I've followed your Youtube video for hand independence and despite hours (50 hours) of practicing slowly, my brain just cannot seem to handle both hands working together with the ongoing bass in the left hand. Your Youtube video "Boogie Woogie Hand Independence - Master the Triplets! (no piano required)" helped me alot but I'm still having difficulties. Is there any other tricks I can try? Is it just a matter of continually plugging away at it until you get it? Have you ever heard of someone not being able to get it despite hundreds of hours of practice? Do you think some private lessons would help or do you recommend that I grind away until I get both hands figured out before taking lessons?
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Hi Rick, sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with getting the hands together. I have a few suggestions that may be helpful... First, yes, you can take a private lesson at any point. No need to get to a certain level before coming in. However, unless you can come to me physically in NYC then it may be difficult to help you with this over skype. In person there can be a lot more interaction (such as one person plays one had while the other plays the other, or we both play simultaneously). On skype we have to take turns and cannot both play at the same time.
Here is what I suggest you try first...
Play your desired bass pattern with the left hand while challenging yourself to do other cognitively demanding tasks simultaneously. (i.e. read a book out loud, carry on a conversation, write words with pencil and paper, curl a weight with your right arm, send a text message, etc... get creative).
You said you are doing the hand independence exercise from the video... how far can you get? Can you play whole notes with the right hand while continuing the bass pattern uninterrupted?
Take a short video of yourself trying the exercise and upload it here via the "add a video" button at the bottom of the reply box. Then I can see and maybe give a few suggestions. Chances are, other students are having the same problem. We can all learn at the same time.
Thank you for the reply. I will try the bass-pattern suggestion and see how that works.
How far I get varies but on average I can get anywhere from 1-5 bass-pattern reps in with the left hand and then either the left and/or right hand starts missing or playing the wrong notes.
I start off with a bunch of bass patterns with the left hand. When things seem to be going well with the left, I start up the right hand and as soon as I do that my brain focuses on the right hand and forgets what the left hand is doing. Then my brain catches itself for a second or two and starts to compensate and starts to focus on the right hand again and the entire thing repeats itself over and over.
I will setup a camera and record my fingering frustration for the sake of the boogie woogie hopefuls of the world who visit this page.
@Rick M Okay thank you Rick. In the video, just show me what happens when you put whole notes in the right hand with your most comfortable bass pattern in the left.
I had this hand independence problem in the worst way. I slowed the metronome down to an embarrassingly slow tempo of 40 bpm to start. After 2 weeks of dedicating 2 hrs a day to hand independence training I can now get the triplets on the right hand against the C/G shuffle left hand at 140 bpm.
Start super slow.