La Campanella

[xxcookziexx]

I've almost got this piece perfect, all I need to do now is speed it up, however I'm only 13 and I have small hands. Has anybody got any ideas or techniques I could use in speeding up the jumps?

[landru]

I'm nowhere near doing this piece but my teacher has worked with me on jumps. Practice the jumps with your eyes closed - slowly at first with one hand - maybe a bar at a time, then bring it up to speed. This teaches your hands to get there accurately without your eyes as a crutch. When you actually perform the piece, you still may be looking at your hands, but they will be a lot more confident.

[xxcookziexx]

Thank you 

[quantum]

Practice jumping by placing your fingers in position on top of the keys to play, but not actually making the notes sound.  Just go through the motions of jumping without playing.

[jgallag]

The way I learned to jump is this: First of all, it is always easier to jump from the inside of the keyboard to the outside (i.e. left to right for the right hand, right to left from the left hand) so you should mentally rewrite (if you have to) so that the jumps are figured such. Okay, on the first note, you're going to drop your hand, and on a responsive piano you should feel a sort of "bounce", a rebound energy. Practice it until you feel this energy. Now, this energy gets channeled to propel your hand across the keyboard to the note you need. So, you're going to practice it now using this rebound energy to propel your hand to the next note, but don't play it yet. Just practice getting your hand into position. 10 times in a row perfect. Next step is to actually play the note after the jump. Again, 10 times in a row perfect. After this, you string them together, combining them in pairs, then threes, fours, until you can play the whole passage.

An important note: Don't compromise speed for accuracy. In the beginning, yes, it feels like it's hit or miss, but over the course of a few days (daily practice) it becomes extremely accurate as you learn just how much your forearm needs to move and your elbow needs to turn to get there. Keep your eyes where you're going, not on the starting note. In the passage you're describing it becomes a kind of down up motion with your forearm, where the down is each key on the left, and the up is each key on the right.

[kris_k]

Hey there, I'm also 13 and learning this piece. ( Well, you are probably 14 by now .)
Like jgallag suggests, take daily practice. I play this piece about 3-4 times a day. It's like doing these ' jumps ' 100 times a day. I started playing slowly then very slowly increase the tempo.
There's one odd thing about me, most people played with 1-5-1-5~~~ fingering. In the eights and ninth I also use 1-5 fingering then in the tenths, I used 1-4-1-4~~ fingering. I think it's because that I find the 4 bigger-in-size than the 5.

Cheerings from here.