Learn piano with both hands
In this article, I’ll show you exercises to perfect the interplay of your right and left hands on the piano.
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Gordon November
Gordon November
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Every person who starts learning piano faces a major challenge at the beginning: playing piano with both hands. You too, for sure, right?
At first, it doesn’t seem that easy. First, you strum a melody with your right hand. Play the accompaniment with your left hand. And then? You want to put it all together. But it’s not really that easy. Brain knots are pre-programmed.
This is a problem that everyone has who is just starting to learn piano. Even the well-known child prodigy Mozart wouldn’t have immediately hammered the keys with both hands like a young deity.
But I have good news for you: You can learn to marry your left hand to your right hand and use both hands safely when making music. And quickly. With three quickly implemented exercises. And I’ll show you those in this article. Plus: A very special goodie awaits you at the end of the article!
So, get to the keys. And let’s go. So that you become a maestro in two-handed piano playing.
Your training for the perfect interplay of right and left hand
Playing the piano with both hands at the same time is not easy. Everyone has problems with it. But: Those who train regularly train their brain. In such a way that it can cope when your right and left hands play different things.
The right training? Yes, exactly. And I’m practically your personal trainer. I’ll show you exercises for playing the piano that will make you a pro with both hands.
All you and your hands need are the following three exercises. They train your coordination, your brain, and of course you.
Exercise 1: Play the same thing with both hands at the same time
Do you dream of your hands and fingers running independently of each other? So you can play different things at the same time? Here is the perfect exercise to make this dream come true. And the best part: It’s much more effective than any bodybuilding workout. You’ll get results after just a few practice sessions.
Place both hands on the keyboard. The little finger of the left hand rests on the C and the thumb of the right hand on the C above it. Now your hands play exactly the same thing at the same time – first upwards, then downwards:
C – D – E – F – G – F – E – D – C
That’s working quite well, isn’t it? And even though your two hands are playing the same thing, it’s still a challenge. Because: You don’t use the same fingers on the same notes. For example, the little finger of the left hand plays the C and the thumb of the right hand plays the C. Then the ring finger of the left hand plays the D and the index finger of the right hand plays the D. And so on.
Tip for beginners: If this exercise is still difficult for you, play with the same fingers at the same time. That looks like this:
Your right hand plays C – D – E – F – G while your left hand plays G – F – E – D – C.
Is it working for you? Great. Then let’s jump to exercise number 2 now.
Exercise 2: Incorporate emphasis with effect
You don’t need dumbbells for this exercise. No mat. No sweatband. But a metronome.
In the following exercise, you play two notes on each beat of the metronome. Feel free to set the metronome nice and slow until the exercise is secure. Then you can set it a little faster.
What we’re going to do now: We always emphasize the first beat. Something like this:
stressed – unstressed – stressed – unstressed – stressed – unstressed. The stressed note is always played on the beat of the metronome. The unstressed note before the next beat.
We use both hands and start on C each time.
Now we play:
C – d – E – f – G – f – E – d – C
The capital letters stand for the stressed notes and the small letters for the unstressed notes.
As soon as this exercise is secure, you can start playing the notes in reverse order. This means that the same fingers of the right and left hand are now playing. But the right hand plays:
C – d – E – f – G – f – E – d – C
while the left hand plays at the same time
G – f – E – d – C – d – E – f – G
plays.
Exercise Variant: Change Emphasis
Did you notice something? So far, the same fingers have always played the stressed notes and the same fingers have played the unstressed notes. For example, the thumb, middle finger and little finger always play a stressed note and the index finger and ring finger always play the unstressed note.
We want to change that now. If you can do the exercise safely, from now on you play the first note stressed, the second and third notes unstressed, then one stressed again, then two unstressed again, etc. Important: The stressed note is always on the beat of the metronome. This means: You play a total of three notes per beat. This alternates the stressed and unstressed notes.
Tip: Since this variant of exercise 2 is a little more difficult, start with just the right hand. Then play with the left hand according to the same principle. And then with both hands together. And always let the metronome run along. This is how you make sure that you really play confidently and rhythmically correctly with both hands.
Wow, if you’ve made it this far, then you’ve already accomplished a lot. Hats off. Not everyone can do what you can do on the piano now.
Because you already have experience playing with both hands, you are ready for level 3. And that’s coming now.
Exercise 3: Incorporate different emphases
What you can already do: Play notes with different emphasis alternately. So stressed – unstressed – stressed – unstressed etc. You always played two notes per beat. So two notes for every tick of your metronome. Those were eighth notes.
After that, you learned to play triplets by playing three notes on one beat.
What we’re going to do now: Combine eighth notes and triplets.
I see you’re getting big eyes. But you’ll notice that you can do it with a little practice. Your brain just needs to network accordingly. This happens completely automatically with a little practice. And then you’ll be able to do it for the rest of your life.
How do we connect the eighth notes and the triplets.
Your left hand plays eighth notes, i.e. stressed – unstressed – stressed – unstressed and the right hand plays the triplets, i.e. stressed – unstressed – unstressed – stressed – unstressed – unstressed etc. The stressed notes are always to be played at the same time.
If you let the metronome run along, you will notice that the stressed notes always occur on one beat. And that’s despite the fact that the two hands are playing at different speeds.
Just for your information: This exercise is really difficult. If it doesn’t want to work right away and your two hands don’t really want to, that’s no reason to bury your head in the sand. Just save this article and come back to exercise 3 tomorrow – with a fresh head. Then it will work much better. The motto is: It’s worth staying on the ball.
Your path to the independence of your hands
Understand note values. Keep time. Coordinate different movements. Challenge the brain. You can already do all of that now. Great, isn’t it? And do you know what’s really awesome? That you can do everything you’ve learned in this article completely intuitively over time. This means: You no longer have to think about when the hands play stressed and unstressed and how they manage to do this at the same time with different note values. It will simply flow. You have practically trained your flow.
Play intuitively with both hands
Playing with both hands at the same time is one thing. It gets really exciting when you bring beautiful melodies to the keyboard with both hands. And even perform your favorite form. Wouldn’t it be great if that would work intuitively too?
I have good news for you: it is possible. If you decide to play the piano intuitively. You can learn that at piano.university in the Masterclass Intuition.
The Masterclass Intuition is my course for everyone who wants to make music intuitively on the piano. It is divided into several modules, which in turn consist of several short and crisp exercise units. These can be easily integrated into your everyday life and make you a better piano player and a more experienced pianist step by step.
Of course, we also practice playing the piano with both hands here. Coordination is an essential part of playing the piano. You will quickly notice this when it comes to fingering.
Does all of this sound exciting to you? Then I have a gift for you: free access to my workshop for aspiring Inuonauts. In the workshop, you will learn the basics of intuitive piano playing. As soon as you have completed the workshop, you will also receive 14 days of free access to the Masterclass Intuition as a reward. Sounds good? Then click here:
Play Piano by Intuition
Master Keys Without Sheet Music
With the new turbo training, you'll be proficient in every musical key within a few weeks.
(no sheet music knowledge required)
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Play Piano by Intuition
Master Keys Without Sheet Music
With the new turbo training, you'll be proficient in every key signature within just a few weeks.
(no knowledge of sheet music required)
