2 questions

[lejardinsecret]

Hi, I'm not new here but this is my first entry. Please forgive my poor english as this is not my mother language.

1. left handed pianistI believe there are many other members of this community here who are left handed like me. My teacher said my right hand is kinda weak while the left one is too... harsh? too strong? something like that. I don't

Comments

[doc__holliday]

Lefties represent!!
I'm left-handed but my left hand is way weaker than my right. :p I'm a bit of an anomoly that way, though.

Hanon is really good. If you get those "Dozen a Day" books, they are awesome. Hah, I STILL refer back to them because they are such good exercises.

Loud and soft tones is all in relation to each other. For example, if you're playing Rachmaninoff and he wants a fff at the end but an increase from an f to an ff leading up to it, and you think f is already loud, then you play the f more like a mf.

..does that make sense?

[changing_heaven]

This is exactly what I was going to say regarding dynamics. It depends in which context you're dealing with them. They're all 'relative directions', if you will. (I hope this makes sense?) But generally, I think of mf as how one usually plays - general full, round tone - and p as being softer, but still pressing to the bottom of the key bed. Hope this helps! I'm not a lefty, so I can't help with your other question.

[_cadenza]

When I first teach my students dynamics, I tell them that mf is how we naturally play, and piano is softer. But, as doc__holliday said, you really need to consider where each specific piece is going. Dynamics aren't really constant, we just learn them that way at first to simplify things.

I'm right-handed, so I don't have much advice for your first question, but you might try Czerny exercises if you get sick of Hanon; they can be a nice change.

[morgian_le_faye]

Regarding dynamics, they are all relative to the music one is playing. A forte in Haydn is a different sound than a forte in Bartok. When I teach, I tell my students to play a forte as loud, and a piano as quiet (and I always use quiet, never soft due to the connotations of each word). I then tell them to play something in between those. If it's on the louder side, we call it mezzo forte. If it's on the quiet side, we call it mezzo piano. The difficulty with this though is that mezzo piano and mezzo forte simply mean anywhere between forte and piano which in turn are relative. So the best thing I can say about dynamics is to play more and expose yourself to more music so you can learn what sounds appropriate for what you are playing.

Regarding the left-hand issues, I don't have much help for you there, as I am right handed. Sorry.

[tiraslee]

Most people play too strongly with the LH because the melody is typically in the RH and you have to balance it. I don't think being LH-ed should affect your playing. Do lots of exercises, scales, hanon, arpeggios hands together and really feel your RH matching your LH's strength.

Dynamics are completely different for every piece. A piano in Brahms is different from a piano in Mozart. You have to answer that question for each piece and what touch is appropriate for the style period.

[cloudlessday]

Yay lefties!
1. I'm a bit ambidextrous, but I definitely do need extra work in places where my right arm has to be playing the melody: Lots of practice. Scales, hanon,etc will definitely help. In music where the right hand must lead, I always spend extra time working on the RH and LH separately so I had each part down well, and make sure to voice the RH more strongly once I play it together. Really, just lots of practice on those parts. You can teach yourself to use one hand more than the other voluntarily, but it can take a lot of time (It took me years of playing, and even after 15 years of playing, I still need to work at it sometimes).
2. I've always thought of it as relative to the piece and the other dynamics in the piece. If you have to get up to fff, then obviously your mf must come out much more quietly (and more similar to p) in order to achieve that fff than in a piece that must get to f. Also, one should consider the style and emotion of the piece. I hope that helps?

Good luck!