This post should be of interest to louispodesta! Among others of course.Professional ragtime & stride pianist Frederick Hodges gives a 'daily minimum' 1.5 hour (once fully learned) practice routine on his blog, which you may view at:https://frederickhodges.com/fundamentalsofpianotechniquepart1.htmlThe routine includes, if I have calculated correctly, playing over three THOUSAND double octaves every single day (all scales, arpeggios in all inversions, 3 and 4 octaves up and down keyboard etc.)Of course some people must be capable of this, day after day. But for the ordinary mortal who cannot quite span the tenth from Db to F, say, isn't three thousand double octaves per day asking for a serious Lang Lang type of injury?
...actually Db to F is way easier than C to E. What is a Lang Lang injury?
I tend to wonder, with the original poster, what the point is of playing so many octaves, they're not very interesting intervals.
You are SO wrong. I can play C to E (barely), but Db to F is impossible. I can play F# to A, but not cleanly. C to E is far easier than Db to F... don't believe me? Try it yourself.
Liszt made good use of the octaves in his Hungarian Rhapsodies...
Yes, brilliant, and so did Alkan, I love his octave study in E, the one in 10/16.
...In terms of improvisation of stride/rag piano simply playing scales or scales in octaves all day is not going to help you a huge amount (in fact it is not going to help you anywhere an incredible amount, scales and octaves are only a small piece of the tools used in music!!)....
Right as usual. Frankly, I am puzzled that Hodges would actually carry out all this nonsense. He isn't the ragtime player I would choose to listen to. David Thomas Roberts, Scott Kirby and Brian Keenan, to name just three, are far more interesting musically, but Hodges is technically accomplished with a huge repertoire. It baffles me why he would do it, let alone proffer advice to do it.
Hodges is technically accomplished with a huge repertoire. It baffles me