from the start (may be years of work).

The tools are:

1. Complete piece with hands separate:

2. Tap rhythm hands together:
3. Dropping Notes Method
4. Change of Position (Five finger position) hands together

https://www.pianourquiza.com/