Wow! I'm not a pianist, so of course I haven't tried it, but I am a teacher so I'm interested in how the brain works, and it seems eliminating muscle memory would really give it a workout.
How about the idea of playing the right hand passage in the left hand - but backwards. It's like your left hand is replicating your right hand in a mirror. My theory is that the symmetry in your brain will REALLY lock the passage down. Of course, you may need to enter the notes into a computer and re-write all the fingering. It's a big job!
Sometimes I know where the notes are to be played but I just hit them wrongly e.g. wanting to hit black keys but hit the adjacent white key. But my situation is even worse, it happens with white keys too. This problem always happens and to random notes! How should I fix this?
Ooh, that's a big question. Without seeing you play, I don't know how much help I can be, but something that helps me is to try to be aware of which part of the keys I'm touching. If you're bumping black keys when you mean to hit white keys, it might help to slide your hand closer to the front of the keys, where the white keys are wider. But if you're hitting white keys when you mean to play black keys, it might mean that your hand is too low/flat (not supported enough in the knuckles where the fingers meet the palm of your hand). It might also help to try to hit the black keys close to dead-center when you're practicing. That way, even if you don't hit them quite as dead-on when you go to play through a piece, hopefully you'll still hit the edge of the key, instead of a different key. Another thing that could help, especially if you're specifically missing notes in blocked chords (but also in other kinds of figurations) is to think of your whole hand as one unit, and then figure out the shape you need to make to hit the entire chord. If you're consistently able to find the same shape every time you go to play a certain chord, then the chances of any of your fingers slipping off will be lower. Hope this helps!
Hah! Mystery solved. That must have been how some of the pianists at Houghton were practicing because it sounds familiar... or maybe it was just you practicing continuously. Not unlikely. I wonder if this technique would work for difficult position shifts on the viola 🤔
I suspect it would work for other instruments as well! I don’t think I used this method back then though. It’s mostly something I’ve started doing in the last year or two.
I'm learning chopin ballade no.1 and will definitely try this out!
Interesting way of practicing this ballade. I have played this piece.
Hey Nolan, thanks for the video!! Is this method also useful for Bach (Two-Part Inventions)?
Thanks a lot!
Sam.
It could be! I haven’t tried it with any of them, but I think it would work.
Wow! I'm not a pianist, so of course I haven't tried it, but I am a teacher so I'm interested in how the brain works, and it seems eliminating muscle memory would really give it a workout.
Yes! It definitely keeps your brain engaged!
How about the idea of playing the right hand passage in the left hand - but backwards. It's like your left hand is replicating your right hand in a mirror. My theory is that the symmetry in your brain will REALLY lock the passage down. Of course, you may need to enter the notes into a computer and re-write all the fingering. It's a big job!
Sometimes I know where the notes are to be played but I just hit them wrongly e.g. wanting to hit black keys but hit the adjacent white key. But my situation is even worse, it happens with white keys too. This problem always happens and to random notes! How should I fix this?
Ooh, that's a big question. Without seeing you play, I don't know how much help I can be, but something that helps me is to try to be aware of which part of the keys I'm touching. If you're bumping black keys when you mean to hit white keys, it might help to slide your hand closer to the front of the keys, where the white keys are wider. But if you're hitting white keys when you mean to play black keys, it might mean that your hand is too low/flat (not supported enough in the knuckles where the fingers meet the palm of your hand). It might also help to try to hit the black keys close to dead-center when you're practicing. That way, even if you don't hit them quite as dead-on when you go to play through a piece, hopefully you'll still hit the edge of the key, instead of a different key.
Another thing that could help, especially if you're specifically missing notes in blocked chords (but also in other kinds of figurations) is to think of your whole hand as one unit, and then figure out the shape you need to make to hit the entire chord. If you're consistently able to find the same shape every time you go to play a certain chord, then the chances of any of your fingers slipping off will be lower.
Hope this helps!
Hah! Mystery solved. That must have been how some of the pianists at Houghton were practicing because it sounds familiar... or maybe it was just you practicing continuously. Not unlikely. I wonder if this technique would work for difficult position shifts on the viola 🤔
I suspect it would work for other instruments as well! I don’t think I used this method back then though. It’s mostly something I’ve started doing in the last year or two.