Left Hand Underused and Underutilized

[Outkaster]

One thing that has been constant work is my left hand technique the last few years. Mostly molding is to be strong, flexible and to be able to keep up with the right hand. Taking 20 years off from lessons hurt me as my teacher told me "because of the kind of music you play and bad habits it hurt you to have a deficit with the left hand" He wasn't trying to be a dick or anything but wanted to make me realize what I had to do going forward to improve things. He told me " it isn't just you, a lot of pop and rock players are like that". I never really considered myself to be either but I know what he means. Hanon has helped immeasurably though but it exposes flaws in the 4th and 5th fingers. Also a lot of hand separate work. Its a sobering thing. Have any of you gone through this??

[analogman1]

Hi Outkaster,

 

One thing to remember is that since the left hand is a mirror image of the right hand, things will play and feel differently, regardless... the right hand has the thumb, pointer and middle fingers, all leading... so they are a much stronger base to work from.

The left hand has those 4th and 5th fingers leading...inherently weak as you pointed out...

 

A few things you could easily do...

 

(1) During practices, just start playing everything with your left hand...chords, leads, comping parts etc. I do that frequently to keep my left hand "in shape";

 

(2) If you are a decent reader, go through some very basic Bach pieces (find a copy of Anna Magdalena's notebook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notebook_for_Anna_Magdalena_Bach)

These will make your left hand work in a musically useful way...

 

(3) Chick Corea had spoken about "Mirror Image" exercises which he used to do.

I was never able to locate the book of exercises but here's a link to how he did them:

 

Good luck and have fun! Hope this helps...

Tom

[Song80s]

I used to have a mostly lazy LH.

 

Since I have more spare time the past 4 yrs , I drill my LH more to make up for lost decades.

I also have a bad pinkie, LH , which adds to the challenge.

 

My plan is drill on LH then unison LH and RH. It takes lots of extra time.

 

with most things its pay now, or pay more later. Usual hind sight.

[MAJUSCULE]

Yep, easy to live in root octaves land. Time to play some Bach and walk a blues.

[tunaman]

I"m in the same shape and have the same challenges. I started playing at 8 years old and took lessons through age 16, playing everything from classical to contemporary, and was able to play complex pieces proficiently and independently.

 

I continued to play (church organist until 21) and was in several bands until my mid-20"s, then life got in the way and I had to work for a living.

 

I rarely had opportunities to play for 20+ years, and then got back into it more than 10 years ago mainly playing with some local musicians for fun. I landed in a gigging band about 7 years ago and played with them for about 3 years, and have gotten by, but over the past 6 months I"ve started to get more serious and have faced up to the deficiencies.

 

Now that I"m nearly 60, I"m finding it a challenge to get the dexterity and independence back. I started working on the Hannon exercises, along with some of the old classical pieces, which have helped some. I"ve also been scouring YouTube for other exercises and tips.

 

Bottom line, for me anyway, is that there are no real shortcuts and I have had to get back to spending as much time as I can on exercises and scales if I wish to achieve some level nearing where I was 40+ years ago.

[lightbg]

Coming from a different background, but same symptoms. When on my B-3 I"m a pedal freak, so LH is comping chords or doubling melody notes while blocking. For most of my casuals I"m playing LH bass guitar, so no keyboarding skills involved.

 

What is getting me back to reasonable technique is discovering B3X. Playing LH bass lines instead of pedals has regained a lot of my flexibility and strength. Since the end of December I can safely say I"m very comfortable with my LH now and it should continue despite my ongoing battle with arthritis.

 

Do what you can, anything will help improve your technique.

 

Jake

[Outkaster]

Hi Outkaster,

 

One thing to remember is that since the left hand is a mirror image of the right hand, things will play and feel differently, regardless... the right hand has the thumb, pointer and middle fingers, all leading... so they are a much stronger base to work from.

The left hand has those 4th and 5th fingers leading...inherently weak as you pointed out...

 

A few things you could easily do...

 

(1) During practices, just start playing everything with your left hand...chords, leads, comping parts etc. I do that frequently to keep my left hand "in shape";

 

(2) If you are a decent reader, go through some very basic Bach pieces (find a copy of Anna Magdalena's notebook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notebook_for_Anna_Magdalena_Bach)

These will make your left hand work in a musically useful way...

 

(3) Chick Corea had spoken about "Mirror Image" exercises which he used to do.

I was never able to locate the book of exercises but here's a link to how he did them:

 

Good luck and have fun! Hope this helps...

Tom

 

 

Tom thanks. I he had me do some of that. It's because of the shape of the hand and which part is stronger also.

[Biggles]

It is a mind thing.

 

Independent actions of the hands is not natural for very many, especially if you are used to another instrument like a guitar where left and right hands are co-ordinated.

[Stokely]

My left hand "gets by" but then the stuff I play isn't difficult...covers from the 70s and 80s and I don't solo much at all. I'll use it in splits sometimes to play chords, really not much in the way of riffs or runs, with rare exceptions like "two much time on my hands" (I play the synth bass part with my left, the electric piano chords with my right). I like the suggestion of learning and practicing with your left hand (even right hand parts). Going to do more of that!

[CEB]

I"ve played in three bands with no bassist. That helps.

 

Play Bach ... just because.

[Muad’Dib]

It"s good to know? I am not alone in this.

 

My challenge is trying too get both hands to play together.

[Sam CA]

...

 

Play Bach ... just because.

 

And then if you really want to mess around with your brain play some Nikolai Kapustin stuff.

[ElmerJFudd]

Solo piano playing is the key.

