Octaves, Godowsky, and Exercises

[ramseytheii]

Although it's often said here that exercises don't have inherent merit to advance one's technique, do you still think it is beneficial to apply those exercises to actual passages of music?  I am thinking in particular about the 5 or 6 exercises Godowsky gives for developing octave technique.

Walter Ramsey

[bench warmer]

 I think all playing/practicing has a cumulative effect.

I remember when I first encountered those rapid alternating chromatic octaves. Every time I got to a place where there were two adjacent white keys then the black,  if not a train wreck, at least a gross hesitation would occur.

After doing it enough times various in pieces, it's become a natural motion for me.

Probably the greatest hurdle to advacing technique (and I am guilty of this) is not practicing or playing slowly enough at the outset to internalize the stuff correctly. Learning something wrong is a bite-in-the-a~s!

[pianistimo]

i've learned that the slow tempo can be faster.  you don't have to take it at gut-wrenching slowness - but perhaps at a notch under your evenness speed (which can be a medium tempo).  otherwise, you waste valuable minutes practicing something you can already do.  when you know you can do one thing - move on to someting else.

i used to be obsessive-compulsive about practice routines (down to the metronomic speed of certain exercises - at slow slow, med slow, slow, etc) and OVER practice.  this is really dumb - now that i think about it.

what you are aiming at is fluency.  it's more in the warming up - and so you don't go sprinting before you do your jogging.  with octaves, don't u think that it's becoming closer and closer to the keys?  like almost feeling your way up the keyboard.  especially with the thumb.  it's like you're in the dark and you move to the next one by feel.  your pinky just naturally moves along.  or, you could switch and use your pinky as the 'feeler' and the thumb just move along as a hitch trailer.  (*this is one instance where parkinson's disease might actually help you).

that said - there are times when i've missed too many practice days - and have to start REALLY slow again.  slowness is important!