<p>Not sure if it's natural inability or what. Son has been in group piano lessons for 3 yrs. Considered best in his class. He is naturally coordinated, at least so far, and has a great ear. The students are taught to play by first playing the right-handed part of a piece of music, followed by learning the left-handed part and then coordinating them.
For one recital, he picked a hard piece to play, as it required more ability or something than he had with his 2 hands. He kept muddling it--the 2 hands didn't play together. He lost his timing invariably.
He has an ego. He was crushed.
I'm not sure if 2-handed coordinated playing is something that can be overcome by lots of practice.
Any thoughts? I did ask his teacher by phone message, but haven't heard back yet.</p>
<p>It sounds to me like the problem was probably that your son chose to play a piece that was too difficult for him. An experienced teacher should be able to set some boundaries on recital piece choices. In my studio I allow my students to choose the pieces they perform, but within limits. I spend an entire lesson presenting choices that I have pre-selected for each individual. I take into account each student’s skill level and personal taste. I do not present any student with pieces that are too challenging. My expectation is that each student should be able to master any piece I present as a choice within a 6 to 7 week time frame.</p>
<p>It sounds as though you are worried that perhaps your son is simply incapable of ever playing well with both hands together. I think your son HAS been playing with both hands together during his 3 years of piano study. He simply has been taught to learn each hand’s part separately at first. If he had been struggling to play with both hands during ALL of his time at the studio, I would say that he has a learning disability. Some kids really do have great difficulty processing the amount of information that piano playing requires. Students must read multiple notes written in two different clefs, process different rhythms, and coordinate ten separate fingers. Some types of learning disabilities make doing this extremely difficult. Since you have given no indication that playing with two hands has been a problem for your son in the past, I don’t think he has any sort of inherent problem. I would have a hard time believing that a student who is considered to be the best in his music class had a learning disability.</p>
<p>If your son had any sort of musical learning disability, his teacher would have been aware of it (or should have been aware of it) very early on. It’s not something that would just now be making its presence known. So, in answer to your question, “Can difficulty with two-handed coordinated playing be overcome with lots of practice?” Yes. A student with no inherent learning problem can play with both hands. As I said above, I suspect that the real problem is that the piece was just a bit more than your son was ready to handle. The other possibility is that your son did not practice the piece well.</p>
<p>Practicing well is a learned skill. Most students, even teenagers and adults, do not practice efficiently when they sit down at the keyboard. They begin at measure one and play until they reach the double bar at the end. If they feel they have made a few more mistakes than they would have liked when they reach the middle of the piece, they go back to the beginning and start over. This is why kids usually know the beginning of their pieces better than the end. The beginning has simply been played more! Students also typically play their pieces too fast when they are “practicing”. Most pieces of music only sound good in a very narrow range of tempos. If they are played either too slowly or too fast, they do not sound good. I call the composer’s intended tempo the “performance tempo”. Students usually instinctively know how fast the “performance tempo” should be. They try to practice at that tempo. The simple reality is that students are trying to perform for themselves when they sit down to practice. They play from beginning straight through to the end and as close to “performance tempo” as they can manage. That is not practicing! Music teachers the world over try to instruct their students in good practice habits, but it’s an uphill battle. </p>
<p>Good practicing includes things such as identifying problem areas in the music and spot practicing them. If a piece is difficult, students can carve it into sections and focus on improving one section per day. There are many, many other practicing tips that I will not go into here. I feel sure that your son’s teacher has been working with his class to develop good practice strategies. </p>
<p>I’m sorry that your son had a bad experience at his recital. That’s something that no teacher ever wants. Several things could have gone wrong. 1)Your son may have just needed more time to master his piece. Maybe he didn’t get in as much practice time as he needed. 2)As I said above, perhaps he didn’t know how to practice his music efficiently. 3)Nerves may have gotten the best of him. If he was playing the piece well at home and only had difficulty in front of the audience, suspect stage fright. 4)It may have been a little too hard for him - perhaps he just didn’t have enough years of lessons under his belt to handle it. </p>
<p>I hope that your son will not give up on the piano. Encourage a resilient attitude. It’s normal to feel “crushed” after a difficult performance, but the sting WILL subside. Remind him that he was much more aware of problems in the piece than anyone in the audience. Most audience members won’t retain clear memories of any mistakes that were made 5 minutes after the performance ends! Remind your son that he enjoys making music and that he has been successful in learning to play the piano. Whether or not to continue taking lessons should not hinge on one performance. I hope that your son will use his recital as a learning experience. He can come back from his disappointing recital to do better next time. Encourage him to talk with his teacher about what went wrong and how he can better prepare in the future.</p>
<p>I think the issue with hands apart, is that students have to be careful not to lose the overall integrity of the piece, or how it all “goes together”. I have noticed that my son was never taught to play more than phrases as “hands apart”; he never has played whole pages, sections or movements, for example, while learning a piece, with only one hand or the other, just phrases or parts, before he put it back together.</p>
<p>The other thing is that the left hand is naturally weaker for a right handed person, and in articulation, the right hand typically has the dominant or upper voice, at least until music gets more advanced. The good thing about hands apart is that the left hand gets some practice and strengthening, without the interference of the more dominant and stronger right. And the left also needs the practice of bringing out its own “voice” in the piece.</p>
<p>I would ask the teacher about working in shorter phrases as hands apart (if they aren’t already), and mastering smaller parts of the pieces, first hands apart, then together, before moving on. That way, your son might be more easily able to coordinate the two hands, without trying to master two hands all at once in the whole piece!</p>
<p>As a beginner, my D had an excellent piano teacher that used many “Suzuki” techniques in her teaching. (I don’t want to go there - Suzuki piano - in this discussion. I have reasons for not liking the exclusive Suzuki approach - but it is a well established, valid methodology). In any event, the hands alone approach was emphasized with several students in the teacher’s studio. I believe the teacher thought this trained both hands better when she identified difficulties that a student was having with the “weaker” hand. I understood this to be a common appoach from “Suzuki” trained and influenced teachers. BTW, the kids using this approach were very young 4 - 6, although I would think it could also apply to older students with no previous training.</p>
<p>When my kids did their own piano practicing, they would often learn passages hands separately. Even when both hands were well learned alone, there were still coordination problems remaining to be resolved when the hands went together.</p>
<p>Dancersmom gave a great answer. Perhaps your son could choose a piece slightly under his ability for the next public performance so he can feel very confident. Having a good experience after a less fortunate one can help the ego and nerves for the future! (I speak from personal and professional experience here!)</p>