Problems with short and medium jumps

[pernozzoli]

Hi,

I'm quite new to this forum so let me shortly introduce myself.
I am 47 yrs old and an amateur player since the age of 9. I had several interruptions in these past nearly 40 years and a long time where I just played along and singing some contemporary songs, mainly from Elton John. Before I used to play Ragtime a lot and ended up with the Maple Leaf Rag at the age of 16. A year ago I started playing classic piano music again, difficult to say at which level I am and frankly speaking, I don't really care as I just enjoy playing piano and as I love the challenge.

I'm practicing around 90 minutes a day and made it to a small repertoire of Chopin Nocturnes and Waltzes.

I'm currently practicing op 55 no 1, op 9 no 2, op 64 no 2, op 34 no 1. Absolutely no problems with the long jumps even the ones on op 34 no 1 (of course playing at a lower speed as I am not right there with my technical skills). But many-many problems with short and medium jumps, especially when paired with "two-finger-chords" as they often appear in Chopin's Waltzes. "Oversteering", lack of precision, even memorizing them seems to be a problem. It's kind of frustrating.

I used to practice long jumps a lot, especially during my "Rag times": Lift up and move as fast as possible, then drop at the right time and place, separate the movements between forearm and shoulder to notice which parts of the body participates, then join the movements together, etc. I tried to apply the same practicing technique to the short and medium jumps but it doesn't seem to work so well.

I would really appreciate any hint on how to practice short and medium jumps. It's kind of weird to me, being able to play parts at an obviously higher technical level but at the same time failing at things that should be easier to play.

Thank you a lot in advance
Arno

[landru]

Usually when something like this occurs with me it is because I'm stuck in a practicing rut and I don't know it. The rut blinds me to a habit that I am not aware that I'm doing. In this case, jumps are a delicate balance between your spatial awareness of the keyboard that your hands, your eyes and your brain all participate in.

I had a similar problem when I was trying figure out why during a piece where I could flawlessly play complicated parts with separate  hands (including jumps in the left hand), it all went south when put together. I finally figured out it was where my eyes were looking - during separate hand playing obviously my eyes were only concerned with one hand's placement. But when both were together my eyes were switching back and forth very inefficiently.

To fix it I had "divorce" my eyes from doing all the work, and make my "body awareness" take up some of the work. What this means is working on the jumps so that the hand and fingers know where to go without the eyes. Isolate the jumps and practice them with your eyes closed. Your lack of precision and oversteering may be due to some internal confusion over who is "boss" - your eyes, your practiced hands or your mind. Also, even though your mind says it should be easier, the hands haven't got the memo yet!

[dogperson]

I do not agree with your process in your original post where you separate which parts of the body are doing the jump. ...   I agree with Landru to shut your eyes, feel how your ENTIRE body moves to the location of the jump, open your eyes before playing the note and see where you are in relation to where you want to be....  repeat and repeat.   You will get better with each repetition and  eventually will be able to hit the note consistently without looking. ..

[pernozzoli]

Hi,

practicing with eyes closed did it finally. Indeed I had the same problems with my brain not knowing who "is the boss".
I noticed the same problem playing the left hand arpeggios in Claire de lune. Trying it with eyes closed made it much easier even though I still miss too many keys playing with eyes closed. It seems that I lose confidence the longer I keep my eyes closed. I definitely have to practice this more.

@dogperson: you're right that it is no good idea to practice movements decomposing them. On the other side I found out that it helps a lot for understanding the underlying kinematics of the body while playing. Sometimes I use decomposition just to get aware of which parts of the body actively participates to a certain movement. With this I am able to identify if there are some blockades.

Cheers
Arno