- Now, if you are a professional juggler, please don't judge me
because I'm probably doing it with all the wrong form. (piano playing dramatic classical music) One of the hard things
about playing the piano is you've have to do it fluently with both of your hands. Only 1% of the world
population are ambidextrous. Which means they're equally
skilled in using their right and left hand. I've taught students like this before. It's really bizarre. They write with their right hand and then they can play
tennis with their left hand. I certainly am not as skilled. I personally am right-handed,
like most of the world. And I've always been interested to see how I can improve my right hand to be as skilled as my left hand. Hi everyone, I'm Jazer. In this video, we're
going to talk about how to make your left hand as
good as your right hand in piano playing. I have four ideas for
you to try in this video. So make sure that you stick to the end to watch all four ideas, because you might really find
some gold nuggets in here. Before we get to the
four ideas of how to make your left hand as good as your right hand, make sure you like and
subscribe to this channel so you stay in touch with these free piano tutorials and lessons. Idea number one is to
try to use your left hand more in life. Now, one of the simple ways I did that was by using the whisk. So when I would make pancake
mix or whatever, when I'm, I used to use my right hand all the time, because it's my dominant hand. But then these days I'm trying
to use my left hand more because this action is not so complicated that my left hand can't do it. And I'm sort of giving my left
hand some baby steps, right? So just using my left hand to do these kind of simple actions. Another idea would be for forks. So for forks, when you grabbing
like fruits or something, you don't have to use your right hand. Sometimes you can just go
and use your left hand, just so you start to utilize it more and build more neural connections so you get some better control of doing left-hand things. Now on this topic of trying
to use your left hand more in life, I have a bonus
activity for you to try. I'm not going to teach you how to do this, but it's certainly something you can try. And it's this. (balls smacking) Now, if you are a professional juggler, please don't judge me
because I'm probably doing it with all the wrong form. But I tried to learn how to do this because I wanted my left hand to cooperate with me more. When I was trying this at the start and I was doing sort of
simple actions like this, I realized that it was
so much easier to do even just to throw and catch with my right hand than my left hand. You know, when I do it with my left hand, it sorta feels really rigid and robotic. So I tried to learn how to juggle and learning how to juggle has given me lots of coordination
points from my left hand. And I'm starting to feel more control in this weaker hand. Now the point I'm trying to make here with using your left-hand more in life is that when piano players experience that they're having weak left hands it's not so much I think
a piano specific problem, but it's more of a life problem. It's that we simply not getting the same amount of practice in our left hand as
your right hand. Right? You think about it. You use your right hand
to do so many things, to shake hands, to write, when your left-hand is like basically doing nothing the whole day. So try your best, guys. See if there are simple
things in your life that you can start to
incorporate your left-hand. Idea number two for making your left hand as good as your right hand is to try to play right-hand
melodies with your left hand. Now I'm going to try a few
pieces here on the piano. I won't tell you what they are. If you know what they are comment down below. I'll probably get them all wrong so let's see if they are easy to discern. ("Turkish March") Wow, that's not easy. Let's try that again. ("Turkish March") Much better. Well, what about something like ("Minuet in G") Or perhaps ("Nocturne in E flat") Now this is a quite an
interesting exercise. You're going to find
this really really weird to play the right-hand melody with your left hand, but it is something interesting to do. It is something that brings your left hand a little bit out of its comfort zone. Left-hand generally in piano is pulling a whole bunch of chords
and accompany pattern. So, and to give the left-hand
this important melodic line is not easy to do and
to play phrased as well, phrased and musically, that's even harder. Okay, moving on to idea number three. Idea number three is to keep your left hand
fingers low at all times. Now, what am I talking about here? Now, when you're playing your left hand, let's say you're playing
the Alberti bass on C. So, (playing simple piano chord) What I see lots of beginners do is they do something like that. (playing simple piano chord) Their fingers sort of fly up when they're not playing
that specific note. And what I want to encourage
you to try to start to do is to just keep them
really grounded and low. (playing simple piano chord) Do you see that? I'm sort of just It's almost like the fingers are always in contact with the keys, right? It presses. And when it comes up, it's still actually is still
in contact with the key bed. (playing simple piano chord) Okay. Now the reason this is so important is because when your fingers
are always on the key bed, it means you're controlling it well. Now, if you're playing that Alberti bass and your fingers are sort
of flying all the way up, it actually means two things. Firstly, it means it's out of control. Okay. And secondly, it also is causing a lot of
tension in your arm. Okay? So when you're doing
a whole bunch of this, it's going to cause heaps of tension and prohibit you from playing for long because you're going to get so tense and you kind of have to take a break. So try your best to keep your fingers low. It's going to be challenging,
I promise you that, but the more you do it, the more you going to start to feel like you have this control of it, right? Like I was saying earlier in the video, you're building this neural connections from your left hand to your brain. And the more you attempt to do these kind of difficult and
small controlled movements, the better you're going
to play your left hand. And moving on to our last idea, idea number four is to practice exercises. Now I have recommendations
for both beginners and also intermediate
or advanced students. For beginners, I definitely
recommend the Hanon. So, (playing piano scales) Now I played really fast there, but please go at a pace that's more comfortable for yourself. And please remember the thing that was said earlier in this video. So when you're practicing
the Hanon, right? Even if it's just for the left hand, just make sure that your, especially your thumb and your pinky, they're not flying up
really randomly, okay? So you don't want to
do something like this. (playing piano scale) Beginners that are playing this, you might find that it feels really wobbly when you practice at the start. But what I want you to try to do is to keep them super
duper grounded, okay? So, (playing piano scale) See that? It's like the thumb is never
really leaving the key bed. (playing piano scale) And for the intermediate
and advanced students, I have an idea for you. I recommend you to study
the Bach Prelude in C minor. So the one that sounds like this. (playing dramatic
fast-paced piano prelude) Now this piece really helped me to build some good
control for my left hand. So when you're starting
to play this piece, make sure you are keeping
those fingers low. (playing dramatic piano prelude slowly) Okay. So every time the thumb flies up, it's out of control. You want to keep it
low and on the key bed. And there you go, guys, those are the four ideas I have for you to make your left hand as
good as your right hand. Do you have any ideas
for making your left hand as good as your right hand? Let me know in the comments below, please. I'm very interested. Remember to like and
subscribe to this video. I'll catch you in the next video. (elegant piano music)
