Left Hand Strength Options

[bobziekins]

My right hand is a lot stronger, more flexible, and a lot easier to coordinate than my left.

Which makes it quite hard on the piano. It's weird, my left hand can't play things easily without the right hand leading it. It's impossible to sight-read, my fingers won't go to the right keys etc.

I can easily pick out a tune on the right hand with the piano, but with the left, it's near to impossible.

Is this due to strength, or just making the brain coordinate it? My flute teacher heard me mentioning it, and told me that a stress ball just playing around with my left hand would help. Wouldn't this just make it stronger, but possibly clumsy?

[Mad Tom]

My right hand is a lot stronger, more flexible, and a lot easier to coordinate than my left.

Well there's a surprise!!!

Which makes it quite hard on the piano. It's weird, my left hand can't play things easily without the right hand leading it. It's impossible to sight-read, my fingers won't go to the right keys etc.

I can easily pick out a tune on the right hand with the piano, but with the left, it's near to impossible.

Is this due to strength, or just making the brain coordinate it? My flute teacher heard me mentioning it, and told me that a stress ball just playing around with my left hand would help. Wouldn't this just make it stronger, but possibly clumsy?

Unless you are a very weedy wimp, then you almost certainly don't need special exercises to develop more hand strength.

You need co-ordination, co-ordination, and co-ordination. And I am quite sure that you kow exactly what you need to do to develop it.

As for flexibility - like strength - that increases naturally as your left hand attempts (and succeeds at) gradually more and more demanding feats

[Chopinzee]

I have, over the last few years, become something of a ''very weedy wimp'' though at one time in my life i was a burly farm labourer. Well maybe not all that burly. It really is down to developing coordination. Something which I've still got to work on myself. For example, the opening bars of Griegs Scherzo( Lyric Pieces)is something that looks straightforward enough, but the bass melody against the RH triplets is tricky. I tried slowing it down which was'nt so bad, but taken quickly it really did'nt seem to work at all. I eventually figured out the only way I could do it was not to think about what each hand was doing and to quit trying to fit the notes between each other, which at Presto is virtually impossible...but just to let the RH and LH get on with it in a sort of auto pilot fashion. Eventually it became second nature.

[Juan Carlos]

My right hand is a lot stronger, more flexible, and a lot easier to coordinate than my left.

Which makes it quite hard on the piano. It's weird, my left hand can't play things easily without the right hand leading it. It's impossible to sight-read, my fingers won't go to the right keys etc.

I can easily pick out a tune on the right hand with the piano, but with the left, it's near to impossible.

Is this due to strength, or just making the brain coordinate it? My flute teacher heard me mentioning it, and told me that a stress ball just playing around with my left hand would help. Wouldn't this just make it stronger, but possibly clumsy?

I was concerned about exactly the same problem and told my teacher about it and she insisted that doing Hanon exercises HT and HS would do the trick. I was not satisfied, though, and got hold of a book called "Training of the Left Hand" by Berens (Peters Edition), which I spoke about on the Forum some time ago. Although some Forumites said this was a well-known book, Tortellini agreed with me that this is not the case in Italy. The book consists of 4- or 5-line exercises (and studies in the second section) only for the left hand and for about one and a half months now I've been doing the 10-minute practice a day the author recommends. Well, the touch in the LH has considerably improved and the physical sensation has changed completely. Thes sensations come back to me on several occasions when I'm playing Etudes, or Bach or other things and I believe that given the noticeable difference in strength of the LH in comparison with the RH (often extremely marked), everybody should tackle at least one of these exercises every day.
Another approach - not as an alternative but as a complementary technique - is doing études where the LH has an active role (runs, melody, scales, etc.) but nothing can beat daily disciplined practice of the LH only (mind you, without using the RH as the attention must be totally focused on that so the brain is completely free from distractors). It is a muscular process but, above all, it is a mental one, that is, giving the LH the chance to work undistracted and with total cocnentration. It does work!

[Cadence]

I was about to suggest Berens as well - the book is fantastic!

[Mad Tom]

I was about to suggest Berens as well - the book is fantastic!

I will add my endorsement. The exercises in Berens are effective. I discovered the book when my RH was semi-disabled with two injured fingers, and I went hunting for LH only work.

Another piece that will do wonders for anyone's LH co-ordination is Brahms's arrangement of the famous Bach Chaconne (solo violin) for LH alone. It has some very difficult passages, so it may be beyond the OP's present standard, but it is one to keep in mind for the future.

I've also found that repetitive drill of very simple things helps a lot: trills with all possible pairs of fingers (especially 4-5 and 3-4) and on a variety of note pairs, chromatic scales in thirds, fourths and sixths. [It is good to do these things with just the right hand too!] . When you first try them these exercises are very slow and will probably hurt your brain. That passes quickly, but weeks can go by on a plateau with little improvement - then every now and again there is a breakthrough in co-ordination and things that seemed impossible suddenly become easy.

[sarah123]

My right hand is a lot stronger, more flexible, and a lot easier to coordinate than my left.

I assume here that you're right-handed. Have you tried writing with your left hand rather than your right? My guess is that you would find it pretty difficult. This isn't because your left hand is lacking in strength, but because you haven't practised the coordination required to do it. Playing the piano is exactly the same.

My flute teacher heard me mentioning it, and told me that a stress ball just playing around with my left hand would help. Wouldn't this just make it stronger, but possibly clumsy?

I imagine that consciously doing anything with your left hand will probably improve coordination, as you're probably used to unconsciously choosing your RH for most things. So that could be anything from fiddling with stress balls etc, using the computer mouse, or trying to carry a cup of hot tea up the stairs and not spill it down your legs. (this is where my LH usually lets me down (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) ) You could try playing the piano with only your left hand for a couple of days. There are so many possibilities! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[undividedself]

I'll second sarah123. Try using your left hand for daily tasks away from the piano, especially switching the computer mouse over to the LHS. Brushing teeth is another one!

In addition, any activity which increases inner body awareness will help. (I think this may be because the right brain controls the left hand.) The Alexander Technique is such an activity and it is taught at many Colleges and Conservatoires around the world. You don't need to be injured to gather large dividends from it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexander-Techniqu...e/dp/1861262868

[Jatzaya]

I was about to suggest Berens as well - the book is fantastic!

Another piece that will do wonders for anyone's LH co-ordination is Brahms's arrangement of the famous Bach Chaconne (solo violin) for LH alone. It has some very difficult passages, so it may be beyond the OP's present standard, but it is one to keep in mind for the future.

I heard Ivan Ilic being interviewed on Radio 3 recently on In Tune, I think, and he played this, along with a left hand arrangement of one of Chopin's etudes. He was remarkable. Someone called Godowsky, I think, arranged all the Chopin Etudes for left hand in the 19th century, and Ivan Ilic is about to record these on a CD. I heard him play in a concert recently and thought his was a name to watch out for.