How to play piano with both hands together for the first time

Until now your hands have worked one at a time, or taken turns. Playing with both hands together is the step that makes the piano sound like a piano: a tune on top and something supporting it underneath. It is also one of the first real challenges for a beginner, because each hand has to do a different job at the same moment. The good news is that it can be learned gradually, in small, comfortable stages.

How hands-together music is written

On the grand staff, the right hand reads the treble staff and the left hand reads the bass staff. When notes in the two staves are lined up vertically, one directly above the other, they are played at the same moment. Read the music like a column: anything stacked in the same column happens together.

Count carefully. If the left hand has a whole note at the start of a bar and the right hand has four quarter notes, the left-hand note is pressed together with the first right-hand note and held while the other three right-hand notes play.

Stage one: one hand holds, the other moves

The easiest way in is to give one hand almost nothing to do. The left hand plays one long note at the start of each bar and holds it, while the right hand plays quarter notes above it.

Both hands start in C position: the right thumb on middle C, and the left hand an octave lower with the little finger (5) on C and the thumb (1) on G.

Here is the timing, beat by beat, for the first bar:

1. On beat 1, both hands play: left-hand C and right-hand C together.
2. On beat 2, the right hand plays D. The left hand does nothing but keep its key down.
3. On beats 3 and 4, the right hand plays E and F. The left hand is still holding.
4. On the next beat 1, both hands play again: left-hand G and right-hand G.

The left hand's job sounds simple, but it is where most mistakes happen. When the right hand moves, the left hand wants to move too, or to let go early. Keeping it perfectly still is the skill you are learning.

Stage two: mirror image

The next exercise has both hands moving at once, but in a way that feels natural: they mirror each other. Both thumbs start together, the right thumb on middle C and the left thumb on the G below it. As the right hand climbs C D E F G, the left hand descends G F E D C. Each hand plays with the same finger number at the same moment: both thumbs, then both second fingers, and so on.

Moving outwards in opposite directions is called contrary motion. Because your brain sends the same finger number to both hands, it is often easier than you would expect. Play it slowly, listening for both notes sounding as one.

Lightly Row

The piece in this lesson is Lightly Row, known in Germany as "Hänschen klein". The right hand sings the tune in C position while the left hand holds long notes, exactly like stage one. Learn the right hand first, then the left hand alone, then put them together slowly. A later lesson works through the whole piece in detail.

How to practise

1. Play the right-hand part of the first exercise alone until it is easy.
2. Play the left-hand part alone, counting "1 2 3 4" aloud through each whole note.
3. Put them together very slowly. Say the counts aloud and check that both hands press exactly together on every beat 1.
4. Once it is steady, watch the left hand during the right hand's quarter notes: it should not move at all.
5. Try the mirror exercise: both thumbs together, then fingers 2, 3, 4 and 5 together, then back to the thumbs.
6. Play the opening of Lightly Row, right hand alone first, then both hands.

Common mistakes

• Not quite together. One hand lands a fraction before the other, making a "flam". Listen for a single sound on each shared beat.
• Watching only one hand. Read the music, not your hands. Both staves matter equally.
• Speeding up. Concentration often makes you rush. A metronome or steady counting keeps things even.
• Stopping to fix mistakes. Keep going if you can; then practise the tricky bar by itself afterwards.

The guide on how to practise piano has more ideas for slow, focused practice.

Try it in Pianuvo

Hands together is the first lesson of Unit 3: Hands together, eighth notes, p and f. You watch a demonstration, play the held-note exercise and the mirror pattern, then learn Lightly Row with each hand and then both. The notes can wait for you while you get both hands down. It listens on screen, through a MIDI keyboard, or to a real piano through the microphone.