I’ve broken a finger on my hand. An annoying setback, yes, but not the end of the world. This post is meant to support pianists who find themselves in this situation, as well as teachers who have students dealing with a temporary hand or finger injury. It’s relatively common for a student to injure one hand: anything from household accidents to sports mishaps. Having repertoire and activities designed for one-hand playing allows the learning process to continue, helping students maintain their motivation, their routine, and their connection with the instrument while the injured hand recovers.
Music written for one hand is not just a “plan B.” It can be just as interesting, demanding, and musically rich as repertoire written for two hands. In addition, working in a focused way with a single hand develops specific musical and technical skills. For teachers, having access to these resources expands their educational toolkit and allows them to support each student in any circumstance, turning a temporary difficulty into a pedagogical opportunity.
My plan is to keep updating this post with new ideas and video examples, since my injury is recent and I still have several weeks of recovery ahead. Don’t let an injury stop your own (or your students’) desire to learn.
Piano Literature for One Hand
The one-hand piano repertoire has an unexpectedly rich history. Although most pieces were written for the left hand—since injuries are somewhat more common in the right, there are also works for the right hand and pieces flexible enough to be adapted for either. Among the earliest historical examples we find C.P.E. Bach and his Klavierstücke for one hand (either left or right).
Around 1840, Kalkbrenner composed his Four-Voiced Fugue, considered one of the earliest works written specifically for the left hand. In the Romantic era we find isolated contributions from composers such as Liszt, who dedicated a piece to his student Géza Zichy, and Charles Alkan, the author of a highly original group of études that explore the possibilities of each hand independently.
The twentieth century marked a true expansion of the genre thanks to the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who, after losing his right arm in World War I, commissioned dozens of works from leading composers such as Paul Hindemith, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten, and Maurice Ravel. Perhaps the best-known example is Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand, written for Wittgenstein (who, incidentally, was the brother of the famous Austrian philosopher). Also widely known are Scriabin’s Prelude and Nocturne, Op. 9. Today we have access to an enormous variety of repertoire: from transcriptions of standard works and folk songs to modern collections suitable for elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels.
As a curiosity, I’ll share that I’m currently learning this piece: Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3, in an arrangement for the left hand, although I’m playing it with my right hand, which is the one that’s still healthy.
Repertoire for One Hand
Although, when we face this situation with our students, we can certainly continue working on the pieces they were already studying, using the uninjured hand, I find it especially valuable to work on music specifically written to be played with one hand. This is highly motivating for students because they can perform the entire piece, not just a portion of it. These works are designed to sound musically engaging without requiring the other hand. In this section, I’d like to share some pieces and collections that work well in these situations, either written for a specific hand or suitable for either one.
The two books in Barbara Arens’s One Hand Piano series, each containing 40 pieces for either the left or the right hand, are an excellent resource. They offer a wide range of styles and levels. Most of the pieces are original works by Arens, but the books also include a few arrangements of existing pieces and works by other composers such as Carl Ph. E. Bach, as well as pieces by contemporary composers like my friend Garreth Brooke. You can find a more detailed review on Pianodao.
Another composer of pedagogical pieces whom I love, Chrissy Ricker, has several works written for one hand. You can find them on Piano Pronto, along with other one-hand pieces by Jennifer Eklund. In the following video, you can see me playing Wistful Waltz for the right or left hand:
Melody Bober has a very interesting series of one-hand piano books, Grand One-Hand Solos for Piano. The set includes six books with pieces of increasing difficulty and a wide variety of styles.
The book Piano Music for One Hand by Theodore Edel is an extensive catalogue that compiles the bibliography of works written for one hand, both for solo piano and for chamber music. Raymond Lewenthal’s historical anthology, Piano Music for One Hand, is another highly comprehensive collection, featuring pieces by Bach, Bartók, Chopin, Scriabin, Moszkowski, and many others. You can also read this article by Adrienne Wiley, which explores the topic of one-hand repertoire in greater depth.
Other Activities to Do with One Hand
Piano lessons should not focus exclusively on repertoire, no matter how motivating repertoire study may be. Truly solid learning grows from a broader approach, one that combines improvisation, technical development, ear training, music theory, sight-reading, and other activities that allow students to understand music from multiple angles. And lessons for students with an injured hand are a perfect opportunity to explore these different activities.
Improvisation is an activity that fits perfectly in these situations. The improvisation patterns in Forrest Kinney’s Creativity First! book series are an endless source of ideas for all levels. Students can play an accompaniment with one hand while we—or another student—improvise a melody. Alternatively, we can play the accompaniment and have the student improvise over it. It’s even possible to do one-hand improvisations, like the one you can see in the following video, where I improvise using only two chords, F# and B, at different levels of difficulty.
Another activity is playing melodies from songs or popular tunes. If the right hand is injured, students can work on different accompaniment patterns for the same song while someone else plays or sings the melody. If, on the other hand, the student can use only the right hand, they can play their favourite melodies while someone else accompanies them.
Sight-reading is always a valuable exercise, and these lessons are a great opportunity to strengthen the reading skills of the healthy hand. There are sight-reading books for all levels, many of which include exercises specifically for one hand. If not, you can always work with two-voice reading: the student plays one line, and the teacher plays the other. My favourites are the Sight Reading & Rhythm Cards from Piano Safari and the Sightreading Books from Piano Adventures. You can also use the one-hand repertoire pieces mentioned earlier as sight-reading material if you select pieces two or three levels below the student’s current level. Another option is to adapt pieces written for other instruments as one-hand sight-reading exercises.
This situation can also be a great opportunity to work on harmony. Practising different chord progressions or playing a short melodic motif in different keys will greatly expand the student’s harmonic vocabulary.
I hope this article is helpful if you ever find yourself in this situation. Whether you are a pianist or a teacher, you can adapt these suggestions and activities to your own level—or your students’—and continue practising and learning.
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