Week 2: How to Achieve Left Hand Balancing at the Piano with Dr. Eloise Kim!
Welcome to Week 2 of the latest Two-Week Intensive!
For Week 2, Eloise has curated an assignment to work on below.
1. Please view Eloise's video
2. Work on the exercises!
3. Post your progress and video so that Eloise can observe and provide further feedback!
Video Link:
Assignment: Pick a short excerpt of a work that features the LH in an accompaniment style (i.e.: excerpt of a Classical Sonata, Chopin Nocturne, Waltz, anything you are currently learning). Select four to eight measures of this work and take these three steps below for this LH exercise:
Practice the LH alone with sensitivity to your touch and apply the soft-playing techniques discussed in my video. Repeat this process until you find the right sound world and evenness in your LH touch of your selected excerpt.
After achieving the right muscle memory for your LH soft playing, add the RH "shadow." While the LH is physically playing the same way from step 1, the RH will now be "shadowing" over the melody notes. This will be a challenge!
Final step: add everything together. Play both hands together with a singing RH melodic line and a LH supportive accompaniment.
The above steps of this exercise are explained in my video starting at 10:16. For best self-assessment, it will be helpful to video record your practice of this full process. You are welcome to send me a video a recording of your practice process or ask me any questions for feedback!
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Dear Dr. Eloise,
Thank you for the class and sharing. I have used the same Mozart Fantasie and a Chopin Nocturne (op. 32, no.1 in B major) for my practice. I noticed my LH is usually heavy and certain notes are uneven. There were instance of key pressed but the sound didn't come out.
https://youtube.com/shorts/aLL9rzQo9ck?si=5DoWCVu-8Qa4ZvbX
https://youtube.com/shorts/p_dXqiW0Z0c?si=izh4K8qrqYHkOljf
Your feedback and practice tips will be much appreciated. Thanks again !
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Kimy Hi Kimy! Welcome to this challenge, and thank you for your videos! The touch of the LH definitely will change depending on the instrument we are playing on as well. In your videos, your LH sound is playing with a nice even tone, and you are approaching it with a nice technique! I would suggest to try practicing the LH in an even 'slower pace motion,' mainly to explore for an even softer yet warmer tone. This can be done by having the fingers staying physically very close to the keys and delaying the motion of the 'speed of attack' down to the keys. This is actually harder to do on some uprights (I speak from experience!) But I was impressed with your ability to keep a nice balance in the LH while the RH was shadowing.
Very good work! Now when you play out hands together, I will suggest to approach the LH with that slower speed of attack, while the RH can press deeper and sing out more. Great work, and thank you for joining this intensive!
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Thank you so much for this intensive course, Dr. Kim!
I have really wanted to improve my soft playing, but controlling it hasn鈥檛 been easy. Could you share more practice methods to help me refine my soft playing and tone control? Could you point out any areas for improvement?
Here is my playing:Schubert D537, 3rd mov. mm.59.
https://youtu.be/IHLK5XYzbLA?si=oAYexOPfyHxdwRDk
Appreciate it
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Ko Hi Ko! Thank you for doing this challenge and sharing your practice video! I am very pleased with your LH sound world, and you are playing with sensitive attention to the approach to the keys. I know it is a challenge to do when the RH shadows over the notes, so I will continue to encourage you to repeat this process/step until you feel comfortable with the LH evenness while the RH shadows. When your RH was added, I heard a very nice balancing between the voices. Now at the last step when the RH plays out the notes, I suggest you can play with even deeper tone and relaxed arms so that it is not shying away from singing while the LH maintains that lovely sound world you achieved. Hope these help! Thank you for joining this intensive!
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Here is my practice of several bars of the Barber Nocturne, LH alone, LH with ghosted RH, and LH and RH together. Thank you for your thoughtful assignment. I would appreciate any constructive feedback as I anticipate working on this piece for a few months.
https://youtu.be/TSxOJVwtmwg?si=IUB3KEbIO_innm2y
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Ellen Weaver Thank you for your videos, Ellen! I really enjoyed watching your practice process. I was impressed by your ability to control your sound when the LH played alone. There are few moment where you can play a little bit more inside the keys because this particular LH passage has a lot of mix of both black and white keys of the piano.
In the "ghosting RH" video, very very well done maintaining an even sound in the LH. I know this is a big challenge to do, but you already tackle it so well. At the third video when you played both hands together, I thought the balance of the hands sounded excellent. I will encourage you to continue practicing each step repetitively as they get more comfortable, and you can apply this to different passages of the Barber Nocturne as well. Do not be afraid to sing out more in the RH when you play hands together. You seem like a very naturally musical already, and it shows in these practice videos.
I am sure you will play this Barber beautifully! Happy learning, and let me know if any further questions come up again! Thank you for joining this challenge
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