Piano Fingers?

Question

Okay, I have trouble playing piano with rhythms that are different between the hands, for example. Left hand plays a C chord 5 times and right hand plays a totally different rhythm. I have trouble playing them both at the right times cause it is confusing and it messes me up. What techniques can I do to help this problem? Thanks.

Answer 1

You can start by practicing each hand separately, and then once you are good with both you can slowly put them together... ( measure by measure) after that you can slowly start to raise the speed. But start out slow and with each hand separate, and go from there.

Answer 2

It's easy. You have to always play hands separately first before putting songs together unless you're Mozart. It's like trying to drive a car before taking your time to learn the stick shift and the rules of the road. What helped me is when I realized that using not just your fingers but your brain can help you play the piano better. For example, you said the left hand is only playing the C chord at least 5 times. To me that means the left hand is doing almost nothing while the right hand does most of the work in a creative melody. You need to focus more on what your right hand is doing because that is the treble clef which almost always has the main melody and is more complicated. Realize the left hand just needs to keep still and keep doing the same boring motion of hitting the C chord and the right hand is all over the place. Goodluck!

Answer 3

I used to practice just tapping the rhythms on the closed piano (or board, book, anything you feel comfortable) instead of playing the piano. You'd have to just relax and forget about fingering and notes, just tap the rhythm comfortably and practice both hands seperately. Try to practice the more complicated rhythm first by just tapping on something. (I'd assume it would be the R-hand as L-hand only plays c-chord 5 times). Then when you're confortable, start tapping left hand first in the steady slow speed and then add R-hand to it. It will take several times but just let easier rhythm going and add harder rhythm to it. (Or you can repeat R-hand then add L-Hand whatever it works. Sometimes doing both helps too!) Usually easier to tap the steady rhythm first and add on harder rhythm to it. when you get a hang of it by simply tapping, then you may imitate the fingering but still on the top of closed piano. When you get the rhythm correct with right fingering, then I would get on the piano and start playing. It is much easier to just tap and practice the rhythm on the board so that you won't get distructed by sound of piano and hitting the wrong key. Usually frustration comes because you are trying to get the right rhythm and right notes at the same time. It takes time. Good luck!

Answer 4

May I put in my 1 cent's worth?

If I had that to do, I would hold to a slow metronome marking and make sure to fit in the 5 until I had that in my head .....then I would do the same for the (unspecified number of beats) for the right hand.....by holding to a metronome marking, just set it in motion and keep it going, so you can jump in as you are ready ....like playing skip rope with two others holding the ends of the rope ....but, metronomes don't budge, so you are safe ... and then just put the two together.... a little like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time but in different patterns...

When I was studying sight reading in college, we had that sort of thing ....

Within the same time frame, four quarters were "watermelon, watermelon, watermelon" and the triplets formation within the same time scheme went to the words "bicycle, bicycle, bicycle" ... a bit childish, however amusing and I use it to this day....shame on me!!!! But.....
you can't shake me....so maybe if you found some amusing word with 5 syllables and another for (???) the other meter....it might work

Just in case you think you are an idiot, I once heard an absolutely major superstar confess that he hated this very sort of thing....so don't think everyone is superfab at everything.

Answer 5

playing hands separately then together never worked for me. i always had to play hands together very very slowly until i learned how to do it. do you know the rhythms well enough? you could tap them out with each hand so that you'd learn it without having to worry about the notes. good luck!

Answer 6

Play the cs then the other rythym seperately.Do this unitl they are each memorized. Then when ylu got to play them together, you should have no prob.