Is adding a new technique always this hard?
I have been grinding for about 3 years on this now, starting from zero (meaning I did not transition from a classical background or take piano lessons as a kid or anything like that). I have found great success by simply choosing a selection of half a dozen standards, and then playing them in all 12 keys using increasingly difficult techniques.
So far I've done:
Root note in left hand + melody in right hand
Root note in left hand + shell chord in right hand
Shell chord in left hand + melody in right hand
Shell chord in left hand + shell chord in right hand
Half note bass line in left hand + melody in right hand
Half note bass line in left hand + shell chord in left hand
I play all 6 standards in all 12 keys for each technique before moving on to the next technique. My general feel and comprehension of the keyboard has increased by leaps and bounds doing this. But it is freaking tough and requires many hours of grinding.
I have just moved on to my next target which is doing a stride style (root note followed by 3+7 or 7+3) in the left hand with melody in the right hand, and it is REALLY slow going, and yet I can feel the improvement with every session which is awesome.
My question is, does it ever get easier adding techniques to your playing? I want to think that this is mostly so difficult because my general keyboard fluency started from zero and that there will be a point where my feel for the piano will allow me to learn successive techniques more rapidly, but this addition of stride is going as slow or slower than any of my previous techniques added which has me second guessing this notion.
Curious to hear from anyone who has worked through this, especially anyone who like me started both learning to play keys in general AND learning to play jazz specifically at the same time.