Octaves, octaves, octaves

[NetherMagic]

Hi everyone, I just wanna double-check to see if my techniques for playing octaves are right, because my right forearm gets tired faster than my left for some reason.

Anyways, to play an octave, you use mainly your wrist as the moving part and your fingers just as mere objects to strike the keys right?  But then when I do this, I tend to "flap" my hand alot and sometimes I don't hit the right keys.

Can anyone describe their way of playing octaves really fast and tense-free?  I'm trying to play Alla Turca with octaves for the melody for the -entire- piece (just bored) and I'm finding it hard to do those notes you normally do with one note and playing them in octaves

Anyways, thx for your help =]

[dreamaurora]

If you flap your hands a lot, that means you are not curving your fingers well. Good octave playing requires ur fingers to be in complete curved position and minimum wrist movement. Just let ur wrist fall. I know Horowitz 'flaps' his hands when he plays octaves, but don't follow him.

[BoliverAllmon]

Don't use your wrists. Your wrists should be completely relaxed. Your fingers should be curved and the motion should come from your biceps. When I am playing octaves or chords for that matter, my teacher sometimes will lift my hands up and if my wrist doesn't go limp then I have too much tension and need to relax more. Try it see if it helps with the fatigue.

BoliverAllmon