Fast staccato chord run...

[tocca]

I'm learning "Donau Waves" by Jan Ivanovici right now, it's an fairly easy piece mostly but i wanted to ask you about one thing.
It's a lot of staccato in it, and at one place you play sixths going down from C-A to E-C.  It's like a sixths scale in C-Major.
It's not overly fast, but not slow either.  I do find myself hitting wrong notes too often for me to be comfortable playing it publically!

How would you play this, as far as fingering concerns, just 1-5 all the way or alternating?
I can play octaves, staccato, much faster without problems. Maybe because the octave reach is so "engraved" in the hand, where the sixth is not?

I've tried different fingerings, alternating between 1-4/2-5 for example, but it doesn't feel good at all.
Do you play this 1-5 all the way, any ideas on how to play it to make it more secure?

I suspect i'm just needing more practise. (as always)!

[lostinidlewonder]

If it is not too fast and a staccato run then 1-5 is best or 1-4 whatever is more comforatble for you. I think you have to practice just the thumb running down by itself first then add the other finger. That other finger should play naturally and not be focused on, i guess you have to control the shape of the 6th as well as you control your octave.

[tocca]

Thanks lostinidlewonder.
I think my main problem is controlling the shape as you say, thoose time that i make a mistake it's almost always the little finger... i seem to tend to contract the shape by time.
It's hard to say exactly what goes wrong, because if i slow down a little so i can see and feel what's happening i don't make any mistakes.

Practising slowly with precision seems to be the solution, as with most things, but sometimes it can be something more fundamentally wrong.
I don't take lessons anymore, so i need to solve theese things by my own.

[JP]

I agree with lostinidlewonder..
Unfortunately I cant be very specific, the reason being I'm not familiar with this piece.
Concentrate on placing the thumb and you should stretch the 1st-5th fingers accordingly to have the right opening (6th!).  Depending what sound you're going for, a basic wrist staccato should do.  As you're moving from interval to interval, move your arm and try to avoid any wrist rotation.

Once you're able to play it properly, practice playing without looking at the hand the intervals.  Unfortunately I cant be more specific, the reason being I'm not familiar with this piece.

Cheers,
JP