I've been playing the piano for about 5 months now, and I've found a lot of the stuff my teacher has told me to do, to be very hard... but especially playing with my left hand. Can someone tell me anything to practise to get better at using it? I'm right-handed, and I just can't seem to play anything good with my left, and when I try to play with both hands my brain kind of explodes and my fingers start flying around the room doing whatever they want... it's started to get quite frustrating ¬_¬...

Many thanks

One word really :- practice

What I used to do was actually smash my whole hand across the piano to make it throb with pain to teach it a lesson for screwing it up repeatedly. Obviously it hurt but it helped. I'm a bit mad so you might not like that method. It worked straight away after i did it though.

One good thing is too play a To Zanarkand version that Noir7 made me. Damn it was the hardest one, when I first started. Now it´s easy as hell. One other that made my left hand be better was too play , Canon - Pachelbel . Very nice music piece.
You´ll probably have too take many Aspirins if your head explodes every time ^^

Very true. To Zanarkand helps a lot.

Frustation isn't gonna get you anywhere... :heh:

I always played the left hand part over and over and over again. Like I'd split it up into small sections, and then play each section fifty times. And if I screwed up too terribly, then that time wouldn't count.

Well... actually I didn't do it. Because I was six and hated piano. But whenever I bothered too, it helped a lot. 'Course I was a terrible pianist just in general... but it helped me. :P

Try practicing with only your left hand. You could either play right hand melodies with your left hand (it'll be awkward, but meh), or you can find studies or play random things with just that hand.

dont focus on both at the same time. Memorise the Left hand first, then memorise the right hand last and sync it together.

The reason you dont do the right hand first is because that tends to lead to re-mixing the song in the left hand.

Hey thanks for the help ^_^ tis very appreciated. I did what someone up there told me (I forget your name sorreee XD) and played right-hand songs with my left, and it's starting to get better. Thanks soo much everyone<3

Remember that the second you put hands together your goingn to have to cut down your tempo marking at least in half.

The key is GO AS SLOW AS YOU NEED.

Seriously, any piece can be learned just by going slowly. Until you can master it at that slow speed don't speed up, then once you do move up to a speed you can STILL play it well at then master it at that and continue.

Also don't worry about dynamics until you have it at a resonable tempo.

Also don't worry about dynamics until you have it at a resonable tempo.Um, I don't think I agree about this part...

I know how hard it is to get your non-dominant hand to play properly. I played the piano for 7 years but then stopped for 6 years before playing again. My best advice is to get a good scale book and go over them with your left hand. Playing scales will not only strengthen your left hand but it will also improve both hand coordination and articulation. It's a good idea to always warm up and finish each practice session with scales. Hope this helps and have fun playing!

Hmmm. I've seen a lot of cool advice I've never heard of before. ^_^ Lemme offer my own, though.

For a particular piece, try practicing the LH and RH part individually at first (it removes the clutter your brain will feel by trying to do two different things with your hands simultaneously and you'll still be practicing) and, then, when you feel confident enough in your hand's ability to play that part, have both your hands play it together. That's usually what I do.

Hope that helps. =D

Just take it hands separate like most have said.

One thing that helped my with my agility with both hands was Czerny etudes and Hanon. Although, I thought the etudes were more enjoyable to play.

Hmn...I never had that difficulty because I was naturally left handed, but my mom trained me to write with my right hand...
...Well, let's see... Just like Sondagger said, yes, Czerny and Hanon are big helpers.
If it's just the fact that you have difficulties controlling the left hand, I suggest you start to type with only your left hand (If you don't have a piano by you at the moment.)

Um, yeah.
Just slow down the song and break it up.

What I did was just get a beginer solo book that had about 10 so peices in it. It was really simple to play really, and almost all the songs had left had solos. Now I can play left hand better than right hand ^.-