Hi guys, I am almost 40y old and played for hobby for almost 25 years with some longggg stops for career, education, military service, etc.

My left hand skills are horrible - I can only trigger fingered chords on the arranger, but not play counter melody or even bass part, which really bothers me.

Can this be improved at my age after such long negligence? did any of you manage to improve playing skills after that much time?

Any tips will be most welcome.

Thanks / Nesh

[This message has been edited by Nesh (edited 08-27-2007).]

Nesh: Your question brings back a memory I'll NEVER forgot, when one of my music teachers, renowned vocal coach ( Judy Davis ) reminded us (her students) that she only accepted new students (under 25) because they haven't yet developed too many bad habits to unlearn, while older students have probably already developed too many engrained bad habits too dificult to break.

That said, I believe even an older student has the potential if able to dedicate the time & work (though more difficult) to improve their playing & musicianship. You first need to set your playing goals (both near & long term). I strongly suggest, if at all possible, finding a GOOD keyboard instructor in your area to work with. The advantage of this is that they'll be able to watch & hear you play and observe things about your playing, of which you may not be able to see (or hear) yourself. From this they can guide your path to keyboard improvment. It's one thing to appreciate and hear counter melodies, bass lines on a CD, etc, but it's quite another to get your fingers to duplicate & play what you hear, including coordinating both Left & RT hands to concurrently do different things. Mastering basic keyboard playing skills (scales, chords, progressions) will help to this end, whether playing (reading) from music, or by ear. I think mastering both these skills is equally important. I also suggest recording yourself and listening and critiquing your playing as objectively as possible. Good luck. - Scott

There is a book called "the virtuoso pianist"

i highly reccomend this book, it is aimed at improving stamina of the wrist, all fingers on both hands, trains finger independance and basically works both hands equally to be able to accomplish any task on a piano.

All that is reccomended is at least 30 mins to 1 hour of this book per week, and that will keep your hands/fingers equally strengthened. after playing for even 15-20 mins, and you go back to one of your songs, u feel like u can do anything.

good luck
Nick

Nick is right on the Hanon Virtuoso Pianist by G. Schirmer http://www.schirmer.com/ is great for tuning up that left hand, right hand too. I've used the book from time to time. There's a great preface by the composer that explains in detail the how and why of the book. At the beginning of each exercise is a short description of what fingers the exercise works. Rumor has it that the pianist Vladimir Horowitz was buried with a copy of the book. I believe you can even down load a copy free in pdf.

Virtuoso Pianist

Free Hanon Download

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 08-27-2007).]

AAAAAARRRRRRRRGH !!! ...
The HANON book ... when I was studying accordion, my teacher made all his students use the Hanon book ... imagine playing those left hand exercises on the accordion ... I should have practiced them MORE !!! ...

A few years ago I began to study piano with an excellent teacher/player in RI ... he had me using Hanon ... I soon developed a problem similar to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and had to stop the exercises ... Keith Emerson had the same problem which almost killed his career ...
t.

Tony interesting about Keith Emerson, I've been a fan of his for 35 years and never knew that. Did your problem disappear once you stopped the Hanon excercises?

Steve ... yes ... but after hearing and playing with Diamond, I am thinking of trying it again ...
t.

Sit on your right hand and start playing all the melody with your left until you become proficient at it.

This showcases the point I made in my reply (above) of the advantage of working with a GOOD music teacher. Too many music students take it (unknowingly) upon themselves to teach them self how to play/sing from books or CDs alone. A qualified music teaching professional can show & guide you to correct posture, arm, hand, wrist & fingering positions to avoid playing tension which is the culprit which leads to carpal tunnel and other keyboard performance injuries. Unfortunately these are rarely covered in the instructional books themselves, and if they are, there is nobody to watch, guide & correct you if you are doing things wrong.

On that note, here are two highly respected piano technique methods I used with teachers in my piano studies, of which has helped me avoid potential injuries:

Alexander Technique

Taubman Institute

Check them out !


Scott

is 40 too old you ask? hmmm.. check this out:... there was always a piano in my house, so as a child, I often doodled out tunes by ear on it, could read just a tad. At age 11 i was given a clarinet and classical lessons. I got hooked on jazz at 14 and at 16 swapped the clarinet for sax, and jazz lessons. I got only good enough to play a couple of weddings and to sit in at some jams, but decided that I preferred to get serious about learning to be a jazz pianist at age 21. but i was then told by so many people that it was too late..that you have to start very early, and have put in hours and hours, and on top of that have exhibited signs of being a prodigy, so I never tried, just kept sporadically doodling on the piano for fun, sang, and I put away the sax and never blew a note on it again for 14 years..until i was 35. then I had the strange notion to seriously go back to sax..too old to do that? i would never have tried to get serious on piano at 35(what i really wanted) because I was only a doodler and was intimidated by the experts..but I was dumb enough to think that because i had studied reeds seriously in my teens i could perhaps become a good jazz sax player even though i had not touched a horn for 14 years. what a moron! but by the time i was 45 I became, to everyone's surprise, including me, a competent jazz sax and bass clarinet player. too old to do more? by the time i was 55 i had become an excellent player. too old to do more now? by the time i was 65 i was world-class(one of the many who never translated that into fame/fortune--so far!LOL)) Now the keys story..At age 58 I saw that work was disappearing for groups, and with the advent of arranger keyboards, felt maybe they would give me a shot to be a solo/duo act. so i shed for about a year, then went out and started working...someone who never did anything but doodle on keys all his life. Now i'm 68 and I'm a competent keyboardist..and if it follows the sax suit, when I'm 78 I'll be excellent and by the time i'm 88 world-class LOL. Mind you, Mr. ancient 40 yr old, this was all accomplished by someone who was too stupid to know it couldn't be done..who is not a musical prodigy, who is lazy and undisciplined and has never put in long hours at anything except playing..certainly not doing book exercises or taking formal lessons or working very hard at it..just by the process of staying immersed in it and loving what i was doing..getting encouragement and discouragement but never allowing those to puff me up or bring me down..(although i was close to throwing in the towel so many times along the way)..so do you still think it might be too late..at 40..as i thought at 21?

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Miami Mo