Left Hand, Meet Right Hand

I was practicing Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier I, Prélude V in my second-favorite room at Longy School (second-floor left front), and quietly going bonkers because I could not get my hands to play exactly together in mm. 29-30, where they’re both in 16ths.

The next night, I brought a tape recorder and headphones, and recorded myself to see what the problem was.

There was no problem. The two hands were perfectly simultaneous.

From this I learned that two hands doing the same thing may not feel the same—yet another way that recording is useful.