Hands Together, Hands Apart

     Tara Gaertner, at "Teaching the Musical Brain", posted a most thought provoking question. Why do we practice hands apart? 

This is certainly standard procedure in my studio. Although, when we do sight reading exercises I expect the hands to play together very slowly. I did not understand why I knew this to be the best method until I read Tara's blog post.
"What this means for pianists is that playing the right hand by itself is not really the same as playing the right at the same time as the left hand.  So why do we practice hands-separately?  "

   Tara's understanding of how the brain works helped me see why hands apart does not make it easier to play hands together.

   "In other words, if we are playing the piano with only one hand, our motor cortex is inhibiting the motor cortex of the opposite side.  So, if we’re practicing only the right hand part of a piano piece, we’re probably learning to inhibit the left hand.  And when we learn the left hand part by itself, we’re probably learning to inhibit the right hand.  Is it any wonder then, that when we go to play the song hands-together, it’s still really difficult?"

    But here is the thing, if a student starts a piece with no aural model playing hands together can end up being just a cacophony of sound. I think finding the melody line with the right notes and rhythm helps to set off the harmony. I remember going to piano lessons myself and having the teacher comment that I certainly played with conviction but I had lost a whole harmonic line. The notes were there but because I couldn't hear the  part I was not able to articulate it enough to bring it out amongst the other parts. Separating melody from harmony seems to speed up the understanding process. But does it speed up the process of playing together?

"I think the bottom line is that, although there’s certainly value in hands-separate practicing to focus on details, we don’t really improve at playing hands-together by practicing hands-separately.  This is definitely a different approach than the one I was taught with, and it’s not really what I’ve been doing with my own students.  But I’ve also noticed that my own children are always eager to play their pieces hands-together before they know them well hands-separately, because it’s more satisfying to hear both parts at once.  And we could argue that satisfaction in playing is really what it’s all about."

   I think I am going to stop letting a week go by with assigning hands apart. Learning a smaller portion with hands together may be the more desirable outcome. 

Estelle at the Piano

   I have an adult student who I admire. She approached me about having piano lessons and I told her if she could find a piano to practice on I would find a spot for her in my studio. Adult students don't lack desire they just are swamped with life and finding a time during the day to fully concentrate on music is difficult. Mothers are especially vulnerable to losing themselves in the lives of their families. So, I admire the three mothers who are currently taking lessons from me.

     Estelle is especially motivated and hungers for achieving results in her practice. She never fails to amaze me as she learns, not only notes. but fluency in her pieces. She also has a delightful desire to share what she learns. I have seen her volunteer to play in church without fear and this has moved her progress forward. At the root of Estelle's success is a huge love of music, from the classics to pop. She listens and uses music to accompany her life.

   This series has been well received by the adult students I teach. We also hangout at musicnotes.com
to find the songs we really want play.

Dr. Seuss App for Ipad

   Pianoanne cued me in to a new music app for i-phone and i-pad. It is still free with upgrades coming and I think it is a hit in my studio. Certainly, I don't have time for it every week, but, I have some students staying longer for computer lab and this is a great rhythm teacher.

  The colored ribbons must be played on time and on the beat in order to get the most points. Tempos change from song to song and they have three levels of difficulty. Some require quicker fingers than mine and the most difficult levels are fun to play over and over again to get a higher score. Check it out1

New Faber Supplement Books

   I just looked at a great little page about the new Faber Pre-Time- Fun Time books. They have some videos with Randall explaining aspects of the pieces. It was worthwhile for me and I wanted to share. Have any of you used these books and what is your favorite?

http://pianoadventures.com/video/

    There is also a feature on this site which allows you to see the whole Faber catalog and check off any you wish to purchase. Then the site routes you to your favorite internet music retail site and places your selections in their check-out page. Wow!! I spend a lot of time trying to find just the right book online because the search engines on the music sites seem to be limited.

Dad Saves The Day

   Yesterday I almost lost a student as we both dug our heels into the ground and refused to budge. He did not like his current pieces and announced that he was not playing them anymore. And further more, he wanted to play better songs in some other book. I countered with the importance of putting some finishing touches on his last piece and looking forward to some really great pieces coming up. He opted to skip his lesson for the day. We both went to our corners. It was awkward; he is my grandson.

   Previously in a post I wrote about "teaching my own" and I recounted the ups and downs of taking on your family as students. There are so many joys associated with giving the gift of music to children you will love forever. My wise son saved the day. In the evening I answered the phone to hear a cacophony of piano notes on the other end. As I listened "The Tambourine Party" emerged and I recognized that my grandson was playing a duet with his father. They were obviously having fun together and they called back again later to play the next song. I suspect our lessons will go on because his father brought value and attention to a discouraged student. That is what parents can do when the going gets tough.

The Tambourine Party Results

 I really like making strong connections to the pieces My First Piano Adventures students learn. For weeks we talked about the piece "Tambourine Party" and how we would have our own party soon. My idea was that one student would play the piece while the others would sound their percussion instrument at just the right time during the song.

   It worked very well when we had a "Pumpkin Party" and we sang along while each student took a turn accompanying. I thought we were well prepared but the piece "Tambourine Party" changes hands on the second measure. It takes forward thinking to prepare the brain to change and in an ensemble this must happen on the beat. Everyone stumbled and I learned how important it is to remind my students to use CLAP in their practice. Count, Look Ahead, Attention to notes coming up, and Play; that is what I hope to reinforce in the next weeks.

  I am always learning what to focus on in private lessons when I work with the group lessons. It is a good thing!

A Chord Company

  Happy Valentine's Day!! A company of students came to learn about chords yesterday and more will come today because it is group lessons week. Yesterday they were my Piano Adventures 2B students and we all needed to review the keys of C,G,D,F; their scales, their tonic, dominant and sub dominant chords, the concept of inverting chords and how these chord sound.
   We started with a treble simple staff and Hershey's kisses to make triads. We used black disks under the chocolate kiss if the chord had a black note.
   Then we used a worksheet from colorinmypiano.com to write out scales and I,IV,V7 chords. Going over the visual pattern of a triad and moving it to a V7 chord seemed to fill some holes in these student's knowledge base.

   Lastly we used my Eggspert game to drill aural sounds of chords using Music Learning Community on my laptop. In "Wheel of Fortune" mode one person's egg would light up and they would listen to a pattern of I and V7 chords and find the matching written pattern.

   Eggspert was such a great hit that we played it in "Jeopardy" mode. I called out a chord name, they had to build it on the staff with their Kisses and then they could push the Eggspert button to get 5 points. Because of the heightened emotions some of these facts will stick better than if I explain them in a private lesson. Stay tuned for a report of my Tambourine Party, tomorrow.