Drills & technique to develop muscle memory for large left hand leaps

[xr280xr]

Hi everyone,

I'm really struggling to develop accuracy when trying to play leaps from, for example, octaves rooted in the 1st register to chords in the 3rd. I've only practiced it by trying to play pieces that do this, primarily the ending of Jarrod Radnich's Pirates of the Caribbean arrangement. I've been trying to get that down for at least 2 years and, after not making any progress by just repeatedly playing through at various speeds, have sat down and practiced just the leaps fairly seriously (for me) a few times along the way. That got me up to sort of OK at it, but as soon as I add the right hand it all goes away - so I achieved the ability to do it with hard concentration, but didn't get the muscle memory. Now I'm starting a rag that does the same thing and it feels like something I might never be able to play - but if I was a person that accepted that feeling, I wouldn't be able to play most of the songs I can play now.

I can do OK with single bass notes in the 2nd register, but the problem is once my elbow is past 90°, it feels like a left hand - awkward and flimsy - and that's when my brain loses track of where it is. Hoping some of you can relate to that and offer some tips of what helped you overcome it. Maybe this, in particular, just takes a lot more practice than a lot of other things that have come more easily to me but I feel like I've plateaued on it. I want to put in the work on it but 1) need to know what I'm doing will help and 2) want to use the most efficient method. Thanks!

[dogperson]

Yes, It does take a lot of time and practice in order to develop proprioception. For large leaps my teacher has suggested the following exercise which is  useful to me:  with only the hand with the leap, play the jump paying attention to the FEEL of the distance.  Now, shut your eyes and do the leap.  Before playing, open your eyes and see how much you missed the landing. Rrpeat and repeat.  You will find yourself getting closer and closer and then will consistently hit the target.  It takes time but in essence you are training your muscles  to knowing the distance as how it relates to your body. Once you can do this consistently with one hand, add the other one... by this time, you will have trained your muscle memory for the distance.  You may need to use glances at the leap, but you will not need to stare st the keys to execute. Your sense of the distance will do most of the work,

[indianajo]

xr280, how old are you?
In my teens I could memorize big leaps just by playing them slowly and absolutely correctly for a few dozen times.  "Practicing" while allowing errors just trains your brain in making errors.  One has to go slowly enough that there are absolutely no errors, even if that speed is 12 bpm. 
However, now that I have time to really practice in my sixties (retired) I find that for super accuracy with stride bass I have to look.  My position accuracy sense fifty years later is not nearly as accurate as it was when I was 15. In the early days the teacher made me look at the audience instead of the keys, and to practice for that I would play with my eyes closed sometimes.  Declining kinesthetic sense is  probably one reason why they have senior golf tournaments in addition to the regular ones for the young. 
If left hand leaps are seriously your nemesis play some Scott Joplin rags, or ones by other composers.  Stride bass is 3/4 of what they do.  Besides I enjoy them.  Also, playing three of them four times a week maintains my hand and arm muscle strength, which is important at my age to keep doing any physical activity. For other muscles I do pilates exercises. I'm not going to waste away into feebleness as most of my countrymen do. 

[ted]

I devised the following exercise for myself fifty years ago, and although I don't do it now it seemed to do the trick with permanent results. The actual notes played don't matter, any key and chord will do, the wider the variety the better. Start with the bass octave pretty close to the chord at the top and with each swing take it one or two notes lower. Take it down as far as you can before fumbling, taking care to preserve the tempo. If you find you are missing, work the octaves back closer to the chord. I never found it necessary to slow down too much. Some say the arm should bounce in an arc and others use a more lateral displacement, so that aspect might be personal choice. A light, detached touch is probably superior to a heavily accented one, but try to keep things musical.

The same trick can be used for tenths if your hand is big enough, and for single notes and broken tenths if it isn't. As I recall, I got the idea from Waller's Minor Drag, which employs such a descending figuration in the left hand. I thought it might prove an effective practice technique and it did.

It happens around 1:06 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyc7czFiCQk