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{{trope}}
Also known as the "One-handed Piano Player".
This is what happens when an actor who doesn't know how to play piano is cast as a
In extreme cases, neither hand moves, or neither moves in a manner that in any way corresponds to the music.
Meanwhile, the music on the soundtrack is [[Soundtrack Dissonance|obviously played by ''real'' pianist]] who knows how to use ''both'' hands.
The equivalent can be found displayed by actors trying to fake being guitarists: their left hand remains motionless or nearly so on the neck of their guitar (frequently clamped onto it as though it were a handle), while their right hand aimlessly strums the strings, often out of synch with the music they're trying to mime to.
Related to [[Special Effect Failure]]. Not to be confused with [[Red Right Hand]], [[The Crawling Hand]] or [[The Left Hand of Darkness]].▼
This can be avoided with the proper use of a [[Talent Double]]. Sometimes.
{{examples}}▼
▲Subtrope of [[Artistic License Music]]. Related to [[Special Effect Failure]]. A potential opposite trope is [[The Cast Showoff]]. Not to be confused with [[Red Right Hand]], [[The Crawling Hand]] or [[The Left Hand of Darkness]]. ''Definitely'' not to be confused with [[Eric Clapton|Slowhand]], who is a very good musician, thank you very much.
== Film - Live-Action ==▼
* It may come as a surprise, but [[Marx Brothers|Chico Marx]] was occasionally subject to this trope. A self-taught pianist, his left hand technique was somewhat limited, and at times vanished entirely when he had to mime playing to a pre-recorded soundtrack. (A need, conscious or unconscious, to hide this may have contibuted to the comedic moves he made with his right hand while playing.) A good example of his [[Slow Left Hand]] is visible in ''[[A Night at the Opera]]'' -- see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkCiRSDPIzk this clip].▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Film]] ==
▲* It may come as a surprise, but [[Marx Brothers|Chico Marx]] was occasionally subject to this trope. A self-taught pianist, his left hand technique was somewhat limited, and at times vanished entirely when he had to mime playing to a pre-recorded soundtrack. (A need, conscious or unconscious, to hide this may have contibuted to the comedic moves he made with his right hand while playing.) A good example of his
* In the first scene of the 2005 film of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', Mary is allegedly playing the piano, but does not appear to even touch the keyboard!
* [[Farley Granger]] as Phillip in [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s 1948 film ''[[Rope]]'' plays piano during the course of the film, but the movements of his hands rarely correspond to the music he's supposedly playing.
* Dooley Wilson in ''[[Casablanca]]'' is a classic
* During the first "White Christmas" sequence in ''[[Holiday Inn]]'', [[Bing Crosby]]'s character Jim Hardy is allegedly playing the song on a piano, but his left hand is all but motionless through much of the song.
* Carefully averted in ''[[Deliverance]]''. Billy Redden, who played Lonnie, couldn't actually play the guitar that his character uses to perform his side of the famous "Dueling Banjos". A skilled player was hired to replace his left hand on the neck of the instrument, with shots composed and camera angles chosen to hide the fact that while Redden might have been strumming the guitar with his right hand, another man's hand was performing the ''hard'' part of playing a stringed instrument, so that it looked real.
* When Clark Hill is playing guitar and singing in 2016's ''[[Brave New Jersey]]'', his left hand is motionless on the fret board.
* An aversion can be found in the 2009 episode episode of ''[[Bones]]'' "The Plain in the Prodigy", in which the camera lingers lovingly on the actor portraying "Levi" as he genuinely—and expertly—plays the piano.
* [[Kelsey Grammer]]'s fake piano playing is actually pretty convincing in ''[[Frasier]]'' - but if you look closely, you can see that it's 'dubbed'.
{{Needs More Examples}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Accidental Trope]]
[[Category:Film Tropes]]
[[Category:Music Tropes]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
[[Category:Artistic License Music]]
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