I am working on the Grade 1 pieces. I have the melody in the right hand, and a 1-2-3 rhythm in the left. The left is to be quieter than the right so the Melody sings through. I am able to play the 2 different rhythms in the 2 hands, but finding it difficult to play 1 hand louder than the other. Are there any tips you can give me to do this successfully please.
Beverley.

Sometimes it helps to really go over the top and exaggerate the 'loud' hand. Then you can tone it down again to get the balance right.

Thanks both of you. I will try that.
Bev.

Which piece is it. I've just passed Grade one and I wonder if I know how to play it.

Try 'ghosting' one hand at a time. First few times you play it, go to play it hands separately but only press the keys used in the right hand, just skim over them with the left, then change over etc. Does that make any sense?

The tune in question is Melody by Kohler. My other one is Menuet by Krieger. Haven't quite decided on the third.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I want to get it a bit better before my next lesson.
Bev.

Hands seperate is for sure a good way to go!
Also, I find with bringing out melodies it is important to physically feel more of your body weight on your one arm... its kind of a tricky concept but there should be a physical difference in weight coming from the tops of your arms, not just trying to play one hands' fingers louder than the other... haha i hope that made some sense!

Hello,

If you look at my "Forte V. Piano" thread (sorry, can't do the link thingy!!) I asked more or less the same question, and got some good advice, which has worked for me and my students!


Good luck with the Gde 1!

Here we are: http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=22696&hl=

It was on your old account.

Thank you!!

Thank you all.
Beverleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I agree with this. Actually I caught myself leaning to one side to weight the right arm
and decided I needed a different idea. So then I imagined a weight on my right hand....not too
successful so then I visualised my right arm twice the weight of the the left.
My teacher got me to play the left hand staccato but I had misunderstood what he was trying
to achieve by it and had a loud staccato Anyway it suddenly clicked.

Another idea is this: I've heard several times that a piano is like a whole orchestra. So if
you visualise different instruments playing right and left hands, your brain is smart enough
to figure out how to emulate it without too much "paralysis by analysis". Visualise is the
wrong word....what should the verb be in "visualise with your ears"?
auditise? audialise? Maybe hear in your head, hear with the mind's ear...
This helps with touch, legato vs staccato, loud vs soft etc etc
The trick is to pick the right instrument for the various bits

'Visualise' is derived from the adjective applying to the sense of sight, 'visual'. The adjective applying to hearing is 'aural', so possibly 'auralise'? Doesn't seem to appear in any online dictionaries. I need a life.

I love auralise

Hm........... you can spell it another way too

With a Z?

The homophone would have a different meaning.

My daughter is playing "Melody" too and she also found this tricky - though has got the hang of this now (just as well as her exam is on Tuesday!) Her teacher used to get her to play the first bar in the LH quietly 4 times in a row so that she got the feel of that, before coming in more loudly with the RH. She also used to play the same bar in the LH all through the phrase so that she didn't have to think about it and could concentrate on getting the RH dyamics right. As soon as she could get the balance in the first phrase, she could do it all. The other thing that helped her was to play it faster and to think of it as one in a bar rather than 3, to stop it being too ploddy.