How does the science behind using your left and right hand on the piano at the same time work?
In: Biology
Cerebellum will remember movement patterns. A lot of music is just patterns so if you practice it a lot your brain can just remember what to do for both hands
Its called training. Your brain can easily controll all of your extremities in parallel for different tasks. When you eat you also make different movements with both hands. When you type the same. Once your brain figures it out its a no brainer. Like driving a car where you use one or both feet, and both hands for different tasks. If you drive manually each limb has its own job ( clutch, gas/break, gearshit, stearing)
I’m a life-long pianist who plays by ear. This is a mixture of things. First, it’s “muscle memory.” You don’t play piano by actively thinking about everything your hands are doing, you do it by “feel.”
Think about it in the same way you drive a car around a corner at an intersection. To do this successfully you need your feet, your hands, your eyes, and your head to work in concert with one another. When you were learning to drive, this was likely a very difficult task. As time went on, though, you began to do it automatically, without thinking.
You flick the turn signal stalk up to indicate a right turn. The foot slowly applies just the right brake pressure to slow the car down comfortably as your head and eyes swivel to check for cross traffic. Looking ahead into the corner, you turn the wheel as you let off the brake to just the correct angle to make it around the corner without crossing into incoming traffic or hitting a curb. As you round the corner you straighten up the wheel, center your gaze, and hit the gas pedal to accelerate out of the corner. This is all an amazing feat of coordination that a lot of people don’t realize they do every single day. The human brain is truly remarkable.
That’s what it feels like to play piano at that skill level. You don’t think about it; you *feel* it. It flows out of you naturally and effortlessly, like you’re not even controlling it. It’s honestly a great feeling and is one of the most relaxing things I do for myself. I just plug in the headphones and go.
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