More piano hand independence exercises
bit.do/billsbook In this tutorial I've included four ways to promote hand independence, ranging from scale-based exercises for beginner pianists to some ideas on repertoire choice for more experienced players. Getting your hands working well together on the piano is really essential, especially if you're starting to improvise a lot. It's also quite challenging, particularly if you're improvising, because you might well be playing two complex parts at the same time. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to improve hand independence, whether you're a beginner, an advanced player, or somewhere in between. One of the best ways to improve hand independence is to practise your scales. If you've had piano lessons, you were probably taught to play your scales in 'similar motion' (each hand plays the same thing but an octave apart). However, to improve hand independence, it's a good idea to try playing your scales in 'contrary motion' as well. This is very straightforward: the scale is exactly the same but your hands move in opposite directions. When talking about hand independence, what we really mean is improving the dexterity and flexibility of your weaker hand. For a right-handed person like me, that's your left hand. Try playing two different scales at the same time, or a scale with your left hand alongside a simple pattern with the right. This will be quite tricky at first -- there's no quick way to make your hands independent. You'll find that the most effective way to make progress is to practise varied exercises over and over again. For slightly more advanced pianists, a useful little exercise is to play a simple piece of music that you can already play and reverse it -- play the left hand part with your right hand and vice versa. You could also try playing some baroque music. This is great for learning hand independence because each hand plays a distinct part, as opposed to simply playing chords in the left hand with a melody in the right hand. If you found this video useful, then check out my previous video on hand independence. You might also be interested in my book, How to Really Play the Piano, which is full of information on chords, improvisation and harmony.
