Volume differential between left and right hands

I’m early on in the coursework, but I’m enjoying the quality and excellent design of the lessons. So I’m on the section in which the right hand is played with more velocity than the left. This part turns out to be easy for me since I’m a keyboard player and this is often done when playing piano to try to emphasize the melody over the accompaniment. I thought I’d mention my technique and maybe it will help somebody.

There are different things to do with each hand. With the “loud” hand try to imagine you are leaning into it. At the same time, try to allocate a little more mental focus on the loud hand. For the soft hand try to consciously relax the whole arm a little more than the other arm. That makes it feel more natural for the velocity to come down without having to concentrate on it. As you can see, this technique is 80% mental and 20% physical.

Once you get the hang of this it becomes second nature. And if you play piano go try this with some Chopin. Works great in the rubato sections. And in the sections where you have 43 notes in the right hand over four notes in the left hand it is tough to make it through successfully without this technique.

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Wow, great advice! I’m hoping you will stick around and have some more things to share as you progress through the lessons, like when we’re playing rudiments where the balance of loud and soft switches between hands sometimes.

At some point I actually want the left hand to get “stronger” and provide some exercises for that as well.

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