Practice Room · No Silly Questions
Chords in the left hand, melody in the right. All white keys. Four times around the loop and you've played for a minute — which is longer than most people ever practise in one unbroken stretch.
Tap any key to hear it. Lit keys follow the drill as it plays — gold is your left hand, red is your right, and the number beside the melody note is the finger to use. On a phone, swipe the keyboard sideways to see the whole range.
Hands separately first, then together. Here's the order that works.
C, A minor, F, G — all sitting just below and around middle C, so they stay warm rather than muddy. Four slow counts each. Let each chord release before you move — don't lift and grab. Boring is the goal. Boring means your hand has stopped thinking about it.
Start with your thumb on the C an octave above middle C. The melody only steps to next-door notes until you reach the B at the end of the second bar — there, finger 4 turns over your thumb and lands on B. That one move drops your whole hand into a lower position, and the F and G bars then sit right under your fingers with nothing to reach for.
One time around. Then stop and breathe. Then one more. Stacking single clean loops beats grinding through four messy ones. Use the rest at the very end of the loop to float your thumb back up to the high C.
If you're holding your breath, you're going too fast. Drop the tempo until you can breathe normally the whole minute. That's the real skill hiding inside this drill.
One quiet thing: this loop is C – Am – F – G. It's the backbone of thousands of songs — including the one we're learning together at the first workshop. So this isn't only a drill. Your hands are already learning the shape of a real song.
— MS