achieving hand independence

7/27/2019 Achieving Hand Independence

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Achieving Hand Independence

Practicing hand independence begins with a rhythm, pattern, idea or concept – somethingyou want to work on. It could be stride piano, a walking bass line, bossa nova, the

Charleston, something Keith Jarrett played or something you invented yourself. Onceyou’ve isolated an idea, you can derive exercises from it.

We’ll start with an easy one: the Charleston. Feel free to adjust to fit your skill and taste.Really, the difficulty isn’t what’s important here; it’s the process.

The Charleston is easy on its own, but once you add another voice, the alternatingdownbeat and syncopation makes it challenging, even for advanced pianists.

Important note: Playing these exercises at the piano, with notes and harmony, adds adimension that makes it more difficult. Because rhythm independence is our focus, it may

be necessary to start away from the piano. My initial exercises are derived with notes and

harmony as afterthoughts; I add them to the mix later, when a rhythmic foundation has beenestablished. I recommend patting your right and left lap for the first set of exercises.

Here’s ground zero:

A whole note on the downbeat is easy, but it gets more difficult when you move that whole

note around:

http://www.chrisdonnellymusic.com/Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Charleston-3.jpg





All of these patterns should be solid before moving on to the next one, or on to something

more complicated; we’re establishing a foundation. If any of these are shaky, repeat themuntil you get it. If you find you’re repeating it a million times and still not getting it, the

exercise is too hard. Try a slower tempo or an easier left-hand pattern.

Next, half notes (or two evenly spaced notes per measure):

And quarter notes:

By this time, you may be ready to take these patterns to the piano. Depending what your

concept is, you’ll have different options for what notes to play in your left hand. For

demonstrative purposes, I’ll assume we’re working towards applying this to a blues in Fmajor, so I’ll use the following:

As I mentioned, moving these exercises to the piano adds multiple levels of difficulty.

Higher and lower pitches will add different amounts of stress to different beats. Even if a

right hand rhythm is un-syncopated, a combination of pitches could create a pitchsyncopation, which makes the exercise more difficult. Compare this to patting on your

laps, where pitch variance isn’t really an issue.

Also, even though our goal is to apply this to a blues in F major, playing over the blues

from the get-go may be too difficult. Not only would your hands have to manage rhythmicindependence, they would also have to manage chord voicings and chord progressions.

This may be too much to think about. For exercises meant to improve hand independence,

I tend to first isolate single chords or short progressions before moving on to longer, morecomplex forms.






For these reasons, the first few exercises use minimal pitch variation; the right hand is

confined to playing only one note, and the left hand is confined to playing one chord. Thefollowing are translated from the exercises above:

By this time, you should be getting a feel for how this all works. Your skills are beginning

to compound and it should be getting easier and easier to absorb new rhythms. Instead of

providing an exhaustive list of right-hand rhythms, I’ll let you derive your own. Pay closeattention to how one rhythm can be shifted around in the bar to create more rhythms. Find

a right-hand rhythm that makes it difficult for your left-hand to stay steady. Then practice

it!

In a way, I treat this process like a game. I try to find rhythms for my right-hand that will

stump my left-hand. Of course, it’s easy to create impossibly difficult rhythms to stumpmy left-hand, so the rhythms I pick for my right -hand have to be part of a linear and

somewhat logical sequence of difficulty. Each new, consecutive pattern is derived in someway from a previous pattern, but made slightly more difficult. This way, I’m always

keeping within an optimal level of difficulty.






Adding Pitch Variance

Adding pitch variance in the right-hand should happen very gradually and rigidly.

Otherwise we risk this exercise becoming too difficult, or morphing into a creative, improvsession. Here’s how you might start:

Using half notes in the right-hand, pitch syncopation would look like this:

The 3-note grouping augments the length of the pattern and places pitch accents in different

places. The syncopation may be harder to feel with half notes; it’s more evident with

quarter notes and eighth notes.

Notice that using 4-note groupings is easy because there’s no pitch syncopation:







Of course, feel free to experiment with 5+ note groupings!

Increasing Complexity

I can expand on these 3-note and 5-note groupings to create many more possibilities for the

right-hand.

When you add pitch syncopation to these patterns, they become extremely difficult. Here

are a few examples:






By this time, hopefully you’re getting a good feel for this linear sequence of difficulty. It

never ends, so I’ll stop here and let you figure out where you can take it next. Also, keep in

mind I’ve only given exercises for the right-hand; this sequence can be applied to the lefthand too!

The Charleston can be shifted around in the bar:

You can also start incorporating other chords, and larger sections of the blues:

Pick a new left-hand pattern and if necessary, start from the beginning, away from the

piano.








Here are a few examples of left-hand patterns that demonstrate different styles and

concepts. With all the exercises mentioned in previous posts, learning and mastering these patterns should be just a matter of time and practice!

Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag:

Keith Jarrett, What is This Thing Called Love?

Keith Jarrett, Improvisation:

Thelonious Monk, Monk’s Point :

Egberto Gismonti, Palhaço:

Egberto Gismonti, Loro:

http://www.chrisdonnellymusic.com/Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Left-Hand-6.jpg







Bud Powell, Un Poco Loco:

Oscar Peterson, Boogie Blues Etude:

Doug Riley, Peace Dance:

Doug Riley, Jump for Joy:

Dave McKenna, Yardbird Suite:










John Taylor, Clapperclowe:

Fred Hersch, Songs Without Words: Aria

You can put almost anything in your left-hand, as long as you practice!

Here’s one more idea: swap hands! Play the Charleston figure, or some other pattern with

your right hand, and work towards improvising with your left . The same principles apply;

have fun!



achieving hand independence

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