Is Piano With 2 Hands Too Hard? 🎹👋

Рет қаралды 36,288

Күн бұрын

If you find playing the piano with two hands a challenge, then this series of shaker exercises will help! Designed to take your piano hand independence to the next level, they're easy to get into, but challenging enough to really supercharge your two-handed piano playing skill!
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00:00 My new technique for piano hand independence
01:08 Exercise 1: shaking against a scale
02:11 Exercise 2: off-beat shake
03:28 Exercise 3: stressed shake
04:44 Why shaking is better than tapping
06:31 Why shaking is great for hand independence
08:23 Exercise 4: shaking time against a melody
09:39 Exercise 5: improvised shake against melody
10:44 Exercise 6: shaking one half of a score
12:40 My Patreon supporters get...

Пікірлер: 82

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

👉Improve your piano skills with my great value Piano Packs and 3 Ebook Bundle deal: www.billspianopages.com/piano... www.billspianopages.com/bundle 👉Join my Patreon community - we're a very friendly bunch of piano learners! www.patreon.com/billhilton 👉My gear (in association with Sweetwater.com) Nord Piano. Latest model is the Nord Piano 5: sweetwater.sjv.io/Gm3RNn Rode NT-USB microphone: sweetwater.sjv.io/AWXR6a Sony DCZV1/B digital camera: sweetwater.sjv.io/3erm1n (Disclosure: I receive commission from Sweetwater if you click through and buy these or any other products from their website.)

@dafyddrees2287 5 ай бұрын

This is really good teaching. Using applied psychology to overcome mental blocks instead of shouting and screaming like my old cello teacher. This will work.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Diolch, Dafydd - glad you think so!

@dickyrorson8907 4 ай бұрын

Thank you, 68 now and just started to play , I can relate to how you teach looking forward to be playing and singing to, Thanks again.

@BillHilton 4 ай бұрын

@@dickyrorson8907 You’re welcome Dicky - let me know how you get on, and shout if you need any help!

@christophschnerch7880 5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@Y3M_Official 5 ай бұрын

Wow

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Thank you very much indeed, Christoph - that's very good of you, and I really appreciate it!

@carlgrainger2669 5 ай бұрын

How kind & generous 👏

@siebartx 5 ай бұрын

Fantastic! ❤ i recently tried incorporating my left hand and has made practicing not as enjoyable because of my mental block. You do so well at helping overcome the psychological walls new students hit.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Thank you - I hope it speeds up your progress and you get back to having some fun when you practise!

@Jesus_9617 2 ай бұрын

TYSM😊

@ezhogyvan 5 ай бұрын

golden medal for the tutorial, thank you!

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Thank you very much indeed - I'm really glad you liked it!

@danielcarlheister680 4 ай бұрын

After seeing this video I wanted to tell about an observation I had. I am a music teacher as well. I teach brass instruments. I also conduct and compose. I had a teacher who always said, "The music happens between the notes". What he meant is that just playing the rhythm in time does not complete the process of performing music. All musicians have to go through the process of learning timing between the beats in order to truly interpret the music that is performed. That applies to any style of music. That said, the egg exercise is a brilliant way to instill that feeling of subdivision between the beat. Great stuff. Cheers.

@VictorMcConnell 5 ай бұрын

"Is Piano With 2 Hands Too Hard?" I'd say so! Lol, keep it up Bill!

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Well _I_ certainly find it too hard 🤣

@DonnaLori-df3sl 5 ай бұрын

Just got my eggs! You are right... it's kind of like rubbing your head and patting your tummy!

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Good to hear, Donna, and thanks for ordering them - let me know how you get on!

@hellopsp180 5 ай бұрын

I agree Shaker is the new META

@levieux1137 5 ай бұрын

This looks like an excellent idea. I know some people who are already used to browsing certain web sites with a single hand with the other one busy, maybe they have higher abilities at the piano :-)

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Maybe we should be asking skilled boogie-woogie players what they are doing in their spare time 🧐🤣

@JamieDalgetty 5 ай бұрын

Omg lol

@mikegarcia4927 5 ай бұрын

Thanks a lot Bill !!

