For instance, if we edited the left hand portion of Chopin's "Butterfly" etude, and for the bass notes (the one you hit in between the chords), you removed the upper note which is an octave higher, would it be harder, or easier, to execute those jumps?
And another thing, in this video (skip to 1:07):Lisitsa plays jumps in the left hand extremely fast. However, my question is that are the bass notes within those jumps octaves, or just single notes? I looked at the score and it indicates that those were full octaves. I thought otherwise.
In my improvisation, funnily enough, I use left hand octaves less often these days because it seems to be a physical device with little aural advantage.
To simplify this thought, take, for instance, a C note being played, followed by a C note above it, then back to the C below, then the C on top, and so forth. Played very, very quickly, you result in some sort of a "tremolo" effect, which isn't particularly difficult.