Three Exercises to Break Your Brain | Challenge Yourself 

Good to know JS - thanks for commenting. How is your musical personality and major scales? Best, Dan

Great to read - thank you for sharing. Removing conscious interference truly is the ultimate goal. Best, Dan

You’re far too kind! I hope they were at least interesting ones?? I have no control over them. Do be sure to see my new video management website and newer videos! Best, Dan

@@danthecomposer I just checked your article about reflections on the channel, and I think you are totally right. I'm glad you found your way improving the way of sharing your great content (they DO deserve millions of views). I personally have been stacking up your videos under a to-watch piano playlist and go through them after I feel confident with the previous one, so I have not been updated as you released new contents. Thanks for the heads up, I will update my personal process too:)

Correct! :) Welcome to my channel. Best, Dan

Hello Jae, thank you and welcome to my channel. Also, pass on my thanks to your friend! Since you've just arrived, might I recommend this article: piano-jazz.blogspot.hu/2017/01/essentials-mastery.html Look forward to seeing you around! Best, Dan

danthecomposer I will and thanks for responding😎

Hello Joao, thank you for your positive words. You can indeed play the piano. For a little more inspiration, please see this: piano-jazz.blogspot.hu/2015/11/the-pianists-checklist.html I am waiting for your jazz performance! For jazz thoughts, see this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QXLSzD3B2Ok.html Keep me updated! Best, Dan Oh, and see this: piano-jazz.blogspot.hu/2016/09/play-what.html

Thank you for your comment and welcome to my channel. I hope people will be motivated and inspired by your comment. Some may also be interested in my piano challenge...! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ScTnOKnvtFY.html&index=24&list=PL4cPpP-Ua6NWl43cy2XiArwodqSmWBOzC Best, Dan

Thank you for watching and welcome to my channel. Perhaps consider my primary playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PL4cPpP-Ua6NWl43cy2XiArwodqSmWBOzC Best, Dan www.piano-jazz.blogspot.com

For some reason i couldnt find it. It is exactly what i was looking for.

Thank you kindly for your comment and welcome to my channel! I look forward to even more positive updates from you! Perhaps drop me an email? danthecomposer@gmail.com Best, Dan

Thank you for watching. I assume your brain is on the way to being broken!? Best, Dan

Hi John, thanks for your comment. You do well to keep working on those major scales! You will thank yourself soon enough when you just know them absolutely instantly even away from the piano. You may find this video useful, too: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-heEVryaj-wI.html Keep me updated! Best, Dan

Hey Dan. Thank you for the link, I have watched it. Im beginning to understand the importance of knowing and practicing the scales. I shall be putting a lot of emphasis on this now. As a side note I have started learning the theme song from the movie La La Land, which I absolutely love, so its making my piano playing really interesting.

Thank you Loic, appreciated! This might give some more ideas: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pT6UXxUXCoM.html Best, Dan

My pleasure, thanks for your comment and welcome to my channel. This video is part of this playlist which I recommend: ru-vid.com/group/PL4cPpP-Ua6NWl43cy2XiArwodqSmWBOzC Best, Dan www.piano-jazz.blogspot.com

You're too kind, Mark! Most appreciated indeed. Do be sure I'm always available for assistance anyway, books or no books! :) I hope you will be inspired by them since that's why I wrote them. Keep me updated, as always. Best, Dan

Thank you and welcome to my channel! You will go far, it seems. You may also find this article useful: piano-jazz.blogspot.hu/2016/01/a-closer-look-at-fingering.html Best, Dan

danthecomposer Amen.. thank you Sir for the Prophecy🙌🙌🙆

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it and hope you will make progress from them. As to your question: reflexes in regards to what? Finding the notes of the major scales quickly? Getting your hands in the right place quickly? Finger independence... ? Best, Dan

@@danthecomposer by reflexes I mean movement of fingers at a higher speed. Even today I can manage to play at slow speed but as soon as I try to increase tempo a little fast such as Hannon excersize no 1. My brain stops the control of rhythm and cooperation ends. Legato Hannon playing is fine but staccato playing I lose the key position and sound like uneven and lose interest so I get off keyboard for weeks off embarrassment. There is nobody in my family for last four generation with any musical talent. I wanted to learn and got myself a keyboard several years ago still struggling after learning most of the musical theory.c

Isn't it!? :) Thanks for being proof of it to encourage others to try. Best, Dan

Very good! Thank you for sharing :) Best, Dan

Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing about other tricks in the trade you're an outstanding teacher and a philosopher , I will never become bored , just by trying to understand music , give me a positive out look on life , this depth of of understanding is definitely for the body soul and mind ,God bless.

all hail muscle memory lol

Very good! Hope this video helps your playing in general. How is your internal piano? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dZHS1vogF-8.html Best, Dan