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

You're welcome, Mike - my pleasure!

@jimwalker5941 15 күн бұрын

Brilliant Idea!

@BillHilton 12 күн бұрын

Thanks Jim - glad you think so!

@DonnaLori-df3sl 5 ай бұрын

Another great tip. Thanks, Bill!

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

You’re welcome Donna!

@NinaSoyfer 2 ай бұрын

I have one student who is an adult beginner with percussion background. This is a great idea I will try Thursday - he always keeps a rhythm anyway with his foot might as well make it fun with this idea. I love 11:55 moment this is so great - for my beginners too - getting used to two hands - great trick Bill :)

@davidcox8838 5 ай бұрын

Thanks for this.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

You're welcome, David!

@Paul-lm5gv 5 ай бұрын

This is very interesting and may be helpful to some people. But the probem I have as an intermediate player with more complicated pieces is the left hand usually does not correspond beat to beat with the right hand as your exercises do. The left hand is playing arpeggios or something equally challenging - and the right hand has an entirely different beat structure. The notes don't neatly line up from treble staff to bass staff. The most extreme example of this is Boogie Woogie!

@adrianfox9431 5 ай бұрын

They should line up but at a much higher bpm e.g. 32nds - I guess the trick is to find material to practice on with steadily increasing variance between the two parts?

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

I think Adrian’s point is a good one, Paul - steadily increasing the difficulty is perhaps the way around this. It’s also worth remembering that when you’re shaking the left hand rhythm you’re really only asking that hand to do something it would be doing anyway - marking out the left hand rhythm - if it were playing the actual part. Does that make sense? So I’m not saying it’s necessarily easy as such, just that it’s a way of breaking down and practising one aspect of a complex task.

@grzegorzpiwowski890 5 ай бұрын

That looks awesome👍 definitely I will try, thank you 👍

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

You're welcome, Grzegorz - I hope you find it useful!

@grzegorzpiwowski890 5 ай бұрын

@@BillHilton Yes it's, I just made one from old toys 🤣hand made 🤣 And I want to tell it's usefull. Love it❤ This thing made amazing hands, fingers and brain coordination. Than you👍

@mikehess4494 5 ай бұрын

Interesting...adding to my daily warm up.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Thanks Mike - let me know how you get on!

@mikehess4494 5 ай бұрын

@@BillHilton Very slowly so far...but it's day one. Using a pumpkin sprinkle mix spice container for a shaker.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

@@mikehess4494 Good idea!

@samuelec 5 ай бұрын

As novice my problem is not playing with both hands but being able to press the right keys because I can't look or focus at both hands in the same time. So one of the two hands is driving the other hand has to magically land on the right keys.. after a lot of trial and error

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Yep, that's the challenge - it's the same for everyone and it remains a challenge to some extent throughout your piano playing life. The trick is to gradually nail down and perfect the skills so you can start to do some things with an increasing level of automaticity (find particular notes, for example). To some extent you just have to brute force it: steadily chip away at the problem with efficient daily practice over a period of weeks or months. Progress won't necessarily come in a linear way, either, so you might feel you're working and working and working and getting nowhere for a while, but then suddenly BOOM you'll notice a step-up in skill. Does that make sense?

@NinaSoyfer 2 ай бұрын

yes Bill is right - and also usually we do one of two hands blind - so you find which hand you don't need to look at and look at the other. Well written pianistic songs would always have that - one of 2 hands no need to look

@thepianoplayer416 5 ай бұрын

Is playing with 2 hands too hard? Depends on the level and the pieces you're doing. Always interesting to hear unconventional approaches to learning. In my family, a number of young people learned with a teacher but eventually quit playing not only because piano is hard, but because teachers tend to make playing music & the learning experience like exercises than having fun. In the beginning we'd all start with pieces like "Chopsticks" or "Hot Cross Bun". For many beginner getting the hand coordination is hard. If you survive the first year, beginner pieces become less challenging. Now you're playing more difficult pieces. If you survive another year, these pieces become easy.

