I'm an adult learner, about grade 2 standard. I'm finding it really hard to play my left hand louder than my right (for the Elephant, adapted from the Carnival of the Animals). I'm sure I remember seeing something about this but I have tried searching and can't find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

PatC

This thread may be of some use to you.

http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=22696&hl=

One of my students' is also playing this piece. We practice playing the left hand forte but have the right hand playing silently..i.e. not sounding the notes, but applying just enough pressure to depress the keys. Once she's confident with that, we play a few bars at a time hands together. This method has helped her.

Hello!
Playing hands separate will definitely help and then, as Daisy Chain suggested, 'ghosting' the right hand. The LH is always something of a bother and I started to do dedicated exercises some months ago. I'm finding them most useful. They are from a book by Berens (Training of the Left Hand) which seems to be very popular in some countries but not here in Italy. These exercises (no less than 46 exercises and 25 'études') cover quite a number of combinations and movements (ever small chords later on, I'm at Number 6 at present) and they are only for the LH. The very fact that you have to play only LH with no RH at all, so no distractors of any kind, forces your attention to focus 100% on that and this is what makes these exercises so invaulable. True, it takes patience to devote 10 minutes of your daily practice only to this but it pays in terms of muscle reinforcement, coordination, and, in general, in awakening that part of the brain which commands the LH.

Thanks very much for the helpful suggestions. I actually have the Waterman & Harewood book from when my children were learning; it has some nice pieces in it I think (eg the Gavotte by d'Andrieu and the Pachelbel fugue) but I hadn't looked at it for ages as my teacher uses a different book with me. It has a price of £1.85 on the cover - those were the days!

It's interesting (frustrating) how your hands just don't do what you want them to do. I'm finding it really difficult to do the "ghosting" when both hands are striking the keys at the same time; I can do it OK if they are slightly staggered but something about doing the two together... Oh well, keep trying!

I intend to look at the John Meffen and Berens books next time I'm in a music shop. I've seen them mentioned before but thought they were well above where I am currently at.

Pat

The Berens book (Training for the Left Hand) is invaluable - as far as I can judge - and Meffen's is full of suggestions which you can apply to just every level. Hope you like them, too.

I remember this being covered during my CT course at some point, and some-one mentioned consciously lifting the fingers more of the hand where the louder tune is required, and barely lifting those in the quieter hand. Easier said that done though perhaps. I used to find (and still do I suppose) that actually thinking about the tune that needs to sound out also helps.

Good to see some exercises though - because some of my pupils find this quite a hard task to overcome, so I'll have a look at the books mentioned.

Good thread.