Playing with the band - especially staying out of a bass player"s way - causes under use of fine motor on the left. Heck - never getting the chance to play leads or melody isn"t great for the right either.

[The Real MC]

During piano lessons I learned to play ragtime/Scott Joplin. That really developed the left hand. Bach inventions and fugues will do that too but not as challenging.

 

For ragtime, learn the left hand parts FIRST, then RH, then both hands. Learn section by section. The trick is getting the LH on autopilot.

 

My last piano teacher taught jazz and he taught LH bass. I don't remember having much trouble playing LH bass because I already had the foundation from ragtime.

 

A few years ago I was practicing with the jazz band at work and I had to heal something on the RH. I thought "I'm comping with the LH, what if I solo'd with the LH" To my surprise, I could do it!

 

Classic rock is a different story. Styx "Fooling Yourself" would be easier if I could play the intro with the LH, not there yet.

 

Hanon is unison playing and doesn't really develop LH independence, it develops stretching of the tendons and even dynamic playing (little finger is typically weaker than thumb/index finger).

[Outkaster]

To be clear it's not like I don't have a left hand or any technique. I can play Reggae rhythms and the bassline at the same time. It just happens for certain music I am weaker. Sorry if I gave the impression I was totally inept.

[EricBarker]

I'm weird, I'm right-handed by birth, but tests show that my left hand is more dexterous and stronger. i have several difficult tunes that I switch hands for and play the melody in the left hand and chords in the right. I'm not as used to playing melody in the left hand, but I find when I do, I'm often better at it. It feels wrong at first, your brain sort of flips upside down, but after I do it a few times I feel like, "okay, I'm standing on the ceiling, but I can actually walk up here!"

[Bosendorphen]

I'm right handed but sort of ambidextrous on the keyboard. I think the Bach inventions helped my hand independence.

 

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y130LPMrSIc

[Rustar]

Several years I decided to develop my left hand, and I purchased a Dr John lesson package from Homespun Audio. New Orleans piano makes such use of the left hand, and that really developed my left hand independence and facility. I grew up playing Gospel piano, so it wasn't a new experience to make greater use of the left hand. Each hand plays a separate rhythmic part, so it develops hand independence. Playing Hanon book 3 everyday develops overall strength and facility.

[Jazz+]

Scales and arpeggios applied to tunes in solo piano. But Hanon is not musical, you won"t apply it to tunes, so I"m not a fan. Jazz heads in unison and soloing in unison is more practical.

[Al Quinn]

I think playing Bach has been one of the most beneficial things I"ve done to develop my left hand. Even the simpler pieces, like two-part Inventions, are hard to play well (I.e., with proper phrasing, independence, dynamics). The thing with playing Bach is that, for me, it"s so enjoyable whereas technical exercises bore me.

[Doerfler]

I'm right handed but sort of ambidextrous on the keyboard. I think the Bach inventions helped my hand independence.

 

 

Ellsworth, that was fantastic. You should put that video in the "post your music here" thread also, it might get more views. Also, where was that filmed? Couldn't find it in the credits anywhere.

[Throbert]

In a band setting it depends on weather you have a bass player or if they're good or not. I had

to cover for a crappy bass player for quite some time until we booted him and ended up with

a really good one and it freed me up to do more and other needed parts with my left.

 

My RH does scales and arpeggios best going from right to left while my LH is opposite. I doubt

that's a big deal to bring up but it's an example of LH RH mirror play. just a few cents there.

[mate stubb]

Left hand -> piano. Right hand -> organ. That'll keep you busy.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Left hand -> piano. Right hand -> organ. That'll keep you busy.

You're telling me, that's why I go out of my way to arrange them the other way around!

[Mitch Towne]

Best advice I ever received - 'Take your right hand and sit on it for six weeks.' - Sal Azzarelli

 

[video:youtube]

[Outkaster]

Sal told me that at lunch in 2015

[mate stubb]

I only spoke with Sal on the phone, wish I had met him in the real world. Sal DID tell Joey D that the organ I was back lining for him was blonde, thus assuring me that I would get my chain yanked.

 

Me: Welcome to Columbia!

Joey: I hope they don't have a blonde organ for me. I hate blonde organs!

Me: You've been talking to Sal.

Joey: (laughs)

[hardware]

Unison playing is great.

Hanon excercises.

Czerny.

Charlie Parker licks in unison, like DOMi does so well.

 

Or just learn Take A Pebble by Kieth Emerson in all keys.

That"s what got my left working as a kid.

 

Easiest is to do B3 Horn songs by ToP.

Left hand brass.

[16251]

Here's a great video from Peter Martin & Adam Maness. "You must master a 2-feel with your left hand."

 

[video:youtube]

[MathOfInsects]

My LH has strong and weak points. At some point I began soloing in unison a lot, so line playing has gotten fairly strong over the years. But don't get me wrong, I have to abandon ship if I want any kind of real speed or intervalic playing.

 

I am a good LH bass player...OR a good keyboard player, but a mediocre keyboard-plus-bass player. I've gotten a bit better over time and can more reliably send each half of the brain off to do its thing. But the number of times I've retriggered a note in the LH that I didn't mean to, because of a rhythmic statement in the RH, is comedically high.

 

I'm not a great LH comper against RH solos. I tend to think in lines with occasional harmonic support, but never really mastered the rhythmic chordal comping approaches of real jazzers. I've had to get creative to do duo gigs, but this is still a deficit in my playing.

 

I am weirdly good at stride. No idea why. It just makes complete sense to me. It should be the opposite, but for whatever reason this particular idiosyncratic technique has always felt complete intuitive to me.