@katttttt 5 ай бұрын

"Survive" 😅👍

@michaelanthony9068 5 ай бұрын

Thank you, this makes sense to me. I’m going to try it, as my left hand is completely un developed.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Good to hear, Michael - let us know how you get on!

@alm5966 5 ай бұрын

This is a good idea and ill give it a try. I failed trying to keep the left hand rhythm and trying to fit more notes in with right hand...the left just followed suit and sounded kak.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Thank you - yes, give it a go, and start with the easier exercises so you can warm into it. Let me know how you get on!

@DonnieShaw 5 ай бұрын

Cool , I’m going to try this.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Let me know how you get on, Donnie!

@WizardOfArc 5 ай бұрын

I got my egg shaker at Camdon Guitars in London

@TheDragonhawkKnights 5 ай бұрын

What you're describing is bilateral stimulation! My therapist introduced me to this when dealing with more complex ideas. Bilateral stimulation activates more of your brain and, as an adult, is the best way to learn new things or process some more complex things like what I worked through in therapy, but the application works for a great many things like music!!

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

Absolutely spot on! It's really interesting to hear that you've used bilateral stimulation in therapy. I guess the way it engages the brain in a holistic manner works on how we learn and process across a whole bunch of activities, internal and external. Thanks for sharing that - It's a handy reminder of how interconnected our development, learning and indeed healing processes are. 🧠🎶

@TheDragonhawkKnights 5 ай бұрын

@@BillHilton my therapist told me that the way I write in my journal (listening to the best music while typing with both hands) is better than anything she could think up because my way is bilateral stimulation. Playing the organ is much more because not only are you using both hands, but also both feet to play. I honestly believe that the only reason I was able to process all the ick from my past and be OK with me, was my journal writing and playing the organ. I thank God every day that He gave me the gift of music.

@TheDragonhawkKnights 5 ай бұрын

@@BillHilton my therapist is a big proponent for EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and told me that bilateral stimulation was a necessary part of it because it puts your mind in a state to better process traumas, learn new things, or move memories out of the limbic system (where mine were) and into long term memory so I wasn't constantly being traumatized with the ick stuck in the limbic system. But when she said that BLS allows you to learn new things....it just made sense. I've always found the organ to be easier to play and much more fun for new things and experimenting. When I asked her about it, she said that organists are some of the coolest people on earth because they learn things the fastest and play with all four limbs instead of just two.

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

All of this is so interesting - thanks very much indeed. To be honest, the organ boggles my little piano-playing mind: one day I will get to grips with it, but right now I'm very much still in the "I have to do WHAT with my feet!?" camp. It's certainly true that some of the finest musicians - in terms of sheer musicality and breadth of ability - that I've known have been organists. Also a strong overlap between mathematicians/scientists and organists too. Obvs you get mathmos/scientists/docs in all fields of music and they're probably over-represented among skilled amateur classical players, but I do notice a particular correlation between scientists and the organ in particular. Strange, eh?

@TheDragonhawkKnights 5 ай бұрын

@@BillHilton I got top marks in both math and science. My college degree is in accounting and finance with a minor in organ performance. I guess I'm an oddity, and that's alright.

@danielstartek9729 5 ай бұрын

Take off your cap and show your chrome dome in all its gloriousness!

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

I’m flattered at the suggestion, Daniel, and sometimes indeed I do. The downside is that it has a personality all of its own and I get inundated with fanmail/offers to write sponsor messages on it/improper suggestions from ladies of a certain age etc etc

@hellopsp180 5 ай бұрын

Marracas to this song

@BillHilton 5 ай бұрын

This is exactly what I meant to say in the tutorial. Thank you for the concise summary 🤣