Thank you Nigel. My pleasure. I'm nothing without people such as yourself to inspire. Chord inversions is something I need to do a video on because they are an illusion. Once you know the major scale and the root position numbering of each chord (135 for major, 1b35 for minor, etc...), you can instantly see in versions in any key. Inversions is not about memorising shapes at all, it's an automatic result of knowing your major scales. Then, I could say to you: play Abm7, 2nd inversion.. and within 5 seconds, you'll know the notes are Eb, Gb, Ab and B (I did that as I wrote it because I used my internal piano - it was nothing to do with memory). This will be a very enlightening video for many; breaking down ill-conceived notions is something I enjoy doing. For your major scale mastery in advance: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-heEVryaj-wI.html Naming all chords: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ORIMDTEyw0s.html Best, Dan

Thanks a million Dan ...especially for your prompt reply...thank you... Will surely take your advice

Hehe, very good. I like breaking brains. Isn't it simple after a while, especially with your eyes closed. The benefits from doing things like this have huge impacts on your overall playing. It's mental discipline and lots more need it!!! Best, Dan www.piano-jazz.blogspot.com

danthecomposer i do it with my eyes closed, and guess what? it seems easier than opening my eyes tho , thanks for the eyes closed tips xD

Thank you and welcome! Perhaps also enjoy the danthecomposer Piano Challenge: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ScTnOKnvtFY.html Best, Dan

and yeah good vid by the way :p thx

Thank you Mr First and welcome :) Hope your brain was broken enough! Best, Dan

Thank you my friend - I hope it gave you some benefits! Best, Dan

Hello Rodger, thank you for your question and welcome to my channel. Yes, it seems to be interesting but I'm having a hard time imagining how you get one to 'swing'? Could you elaborate? I'm sure others would also be interested! Best, Dan

OK, say C maj scale start both on C the LH boogie style rhythm dotted quaver followed by 16th, the RH is strait crotchets thus the first and every following 3rd coincide. I find this very difficult especially as it is so easy to swap the rhythms over between hands accidentally! I propose it is a good hand independent exercise. Be interested in you opinion.

Ah, yes, I get it. I thought you meant both hands play notes at the same time so I couldn't see how one could be swing and the other not. So in the LH, you are saying boogie style - is this for every note or just the triad? Are you bouncing with the thumb on the C octave and starting from the little finger, slowly working your way through C major using various fingers as you ascend? Or are you double-bouncing on each note like: CC DD EE FF with the boogie style? Sounds like fun though!

Start off doing the normal scale practice both hands together. Now change the LH to alternate quavers and 16ths but keep the RH crotchets. Thus the first note C are together the LH D comes a 16th before the RH D ending up of course with two octaves same LH thumb and RH pinky on the C. OK don't rub it in about Hawaii! I'm stuck in the UK (have a son marine biologist and scuba instructor working in a Maldives giving rich people a good time - I'm missing out here so can only keep on practicing on the keyboard). Hope that's clear now.

Sorry I'm not getting it over right. It's actually simpler now I think about it (I think!). Start on C both hands play swing (e.g. As asked optionally for one hand by the exam board ABRSM here in the U.K.) with LH and legato RH (as you say every 3rd coincides) making sure to end up both same time on the C 2ve later. I'm finding it very, very difficult even at slow tempo.

Might I assume you meant to write: Fantastic? Of course, fanatic could also apply!

I meant fantastic though maybe my sub conscious was also at work

danthecomposer you are right

Thank you. If that fingering works for you, then yes, it is so. If it doesn't, then no, it is not so. Best, Dan

@@danthecomposer Thanks a lot for clear insight. That means i may use that 1234,1234 fingering RH in C scale key also . But initially i learned everything in 123,1234 fingering RH. Two new perspective for me by seeing this video.

