[afterwalk]

I’ve always been taught to spend >50% time practice hand separate first, increase tempo one hand at a time, and only combine after much practice, which seems to differ than the post. Does anyone have a view on how soon to jump into two hands when learning a new piece?

[Hackbraten]

I never practice with separate hands. My experience is that muscle memory kind of resets anyway once the other hand joins. So why bother?

I prefer practicing in a super slow tempo but with both hands right from the start.

[jb1991]

> My experience is that muscle memory kind of resets anyway once the other hand joins.

I’ve never heard anyone suggest that before, and it is certainly not my experience.

[Hackbraten]

It’s highly subjective but it’s also certainly not just me.

From [1]:

> Your experience is quite typical. Playing two hands at the same time is completely different than playing both separately.

But the point of learning parts separately is NOT about making it easier to play both hands together. It's about learning all the "other" stuff (like correct hand position, articulation etc.) without having the distraction of the second hand.

From [1] but another person:

> Put another way, instrument playing is a conscious action, controlled by our executive function, and we only have one area of the brain that controls the executive function. Thus, homo sapiens's conscious control is, for better or worse, unitary, and we cannot do two independent tasks at once.

> The same is true for the piano.

From [2]:

> Hands separate practices the aural knowledge, or aural memory; and the intellectual. It practices physical on a smaller level, because you aren't practicing the coordination between two hands, but rather the security of one hand alone. But I think the amount it gives to physical knowledge is small enough that it doesn't really count as a method for improving that knowledge.

[1] https://music.stackexchange.com/q/53699/ [2] https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=28007.0

[jb1991]

Sorry, I'm just unconvinced. There is no doubt that learning, for example, a Chopin Etude with the busiest hand alone is going to be a natural step before adding the second hand. Think about the reverse, would you expect someone who can play both hands together well to also be able to play them separately? Muscle memory does not disappear just because you add a second hand. The coordination does have some differences, but it's hardly a totally separated phenomenon.

[Hackbraten]

> There is no doubt that learning, for example, a Chopin Etude with the busiest hand alone is going to be a natural step before adding the second hand.

To me, the phrases “There is no doubt that” and “natural” come across as if a certain amount of debate might be warranted.

> would you expect someone who can play both hands together well to also be able to play them separately?

Some may be able to, some not so easily. Think of a Bach fugue whose middle voice sometimes alternates across both hands. I’d say it heavily depends on the player and the piece.

> Muscle memory does not disappear just because you add a second hand.

Good point. I think my choice of words was poor when I claimed muscle memory would reset. What I do claim is that some people, myself included, experience friction in their muscle memory when they move between practicing both hands and a single hand.

[jb1991]

> Think of a Bach fugue whose middle voice sometimes alternates across both hands. I’d say it heavily depends on the player and the piece.

It's ironic as I was actually thinking of my own experiences learning Bach fugues and how, when I learned the hands separately, it seemed to help a lot. Especially since finger technique with Bach is so technical and how you choose your fingering is critical, it's hard to master that for both hands simultaneously. After all, you are still using the same fingers when you add the two hands together, so giving yourself a chance to focus on just one hand seemed to always help me a lot -- not just help me, but actually was a requirement to getting it learned. I don't think I could have ever learned some of those intricate fugues if I'd done both hands together. Or at least, it would have taken longer. For example, which is easier, sight reading music with both hands, or sight reading each hand separately?