CHAPTER VI – COORDINATION OF THE HANDS

Finger coordination and independence

Hammer-ons, pull-offs, and hand synchronization and desynchronization

This chapter is devoted entirely to the coordination of the two hands. It incorporates the principles of the previous two chapters and combines them. At the end of the chapter, there are exercises which desynchronize the hands relative to one another.

Question: how does desynchronizing the hands improve coordination?

Answer: to succeed in performing difficult movements, it helps to perform one which is even more challenging, to eliminate any sense of difficulty upon returning to the original movement.

Very often the difficulty does not exist in and of itself, rather it is the brain’s perception of difficulty which prevents successful execution.
This explains why desynchronizing and thereby disassociating the movements of the hands helps the brain to better understand and succeed in coordinating them thereafter.