Why Is Melodic Voicing More Than Playing the Right Hand Louder?

Adult learners are often told to play the right hand louder and the left hand more softly. That advice can help briefly when the melody is in the right hand and the accompaniment in the left, but it soon becomes a limitation. A melody may sit at the top of a right-hand chord, then move into the left hand or an inner voice. What must be controlled is the voice, not the total volume of each hand.

Measurements of professional pianists playing chords found that an emphasised melodic note was usually louder and could also sound slightly earlier than the other voices. Later analysis showed that much of this apparent melody lead arose because a faster key stroke sent the hammer to the string sooner. It did not mean that pianists deliberately displaced the melody. Practice should therefore not teach the upper voice to arrive artificially early. Finger contact and the underlying pulse should remain coordinated while different key velocities create the dynamic layers.

Another common mistake is to suppress the accompaniment until it loses direction. It may be quiet while still carrying bass support, harmonic change and pulse. A useful check is to sing the melody, then make sure it can still be followed through the complete texture. When it lies inside a chord played by one hand, listen for the difference between the top note and the remaining notes rather than making the whole hand heavier. Balance is not a fixed volume ratio. It is the ability to keep the principal line perceptible as the texture changes.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11508980/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8133499/