Hi, all.

Many of you watched my Mozart video. I have a question about hand independence. When learning and playing a piece like that, am I working on and improving my hand independence or am I creating more hand interdependence?

Frankly, the distinction between the two is starting to blur for me and I have no idea what I my answer to this questions is. What do you all think?

Thanks,

-Eric

I think they are both the same; IMHO independence is interdependence that happens sub-consciously.

Cheers, Daniel.

Hi Eric,

When I feel my fingers are getting a little too dependent on each other (which can lead to train wrecks) I try a simple test:

Can I stop playing one hand's part and then bring it back in without messing up the other hand?

If I can't, then I'm definitely playing interdependently. This isn't a bad thing, provided I can get through the music without making mistakes. But it doesn't give me any leeway to shift the phrasing or even stretch out a little with ornamentation.

The best way to practice this is not to work on each hand by itself, but to experiment with changing elements in each hand to see where the written parts break down.

If you can consciously alter the music without it falling apart, then you are truly playing independently.

Anyway, that's the way I look at it.

Mostly interdependence. You're learning independence within the context of that piece in that your hands are doing different things but they still have specific marks that they have to hit at a specific time.

Greg's right for the most part that independence is mainly just a mental block. And where you can gauge it the most is in the changes. The goal you shoot for is to be able to play "peripherally". To be able to mentally phase out of your playing where you're not focusing on either hand specifically, but rather the music as a whole. Just like when you see something in your peripheral field of vision while not looking directly at it, the ability to process the changes in movements of your hands without focusing directly on them.

Tritone

I agree with you here, but, I'm also noticing that even with classical pieces where the notes all have places to go, I am feeling some hand independence, too. In the pieces that I'm learning well, I'm noticing that I can focus on each hand and start to vary things for musicality. Maybe I should play more legato here, or more staccato there, a little louder in the right hand in this spot and softer in the left over here. I'm also able to hear each independent melody better and I feel like I'm playing two melodies instead of one set of combined notes. That seems like the independence Greg is talking about, since I am varying some aspects of the piece while I'm playing it.

I'm past the two year mark now and I think that maybe it just takes that long to get enough motor control to start seeing some independence. Has this been the experience of others? After really working hard on these classical, and some more folk-like tunes, for the past year, it seems like the next batch of things I want to learn are coming faster. It's great to feel some progress and it seemed to come quickly after a long period of hard work. That's probably a common thing, too, I expect.

Thanks for the input.

-Eric