Proper order of the lessons

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unrealed
Posts: 17

Post by unrealed »

So up till now I was playing one hand then the other in each lesson (Melody practice, Rhythm Practice, Recital) before moving on to the Both hands version of the same lesson. Then I saw that the recital is also divided into each hand and both hands, which I thought was weird: once you've gotten 10/10 in rhythm for both hands the recital for one hand should be pretty easy/pointless.

But then I thought, "Wait, have I been doing this wrong all along??" am I supposed to do each lesson for each hand separately before moving on to the both hands lessons?? It seems like the progression of the difficulty would be much easier that way (order shown below):
  1. Melody
    1. Right/Left hand
  2. Rhythm
    1. Right/Left hand
  3. Recital
    1. Right/Left hand
then
  1. Melody
    1. Both hands
  2. Rhythm
    1. Both hands
  3. Recital
    1. Both hands
So my question is: is that the order of the lessons Synthesia is suggesting? Have I been doing it wrong all this time?

Also, for those who teach/know the proper ways of practicing piano, which order should I use?
revilo2
Posts: 135

Post by revilo2 »

In my opinion :

Both hands Melody (bars and after sheet music practicing), Rythm (sheet music), Recital (sheet music)
that's what i do, and after 14 months, i can now play piano (as a beginner, of course) without synthesia (for example, with the gilbert de benedetti's pdf).

Before, i practiced (during 6/7 months), right then left and when i had to practice both, I had the impression to have learnt nothing.

This is only my opinion, and i think that it's only valid for the G major songs. For pop/rock songs, i thing it's beter to practice melody (right hand) first then accompaniment (left hand) then both.
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jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

The typical suggestion is to practice each hand separately until you can play each hand comfortably at full speed. Then, starting much more slowly, practice both hands together. However, the goal is always to play both hands together at the proper tempo. You might find a different approach works better for you.

The golden rule is: Perfect practice makes perfect. Always play slowly enough and simply enough that you can play perfectly. An important reason for practicing with a metronome is to keep you from playing too fast.

My suggestion is not to spend too long in Melody mode. You aren't learning proper rhythm there. Just use Melody mode to find the notes, work out the fingering, and get the feel of finding the notes. As soon as you have that, go to Rhythm Mode. Of course this assumes your goal is to learn to play, not rack up maximum points in Synthesia.

I agree that there seems to be no point to separate hands in recital mode.
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

jimhenry wrote:I agree that there seems to be no point to separate hands in recital mode.
Hmm. I could agree with this, I think. (Jeez, all sorts of holes have been getting poked in recital mode lately. :lol: )

I'll add this to my list of things to work out for the new hand-splitting revamp work. There probably doesn't need to be a hands-separate mode for recitals.
zayobayo
Posts: 9

Post by zayobayo »

Yeah, you have to divide and conquer the "problem". If you can get each hand full speed separately, then it'll be much easier to get them both together from low speed(30% ?) to full very fast. From the learning pack I tend to increase the difficulty only when I have less than 10 mistakes+misses.

As for the separate hand recitals. I've seen some Top 100 scores online with only using one hand so there is that.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

zayobayo wrote:As for the separate hand recitals. I've seen some Top 100 scores online with only using one hand so there is that.
That may just be due to a lack of people trying it with both. The higher difficulty categories have many, many fewer recitals submitted than the early stuff.
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