Success Music Studio

How does your brain learn to play the piano with two hands - Changing Keys in Your Songwriting - Young Woman Playing the Piano

How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Two Hands?

Facebook
Twitter

Estimated reading time 4 minutes

Table of Contents

Introduction

How does your brain learn to play the piano with two hands? Daniel Coyle, in The Talent Code, tells us generally how the brain acquires skill, and I’ll give you specific tips for two-handed playing. Read more to find out how it works.

This post uses some technical terms. See the definitions in the Glossary below.

How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Two Hands - Woman Playing Cream Colored Baby Grand Piano - How Do I Avoid Tension in My Wrists When Playing Piano Arpeggios

How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Two Hands? By Myelinating Your Neurons

How does your brain learn to play the piano with two hands?

  • Acquiring skill on piano, any skill, will be a process, and not just for two-handed playing.
  • According to Coyle, when you slightly exceed your skill level, making some mistakes, your brain coats your neurons in a substance called myelin.
  • Myelin optimizes your neurons so that they fire more efficiently.
  • This means that making a few mistakes helps to supercharge how you learn.

Coyle says:

  • “The goal is always the same: to break a skill into its component pieces… memorize those pieces… then link them together in progressively larger groupings…” (84).
  • You achieve this by slowing down the song until you find a speed you can manage.
  • Once you’ve gotten it down at slower tempos, repetition becomes essential.
  • “Nothing you can do… is more effective in building skill than executing the action, firing the impulses down the nerve fiber, fixing errors…” (87).
  • This gives you the big picture of how your brain learns a skill like playing the piano with two hands.

Next, comes the practical tips.

How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Two Hands? Practice Tips

Mobile users: tip your phones 90o to the right to better read the score.

How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - RH Pno Color Rhythm - line 1
How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - RH Pno Color Rhythm - line 2
How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - LH Pno Color Rhythm - line 1
How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - LH Pno Color Rhythm - line 2

Right Hand (RH) Piano Part:

Left Hand (LH) Piano Part:

Try these practice tips when learning to play a piece of music with two hands. You need to break down your tasks into smaller pieces.

  1. Start by playing hands separately.
  2. Begin with the right hand (RH) in the first example.
  3. Then, play the left hand (LH) in the second example. For your convenience, I’ve included finger numbers for each note.
  4. Next, one bar at a time, put your hands together slowly.

To help you, I’ve included hands together lines and hand icons (including finger numbers) in the examples below to show how the hands line up. Also, I’ve provided soundtracks so you can hear how it sounds.

Some students have a hard time figuring out which hand should play when.

  • Try tilting the score 90o to the right (see the rotated example below).
  • Notice that RH and LH on the piano now line up with the treble and bass staffs in the score.
  • As you move forward in time (using the red and blue counting numbers), ask yourself which hand plays?
  • It’s all about keeping track (at any given time) of whether you play RH, LH, or both.
  • That’s how your brain learns to play the piano with two hands.
  • Once you’ve gotten comfortable playing the tilted score, turn it back to its normal position.

If these examples are too hard for you, apply these concepts to a piece at your playing level.

Piano Part with Two-Handed Playing:

Why Do Pianists Occasionally Play Their Hands at Different Times as They Perform - How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - Two-Handed Playing - line 1
Why Do Pianists Occasionally Play Their Hands at Different Times as They Perform - How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - Two-Handed Playing - line 2

Hand Icons (churien.deviantart.com/art/hand-template-blank-272630198) by Churien is licensed under CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Modified by Geoffrey Keith.

How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - Two-Handed Playing (Rotated) - line 1
How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Both Hands - Two-Handed Playing (Rotated and cropped) - line 2
How does your brain learn to play the piano with two hands - playing piano with color coded left hand notes - puppet playing piano

Concluding Thoughts to “How Does Your Brain Learn to Play the Piano with Two Hands?”

Glossary

Why is Classical Music Interpreted Differently from Pop Music - Ludwig van Beethoven Bust - Beethoven (Why Did He Keep Composing After Deafness) - Singing Beethoven’s Beautiful Ode to Joy

Why is Classical Music Interpreted Differently from Pop Music? Part 3

“Why is classical music interpreted differently from pop music?” Interpretation has a very important role in performing classical music. This doesn’t mean that interpretation can’t be important in pop music. However, classical artists seem to be very aware of the process of how to interpret a piece of music. You can be too. Read more to learn how it works. Estimated reading time 2 minutes.

Read More
How to Extract a Melody from Your Lyrics - vintage-typewriter-on-desk - The Narrator’s Point of View in Your Songwriting.jpg

How to Extract a Melody from Your Lyrics

Do you have lyrics but need a melody? Starting with the text’s rhythm helps you create the melody you need. Read more to learn how to extract a melody from your lyrics. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.

Read More

Choosing The Right Sound To Play With Just Intonation

Have you ever tuned your synth to just intonation (JI), then selected a piano sound, and thought it sounded odd as you played scales? The reason many people think JI sounds strange with a piano patch is tied to how people hear melody. Read more to learn about choosing the right sound to play with just intonation. Estimated reading time 2 minutes.

Read More
The Narrator’s Point of View in Your Songwriting - Hi Fi Gear

The Narrator’s Point of View in Your Songwriting

Do you ask yourself, “What in the world is point of view anyway?” Does your audience sometimes get confused about who is singing in your songs? You may have problems with your point of view. Read more to learn about the narrator’s point of view in your songwriting. Estimated reading time 7 minutes.

Read More