Life Lessons From Lang Lang—Part Three (July 18, 2025)

From left to right: Lang Lang’s Eight Golden Rules for Studying the Piano; basic exercises for hand coordination;  slightly more advanced exercises incorporating rhythm as a tool for study; more tips on using rhythm

RULE NO. 3: Learn to Train the Right and Left Hands  

As Lang Lang rightly points out, one of the greatest challenges for any pianist is to learn how to train  the right and left hands to play different notes at the same time. This can be very hard to do, but not  impossible, and will always be one of the most demanding but crucial aspects of playing. 

There are many methods of going about this and also getting started. As he points out, you have to  get accustomed to having both sides of your brain working simultaneously. At first it might seem  incredibly difficult, but it does get easier over time with a lot of practice. 

The most important fact is to not think of it as something where your brain is working against itself.  Instead, think that you are teaching both sides of your brain to work together. Each side has a job to  do, and you are simply giving them each different assignments that are part of the same goal. 

Many children, for example, find it difficult to rub their stomach and pat their head at the same time when they first try do it, but eventually it becomes a simple process the more they practice, because  they think less about doing each thing separately and more about what it takes to do them together. The same is true for a pianist. Small steps and simple goals help speed up the overall process.  

Before working on an actual piece, especially as a beginner, one should focus on exercises, as are  illustrated in some of the videos in this post.

For more advanced pianists who already have more experience with hand coordination the process  involves playing, and perhaps even memorizing, the parts for each hand first, and then once you are  ready to put them together playing first for accuracy, and then speed. 

One should also focus on the rhythm of a passage, as that also aids in the coordination process. By  concentrating on the rhythm one can get “hooked in” to the flow of the notes, which helps the hand  coordination. 

Other things that will help are mentally changing your view of what you are doing. Don’t think in terms  of your trying to work separate parts of your brain, but think of the two halves blending with each  other. Imagine for example, they are both ingredients of a recipe, or two different shades of paint  which, when mixed, form an exciting new color. In other words, train yourself to think in terms of  cooperation, not separation. Each hand is one half of a whole. The psychology of it will give you much  more control over what you are working to accomplish. 

In the end, there is nothing that will take the place of practice. Doing things over and over again will  ultimately result in the music getting “into your fingers” and after a while, before you even realize it,  you have all the coordination you need to play a work comfortably and well.