How do you play fast octaves and chords without strain?

[ranjit]

Recently, I attempted Jarrod Radnich's Pirates of the Carribean arrangement. It is very common in arrangements of popular music to have to play a relentless right hand melody in octaves+chords (e.g., playing C-E-G-C as a block chord in the right hand). I am not sure what it is called. I usually don't have a problem simply playing octaves; however, I am experiencing quite a bit of strain in the right hand wrist while playing these "octave+chord" passages.

I believe this is quite common in some classical music such as Liszt as well, but I am not too sure.

How do you play such passages without straining the wrist?

[xdjuicebox]

Don't "lock" the chord position in the hand. Your fingers should expand to the shape of the chord, playing it, and then make sure that you let go the moment that chord is over.

In terms of the octaves, it's the same thing. Do NOT lock the shape of the octave in your hand. That should fix the locked wrist issue - and just make sure your wrists are supple and supported by the rest of the arm. Let me know if you have any questions!