Hands separately first

Key idea Learn each hand on its own until it plays slowly, correctly, and without thinking. Split the piece into 2-bar chunks and move on only after 3 clean repetitions in a row.

Starting hands together asks your brain to do two new jobs at once: reading notes and coordinating. Separating the hands makes mistakes easier to find and fix, and when you join them each hand already runs on its own.

A routine for a new piece

1. Preview for 1 minute: key signature, time signature, tempo, anything that looks hard. Tap the rhythm of the hardest bar.
2. Split into 2-bar chunks and number them in pencil. A hard spot can be a single bar.
3. Right hand, chunk 1, at 50 to 60% tempo. Count aloud. Use the printed fingering.
4. The 3 clean repetitions rule: three correct runs in a row before moving on. One wrong note resets the count to 0.
5. Left hand, chunk 1, the same way.
6. Link chunks: play chunks 1 and 2 back to back for each hand, then move to chunk 3.