Hi Paul, thanks kindly for your comment; they're always welcome, as are you to my channel. I read it a few times and I can offer this: you have been conditioned falsely and are thus expecting unnatural results. You are in a rut, so no progress will ever be made... until you are ejected out of it! Welcome to ejection day. Left hand and right hand separation is the fault of most piano teachers. They only do it because they were taught that way and they HAD to be successful in order to pass their exams to teach - it doesn't mean they play as naturally as they could, it just means they met exam standards (or satisfied teachers, or convinced themselves that this is the way forward no matter what...). This is not a personal attack on anybody but a simple fact for most examination-style careers (driving is the same; we say 'learn to the pass the driving test and then learn how to truly drive in the real world - different things indeed!) It is not a matter of time but a matter of updating (and correcting) your mindset. The body follows the mind; so if you can't do something on the piano, it is 99.9% something that can be fixed without even going near the piano, except to test the results of the mindset shift. I trust you follow me? I wonder if you could share the piece(s) that you are trying to play but which cause difficulty? Until then, in your mind, understand the above, and then: leave the pieces! We know the quote, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results" - well this is very true! Dissecting difficulties is the way to go and that means removing the difficulty and working on it alone, away from it's original place. Your problem is not that you can't play the piece with both hands, it's that you're thinking 'the left hand does this' and 'the right hand does that', so your brain is impossibly split, your conscious interference is through the roof and it all falls to pieces. You would do well to read this: piano-jazz.blogspot.hu/2015/08/conscious-interference.html Personalising exercises always helps. For you, since these exercises do not help (they are general, not specific, this is why), you would do well to take whatever goes on in the pieces (which is why I asked for them, so I can see and help more specifically) and create exercises out of them. In addition, CLOSE YOUR EYES when you do them. This is like falling backwards but do trust me when I say that you will not crack your head open and you will be 'caught' by your own surprisingly rapid progress and sense of self-trust. Further, consider the contents of this video which is about finding your natural limit, the speed at which the difficulty can be executed well (with conscious interference at max, usually) and then increase the metronome by 10, by 10, by 10. Within an unbelievably short space of time, your conscious interference will reduce to almost zero and your fluency will improve in leaps and bounds... plus the psychological sense of success which is encouraging too. Well... over to you, good Sir. Best, Dan.

Thank you so much Dan for your reply and advice. I re-read your blog re conscious interference, and understand now why I have fallen into this rut. OK, a couple of pieces I’ve been playing to illustrate my problems are a couple from Schumann’s Kinderszenen: ‘Von fremden Landern und Menschen’ and ‘Kind im Einschlummern’. The former appears to have 3 ‘voices’; the melody, a bass and a middle voice. I’ve tried working out the chord structure, which helps a little, but bars 9-14 are challenging for me and far from secure and flowing. I would agree that my conscious mind is working overtime!! The second piece, which I like very much, isn’t technically difficult, and as I mentioned in my post, I can manage with separate hands, but can’t bring them together - far from being a soothing, calm, flowing lullaby! Bars 17 to 24 are the main stumbling blocks here. Can you suggest some exercises from these pieces (or indeed for any other piece) to help ‘break my mind’? I’ve continued trying the one’s you suggest in this video and I would agree that after a while I find my conscious mind drifting and thinking about what I’m going to have for dinner or whatever, whilst my fingers are continuing playing different scales. Magic! Thank you again Dan for your time and kindness.

This is such an eye-opening article in itself, that I pdf'd it along with this video to my computer. You've got some mind going on within you. LOVE this tutorial, and the "Bring two hands together..." video!

Hi Paul, thanks for your response - glad it helped :) I have been dying in the heat recently hence my delay; entirely uninspired (and physically unable I'd go as far to say) to be at the computer/keyboard). Now it's cooler and AC being installed soon (!), I'll have a look at those pieces and give you some thoughts. Perhaps you might email me so I don't look your comment? danthecomposer@gmail.com You seem to have analysed them well. How are they now since you commented? Looking forward to breaking down this barrier! Best, Dan

Thank you Eddie, happy to read your words. Your PDF idea makes me think again about an idea where I put all my most popular/impactful articles into an eBook, having proofread them once again and perhaps refined them. Updates appreciated! Best, Dan

Hi there! Welcome to my channel. I respond to every comment so fear not :) Since you're on a channel focusing on the mind instead of making fake pianists, I won't answer your question for your own good! Watch this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D8iAsT20cFE.html But I will introduce you to the idea of inversions. Usually, instead of just playing the notes, one would take the notes of the chord which covers those particular notes and place the chord, inverted accordingly, with the melody note as the top-most note. If you find the chords to that song, and learn the chords, you will then be able to identify their inversions and then add the note to the top :) Hopefully you'll make some positive progress. Here is a video on inversions: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6RO5XuZ-ddc.html Enjoy! Best, Dan

Thank you! I will definitely check out the videos. I've never been interested in becoming a professional pianist or anything, it's more of a hobby to just play my favorite songs, maybe even make my own covers of songs and start a RU-vid channel, something like that. Have a good day!

iDunno Things

Swapnil, hello and thanks for your question. Glad the exams are coming to an end... First, be sure that it isn't how much time you spend but what you do during that time. Let's refine your practice time: major scales to be used and abused. This is endless benefit, as explained here: piano-jazz.blogspot.hu/2016/07/top-5-most-useful-videos.html with a related video. Get this down first. Then, move onto chords but get some ideas on chromatics for fingerwork, as prescribed here: piano-jazz.blogspot.hu/2016/07/top-5-most-useful-videos.html - Chords here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PQo5yxBhx68.html You seem to know your musical personality which is great so spend time identifying particular technical requirements of those pieces and working on them away from the pieces, creating your own exercise ideas and doing them in various keys... with your eyes closed. That will make your performance of them (and acquiring) a million times more beneficial for both that song and all others. Do keep me updated and comment wherever necessary. Enjoy! Best, Dan

danthecomposer Thanks a lot! I'm fired up now!

