Yesterday I mentioned a few reasons why I haven't learned a song in its entirety, even after 18+ weeks of practice. However I failed to recognise the biggest one. It's the brick wall that's stopped me cold every. single. time.

It's the lack of hand independence.

Specifically, my left hand can't play independently of my right hand. Today I tried to get further with Jump by Van Halen but my left can't comp while the right hand plays those iconic chords.

After searching the web I see lack of hand independence is common, even for people who played for years. I think the problem can be avoided and masked over. Looking back through this blog, you can see how I avoided facing the issue head-on by switching around, moving away from So What, improvisations, practicing scales and project Dhymn. I didn't finish any of them.

It's like I'm doing a slight-of-hand trick on myself.

Okay, now I've sussed out the real problem, what's the fix? How does one develop hand independence?

There's plenty of advice and piano exercises one can do, but with the limited amount of time I spend on the keyboard it would take eons. This is urgent, and hand independence isn't necessarily a piano skill to learn but the rewiring of the brain. I need exercises I can do away from the keyboard, during a break at work or waiting in line.

I found several videos that fit this criteria by professional juggler Joff J-K. He has instructional videos for left/right independence exercises, a few are inconspicuous enough they can be done in public.

Here's the first exercise I'm going to tackle:

Meditation Time meditating today: 0 Quality of meditation (out of 10): 0

Practice Minutes on the keyboard today (out of 40): 20 minutes Quality of practice (out of 10): 5

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