Keyboard familiarity

[theodore]

Does anyone know any drills or techniques for leaping from one note to another without looking at the piano keyboard? This happens for the left hand in waltzes and in Scott Joplin Rags.

The right hand is busy enough with the melody while the left hand does octave leaps followed by chords. Is there any way one can get a feel for these left hand leaps with a fair degree of accuracy?

Ted

[whynot]

I spent about two weeks of concentrated effort on this years ago, and it really worked-- I've almost never had to practice it again.  I took the usual stride patterns you're talking about and played them over and over without looking, mainly letting the RH rest so I could pay close attention to my jumping.  I say jumping, but I don't come up in the air very far, more like a fast glide straight across, close to the keys.  Certainly just playing the patterns a lot was helpful, but I believe what really made it work were a few mental strategies.  One was that I didn't allow myself to be tentative.  I didn't readjust or hesitate before playing any notes, I committed to playing the keys exactly where my hand was, and if it was wrong, I didn't shift to correct it.  This gave me instant feedback about whether the notes were where I thought they were; of course, at the beginning, they weren't, which allowed to me adjust my mental keyboard very quickly.  This also prevented a playing stutter from developing.  Also, I tried not to pressure myself to get it right in a given amount of time, but just to observe the sound and feel regardless of right and wrong notes-- more useful feedback.  In a short time, I was guessing correctly more and more, and then I wasn't guessing anymore, I started to really know where I was.  This project was a game for me, so now
I associate these patterns with fun, relaxed playing.

[netzow]

I seem to have naturally learned to play the piano with out having to look at my hands. I have heard that some people actually memorize the LH and work on it that way. My experience and advice is to practice playing without looking at the keys whenever you can not just on the big LH jumps if you can't play without looking when you are playing small jumps or even no jumps at all you will not be able to play the big ones.

[ramseytheii]

Does anyone know any drills or techniques for leaping from one note to another without looking at the piano keyboard? This happens for the left hand in waltzes and in Scott Joplin Rags.

The right hand is busy enough with the melody while the left hand does octave leaps followed by chords. Is there any way one can get a feel for these left hand leaps with a fair degree of accuracy?

Ted

One technique is to practice the jumps twice as large as they are written, in other words twice as hard.  Then the original becomes easy.  Also definitely practice hands separate.

As far as the physical conditions, I would generally be careful not to (and tend not to) try and make your hand do something exact like "glide straight across," or even not to tell your hand not to do something, like "jump."  I would think, what is the principle for leaps on the keyboard? 

It is the elbow.  The elbow moves in two directions, clockwise and counter-clockwise: in other words, never straight.  If your elbow is moving straight, perfectly parallel to the keyboard, it is also probably stiff and ineffectual.  If the elbow assists the leap by making a small clockwise-motion (thinking of left elbow, and a leap from bass to treble) you will come down on the keys not straight down, but from an angle, and thus have a better grip and a better sense of where they are.

I hope this helps!

Walter Ramsey