Indeed, right here: ru-vid.com/group/PL4cPpP-Ua6NWl43cy2XiArwodqSmWBOzC - be sure to see the description boxes of each video, too! Welcome to my channel. Progress reports welcome. Best, Dan

Thank you Peter. Quite simply, I don't have one! But once I do, videos will be done on that - I'll also record an album of my compositions: soundcloud.com/danthecomposer Best, Dan

Absolutely! You should be on this right now my friend!

Thanks and I had subscribe your channel 😊😊

Are you telling me that’s a bad thing? It’s the beginning of a lot of very good things!

@@danthecomposer yup I agree, and once you do those things the outcome is amazing 👌🏻

Yes, as you have demonstrated in other comments, there is no left and right hand; this causes nothing but trouble. It's ok to learn a technique 'in the left hand' and something else 'in the right hand' but that only trains the hand in the technique, NOT in playing a specific piece in which the two techniques come together... that is a totally different ball game. So yes, you can master 'what the left hand does' and 'what he right hand does', and enjoy their individual abilities (intervals, rhythm, repetitions, shapes, whatever it may be) because the benefits just add to your overall technique but repertoire acquisition does not work this way because a song is a blend of two hands as one, not left here, right there. If the timing is a problem when speeding up, it means you have not found your natural limit. Using a metronome, find a speed at which you can play perfectly (eyes closed is best, of course) and that you can repeat it a few times... then increase the speed by 2-bpm... and stay there until you can play at that speed... if it's truly impossible, lower by 10 then increase by ten. Eventually, you will be able to play it fluently. It's even fun to play something much faster than it should be played, FOR FUN, just to prove to yourself that you really know the piece beyond conscious involvement and that it can just come out fast on its own... but step by step :) You need to find your natural limit instead of flailing around in the wind like a feather. Keep me updated. Best, Dan

So slow and steady wins the races i shall take your advice and keep you updated on my process thank you

Nice coincidence. Thank you for watching and welcome to my channel :) Best, Dan

I listened to it before watching this video so the melody is kinda fresh. Great video btw

:) Welcome. I do hope you'll try these out; the mountain isn't as high as it seems. Find your natural limit, close your eyes, see your internal piano and increase BPM increments by ten after 5-10 successful repetitions. I want you to amaze yourself. See you around. Best, Dan

Thank you for your comment Steve. Welcome to my channel. I would not dare deny your words which highlight many factors of interest. I would like to add that my secondary purpose behind this video is that one removes the left-right hand divide which cripples so many in performance. This hand does this and that hand does that. By removing that, as you perhaps known, one is then free to use which finger, no matter the hand, at whichever point 'that finger' is required. Esepcially important in improvisation but also standard repertoire. Many get held up by fixed fingering which, as you know, cannot apply to everyone due to the multitude of hand and finger differences. I would hope that those who implement the content of this video recognise that they are acquiring many benefits apart from just 'being able to do a technical exercise': endurance, precision, coordination, removal of conscious interference, touch, orientation, etc. Thank you again. Best, Dan

Yes Dan, I can't deny it's a fascinating subject, how much we do that is physical memory as opposed to conscious interference is a good way to put it. So your exercises will help in respect to improvisation skills.

Relax. Very common. Always go slow and find your natural limit and close your eyes. Also, try this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KI5v3aZiQP0.html Best, Dan

Well I have 250 videos, about 20 playlists and 50 plus articles mainly directed at beginners so have a little prowl around and you’ll no doubt find something! Welcome. Best, Dan

@@danthecomposer Thank you, I'll start watching your tutorials! Wish me luck 🤞

Self-taught with a lot of study, analysis, self-mastery and listening! Started at 14/15 on my granddad's piano.

@@danthecomposer wow amazing. I am also doing that 👍. But I hope to get lessons soon cuz I really need to master it.

Thank you kindly and welcome! Have a good nose around. You will surely want to follow this playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PL4cPpP-Ua6NWl43cy2XiArwodqSmWBOzC - just be sure to read the descriptions of each video for more goodies. Best, Dan Oh, and my blog: piano-jazz.blogspot.com/

No stupid questions here, my friend! Welcome. Yes, these apply to anything with more than 2 octaves :) For cheap, wider keyboards, see here: www.digitalpianoreviewguide.com/how-to-pick-the-best-digital-piano-under-500/ Best, Dan www.piano-jazz.blogspot.com

Thank you for watching :) Good luck! Consider personalising all your exercises, too: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YZreUF72st0.html Best, Dan