Transcription
Hand coordination is the single biggest issue for my piano students, and playing feels so much more enjoyable when our hands just do what we want them to do, right? So, let's sort this out once and for all. I'm going to show you three exercises, and I want you to do them for just 10 minutes every morning for the next seven days. Do this, and I guarantee you'll feel way more coordinated on that piano, and you're going to love how the third exercise sounds as well, so stick around for that.
Now, for exercise number one, we want to get our left into the power chord position, right here. Okay, you can stick your pedal down if you want, and we're just going to rock this power chord like this, okay? Nice and even, nice and steady, and you can play this as slow as you need to, just for now, nice and loose. And we want to count in cycles of eight like this, okay? So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. And, um, for those of you that know about rhythm and notation, these are simply quarter notes or eighth notes at four beats per bar, but you don't need to worry about that so much, really. Just count in those cycles of eight, and you're going to be fine.
Now, this is setting a foundation down, a foundation where the left hand can just set off and do its thing without needing to think about it too much, because the work we're going to do now is in the right hand. So, I want you to get your right hand into a C major chord, okay? Now, it can be anything. You can just use single notes, you can use a power chord, you can even just play, just slam the right hand down on the keys if you want to, that's your thing. I'm going to use a C major chord here, sounds really nice. Um, and here's where this exercise really shines. What you're going to do, you've got your cycle of eight, and you're going to try and keep a mental log of that cycle of eight, and then in the right hand, you're going to strike at random on any of those numbers, all right? So, it's almost like you're creating a rhythm on the fly as you, as you move forward, right? So, like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. Yeah, all the time keeping that cycle of eight in our minds.
Now, why we want to do this is because it thrusts us into a present state of mind, okay? And it forces us to be spontaneous with those strikes in the right hand, and this is absolutely brilliant for learning, okay? Especially as adults, all right? Because it puts us into a focus state. It also gives us, um, it puts us into a slightly uncomfortable state, and you can, it's similar to like if you go to the gym, and you know, you get to that point where you're about to reach failure, and that's where you get the maximum benefit. It's a little bit like that in the sense that you're putting that mental pressure on yourself to, to just not think about what's gone before, not plan ahead, just hanging in the moment like this, and that's where you get a lot of the benefit from. Um.
Now, that is exercise one. I want you to do this for like, maybe three minutes, something like that. And of course, you can slow this right down, you know, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And when you first start this, you can put as much pressure on yourself as you like, you know, you don't need to be, you don't need to be like playing really fancy rhythms, you know, just one, two, three, whenever you're ready, you know, there. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The important thing is you're keeping that cycle of eight going in your mind so you don't lose track of the main beats, and you are nice and relaxed, and you're trying to be spontaneous. So, that is exercise one.
And before we move on to exercise two, you can grab the guide booklet for this video in the cards up above or the information box down below for free, okay? I'll put the sheet music for some example, um, you know, some example exercises in there, and I'll also include some extra coordination tips that I share with my students on their very first lesson to really help you nail that coordination, okay? You can download it for free down below.
Now, for exercise two, it's virtually the same, except we're just going to flip the left and the right hand round, okay? So, instead of the left hand being our support, our foundation, striking on those eight beats, now I'm going to use my right hand. So, my right hand strikes each one of those eight beats, nice and steady, like this. And now it's my left hand that's going to strike at random. So, for instance, oh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Yeah, trying to be as spontaneous as I can, hanging in the moment, yeah.
So, do that for another, say, three minutes, you know, you can choose however long you want to do this for. Um, and of course, I've said do this in seven days. You can, of course, go longer if you want to. Seven days is just a nice round number, a nice week. Um, but be your own judge as to how much, um, pressure you want to put on yourself. So, if you're finding this really, really tough to start with, then just slow it right down. Use these levers you can pull to make it a little bit easier on yourself. So, you don't need to, um, you know, whatever hand is doing the rhythm, you don't need to be super complex with it. You can just strike once per bar or twice per bar, and that's it to start with, and then slowly speed up, slowly bring in more strikes, yeah. So, you know, pull whichever levers you need to to make this as difficult or as easy as you need to. Um, and just stick at it, okay?
Now, for exercise three, this is where we're going to turn the music dial up just a little bit. So far, we've been firmly on the pure exercise end of the spectrum. Now we're going to bring in just a little bit of music. And to do that, I'm going to introduce one more position to play in the left hand and one more position to play in the right hand. But essentially, what we've done on exercise one and two, it's the same thing for exercise three, just a little bit more complex. So, I'm going to strike the C power chord for two bars, okay, or two cycles of eight. So, it sounds like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Next cycle, 5, 6, 7, 8. And then I'm going to move to the A position and I'm going to do the same thing again. So, two bars or two cycles of eight in the A position: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Back to the C. So, I'm alternating between the C position and the A position for two bars on each, or two cycles of eight on each. That's it, okay?
So, the left hand is still very much doing its supportive role, okay? Hopefully a little set and forget. I'll be a little bit more complicated than in exercise one and two. In the right hand, we are going to again try and be spontaneous, try and be spontaneous and, uh, put ourselves into the moment with this. But I'm going to move between the normal C position, which is what we've been using so far, and this position here, which is the C sus two. So, I'm just going to play the 1, 3, 5 on the C, the E and the G, and the 1, 2, 5, or the C, the D and the G. And just by using two positions in the right and these two positions in the left, we could actually create some pretty nice sounding music. Still very restrictive, but in my opinion, plenty of room here to sound good and get a little creative.
So, what would that sound like? Let's slow it down. Sounds like this, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3. This is the second cycle. And now I'm going to move. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. You know, before you know it, you might be coming up with your own little riffs, you know? And before you know it, you might start adding sneak little extra positions in there as well, but we're not going to go down that route anyway.
So, that is exercise three. Sorry, I went off on one at the end there. Don't, you know, just ignore me. Stick to what I've said. Exercise one for three minutes, and then take maybe a 20-second rest. Exercise two for three minutes, and then a 20-second rest. And then exercise three for three minutes, and then a 20-second rest. And that will set you up really nicely if you do that every single morning for seven days. And just see where you are, see if it's really helped you. And, um, you know, feel free to keep it going. And like I said before, keep putting, uh, that pressure on yourself and increasing the pressure, speed it up, make the rhythms more complicated, you know, there's a lot of scope with this exercise. But essentially, I hope it helps you with your hand coordination. And, and if you do do this for seven days, you will also develop a much better sense of rhythm, which is another massively important side to coordination.
Now, don't forget to grab the guide book for free. There's a link in the cards or the information box down below. Now, speaking of coordination, there is a style of music that you can have a go at right now that is not only super fun to play but fantastic for your rhythm and coordination skills, and I recommend it to all my students for their core skill development. It is Boogie Woogie. And if you've never done it before and you want to get started, I have the perfect video for you right here, okay? Somewhere on this screen. Thanks for watching, creatives, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.