Left hand first, then right, then both
My 10-year-old daughter has been learning how to play the piano pretty seriously for a few years now. It’s been amazing to watch her transform her skill, sometimes painfully, over time. There’s plenty of frustration but plenty of joy as well – she’s actually learning some great pieces and is really enjoying herself. The self-confidence she’s gaining is invaluable.
As she plays more complex pieces, which change more over time and involve more differentiation between what she plays with her left and and her right, her teacher has been giving her a piece of advice that reminded me of the type of advice Brian and I give our clients.
In order to understand how to get through tricky passages, her teacher suggests that she goes through the piece first only playing the left hand. Then go through only playing the right. Get comfortable with each. Then, after you know how they feel, play them together.
The result is that my daughter can pick out nuance that isn’t there when she tries everything all at once. It’s like any complex task that you’re trying to get through – break it down, do it in manageable, logical pieces, and then try to put it all together.
To relate it to the type of marketing help we give our clients, we’ve recommended that you separate content ideation from production. That you create a framework to house your ideas, and then generate content based on that. That you use templates wherever you can so that you can make sure you’re calibrated and telling the story properly.
Basically, left hand first, then right, then both at once. You can do it.