Hi everyone!

I'm hoping you can give me some advice on my following problem.
I've always been particularly strong in the bass (LH) hand when playing the piano, unfortunately.
The melody therefore always seems to be drowned out, which is annoying, as the melody should lead the piece of course. I've tried practising being softer in the left hand, but it usually results in both parts becoming quiet at once!

Are there any techniques I could try for this? Or should I just practise it more? I find it so hard to get the balance right, and have always been too strong in the left hand part.
What should I do??

Thanks very much in advance - I look forward to hearing what you all have to say!

Debi xx

5 - finger exercise C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C.

Both hands in at the octave. Instead of playing exactly hands together, play it RH, LH, RH, LH, RH, LH etc (ie C then low C, D then low D ...... is this making any sense?????

Then change the dynamic - every RH note to be played f and every LH note to be played p . Because you are not playing them at exactly the same time, this should be easier. It helps to 're-train' the balance between the hands. Once you have mastered this, play the RH and LH notes closer together - like RH,LH.......RH,LH....... and gradually move them closer together until they are nearly at the same time, but always making sure the RH note is always much louder than the LH note.

Hope this helps!

I'm not sure if this is particularly useful knowledge, but the louder hand tends to be the weaker hand, not the stronger hand, as you have less control over the hand, thus you cannot keep it quiet. So, if you are doing exercises, focus more on the LEFT hand than the right. Playing right hand louder and left hand quieter is good for training, but make sure that when you are to literally perform a piece that you try to play the hands at a similar volume: the melody should be prominant, but not so much that it is accented over the bass line...

Hanon's Exercises for the Virtuoso Pianist are good, as they ensure that both hands receive the same treatment. Dohynanyi is very good too, but much less melodic - it's if you want to be very dedicated to practice, practice, practice!

Overall though, equilibrium between hands tends to establish itself over time... The more practice you get, the better you become, pretty much without doubt. I wouldn't really worry about it too much at this stage anyway: I'm guessing you're going for Grade 3. I don't think they are going to penalise you too much for the left hand over-dominating, as long as it's not a major problem. Seriously, it simply comes with time.

The alternate, fun way of establishing equalness between hands is playing Bach Inventions and Sinfonias! They tend to establish good practice for both hands - they were created by J.S. Bach to train his son (I think: I'm terrible at musical history).


Hmm... maybe you shouldn't take what I say for gospel truth, for everyone's different I guess - I'm only a student myself. But I'm sure there are plenty of other people on these forums that have had experience with a range of different pupils that may be able to give you slightyl better advice than me, but oh well, this is just my take on the matter!

~Wobby~

That's great idea! I find this quite a hard thing to teach, and your suggestion is one that I'm now going to try with pupils!

Just to add something else (although chocolatedog's suggestion is a lot more practically helpful ) I found that I tended to bring out the hand that I was thinking about, and could actually bring out a different part by consciously concentrating on that hand rather than the other and it just happened. I don't know if it's usually the case that this works. I'm therefore going to hypothesise, although I may be completely wrong, that you're having to concentrate harder on actually being able to play the left hand than the right. If you are finding that you need to concentrate on the left hand much harder then it may be worth trying to practise it a bit more on its own and then trying to focus more on the right hand when playing hands together.

Another technique to use is 'ghosting' play the piece hands together normally but instead of pressing the keys down with your left hand just touch them or depress them ever so slightly, but not enough to make a sound (play the right hand as normal). This will get you used to going through the motions of playing the left hand without actually using much force. Then, when you're used to that try playing hands together normally again but remembering the gentle pressure.

You could also try playing something you know really well and that is quite simple: like a scale for example to use as an exercise, playing one hand quietly and one loudly . Finally, don't worry about it too much, these things are part of the skill of playing the piano, and may take time to develop, so as you suggest just keep persevering and you'll get there .

Thanks very much everyone!
Chocolatedog, your advice was extremely helpful - thanks very much. It's sounds a bit confusing, but I'm going to print it out and read it properly, and then give it a go!

I'm glad to hear that there is some way of solving this problem.