Separate Hands, Both Hands, Se-bo (?)

Something out of the ordinary happened today. Someone told me, "I cannot practice separate hands. Even if I master separate hands, my hands together will still sound as if I did not practice separate hands at all. I need to do both hands straight away, or nothing will work for me at all."

Obviously that was such a long paragraph and there are so many points to dissect & understand.

First of all, I think all of us need to realise that separate hands applies usually only for keyboard, piano & organ players. I highly doubt string players ever practice separate hands.

Next, separate hands simply refer to playing both hands, separately! Can it deepen to separate voices practice? Definitely! Can separate hands mean just one-hand? Of course, especially for lower grades!

We need to understand 1. Why SH practice still slaps & 2. How to transit from SH to BH, physically, musically and emotionally.

Haha, this post is definitely for all my regulars! Aww.....

The key words are playing-every-note and coordination.

When teachers & parents drill SH, we are forcing students to sight-read/listen to every single note. You should hear E as hopefully solfege Mi, and distinguish the difference between a sharp & a flat, both visually with the score, and aurally through your ears. Not to mention one-hand may already have chords! Even I struggle with hearing chords, I wonder how my genius self can immediately master BH if I don't practice SH?! Don't you need to figure out the intervals in between the notes? Press into the depth of the key. Ensuring no surface-level playing. Probably rhythm too. Ah, definitely rhythm. I have a feeling beginners know their notes, but cannot match their rhythm. And. I. can. prove. it.

As for coordination, even the best of us struggles with it, and it is so normal. I won't skip SH simply because BH seems a little, or very much, unattainable for me, compared to my peers. I truly believe, music starts at the bottom, small, simple, note-by-note. To achieve BH, you have to play SH first! Even if you are a top-to-bottom kind of person whom dream big before diving into the details, eventually you need to come down too!

That being said, I encourage students to attempt BH immediately when they acquire a certain confidence in their piano journey. Players whom can hear the entire music before even playing the piece, for instance, shall benefit greatly from immediate-BH practice.

Myself especially! I feel that I am always too small in terms of my thinking & music. Doing BH immediately definitely suits me. After all, I already know my foundations, basics & it shalln't hurt me to go big.

If there is something to tell my younger self, I won't bother telling me to play SH or BH. Rather, I would tell my younger self to separate.the.freaking.voices.&.harmonies. After all, music is not about S or B. It is about the music.        Can you hear it?