A two-step process to get good at jumps

[ranjit]

I feel like I've gotten decent at jumps recently, and am even to make blind jumps on occasion. I observed this process, which I wanted to share:

The first step: Whenever you attempt a jump, glance at the note you want to hit, keep it in your mind for a split second, look away, and make the jump. Initially, you might be a bit off, but it does not matter. Just as in any sport, you imagine the action you want to do, and let the body do the rest. After some time (this may take several weeks or months), you should be able to do this accurately.

The second step: Jump repeatedly between two notes/chords. This will only work once you are fluent with step 1, and can pretty much guarantee that you will hit a note/chord if you look at it for a split second and turn away. You are allowed to look at one of them, preferably the one closer to the middle of the keyboard, but after the very first time, the jump to the second should be blind. The very first time, see where the farther note/chord is on the keyboard, and then look away and hit it, while allowing the visual feeling of where the note is located to persist. After this, imagine looking at the farther note, but don't look at it, and repeatedly execute the jump.

All of this is best done at a fast speed, and without overthinking it.

[lelle]

I find it helpful to both practise preparing the jump, ie quickly moving into position so your finger(s) touch the right key(s) and then decide to play it, and moving directly, ie resting at the keybed of the key played before the jump, looking at where you want to go, and then moving without hesitation in a smooth movement to the keybed of the note you are jumping to.

[getsiegs]

The first step: Whenever you attempt a jump, glance at the note you want to hit, keep it in your mind for a split second, look away, and make the jump.

Agreed. I played Liszt Spanish Rhapsody (not super well ) for auditions, and the climax section in D major where it alternates between blind jumps and interlocking octaves gave me lots of trouble. The look-for-a-split-second method is definitely how I got through it, especially when both hands are doing the jumping.

[ranjit]

Agreed. I played Liszt Spanish Rhapsody (not super well ) for auditions, and the climax section in D major where it alternates between blind jumps and interlocking octaves gave me lots of trouble.

Good on you to be playing that piece! I don't really play those pieces, but have experimented a lot with double octave jumps out of curiosity. None of the pieces in my repertoire tax my jumping ability, so I mostly use it during my improvisations.

[ranjit]

I just took a look at the section of the Spanish Rhapsody, and was rather impressed by Liszt's writing. After the first three double-handed leaps, the rest is surprisingly pianistic -- the lower octave goes down by an octave, which is an easy distance to judge, so you only have to look at the right hand while leaping. Smart.

[j_tour]

Damn.  That's a concise exercise (in two parts!) that I never would have thought to phrase that way.

I think that goes beyond what would be the obvious recommendation for a beginner — namely, maybe, play a bunch of ragtime, work up to latter stride pieces.

Yeah, it's IME just a kind of crutch to look sidelong at the bottom note (or notes if doing octaves or tenths), but it's a useful crutch.

And I'd bet everyone does it to some degree, no matter how skilled.

FWIW, not to try to steal thunder from ranjit's extremely good set of observations, but that was my first thing on piano, just junkyard ragtime and whatever:  yes, I did learn the scales properly at a bit later age, but making wide leaps is, for a number of kinds of music, even more natural than running scales.

Yes, there are wide leaps and wide leaps, and some through-composed Western art music is demanding as well as perverse, but I think it's a good idea to break the technique down into the basic elements, as ranjit did affably and well.

[lostinidlewonder]

While it is important to learn jumps without looking it is not always necessary to do it like that. Also it is quite important to be quite loose and relaxed while leaping, if you feel tense it is very difficult to feel the distance you are moving. If you play a piece which requires you to make a leap blindly you need to assess whether it really is totally blind or you still can use some peripheral vision or very quick glances, you also can practice these jumps with full vision until you feel the relaxed movement in your hand and more confidence to allow it to occur by feel without vision totally guiding it. Very large leaps can be minimised by moving the elbow before the hands it allows more control over the large distances.

Vision at the keyboard is multi faceted. You can look directly at the keys, you can see it in peripheral vision (a sidewards [what you can see side on while looking at the keyboard] or down vision [often used when sight reading when you stare at a page but can see the keys below]). There is also glancing vision where you quickly look at a point on the keyboard before you leap. I also feel that  there is intervallic muscular memory vision where it is your hands themselves that have vision on the keyboard this also can be sensed by the black notes under your hand (almost like a braille except you don’t always need to touch the blacks just sense them under your hand). Certain intervals can feel like easier ones in combination, so a 10th leap( eg: C-E with only the LH 5) might be visualised as an octave leap with a third addition. We feel intervals fairly easy with different fingers, a C-C octave with 1 and 5 being used of course will be easier to play blindly compared to using a single finger to do it. You should practice octave leaps with various finger combinations it can be an interesting investigation.

[ranjit]

FWIW, not to try to steal thunder from ranjit's extremely good set of observations, but that was my first thing on piano, just junkyard ragtime and whatever:  yes, I did learn the scales properly at a bit later age, but making wide leaps is, for a number of kinds of music, even more natural than running scales.

I was the same. In the first six months, the technique which I focused on the most was being able to do two octave (bass octave + chord) leaps with the left hand, quite successfully I might add. It was a one-shot trick which made any song sound "cool" lol. Initially, start out with some soft LH arpeggios, then build up to that left hand pattern, and bam, you've got yourself an arrangement people will dig!

Nowadays, whenever I see a few left hand jumps, I breathe a sigh of relief! I'm always tempted to do the ones in the Chopin waltzes in octaves, and an octave below where they were intended, just for the heck of it.

[hpiano]

This is helpful ranjit! This is a skill I am in desperate need of improving, I'll try your strategy this week.

[brogers70]

Another thing that has helped me with big, quick jumps is this...

Say I need to jump with the LH from a low Ab to a C natural two octave and a third higher. I start at the low Ab and then jump to then Ab an octave up, then back down, then up to the Bb a ninth up, then back down, bouncing up and down until I've reached the target C natural and even gone a bit above it. Then I'll improvise a tune that involves jumping from the low Ab back and forth to notes around the target C natural, using the low Ab as a pedal tone and just messing around with improvised tunes on the upper notes. After doing this for a while, I've got both the sound and the physical feel of all those big intervals beat into my brain so that doing the original jump is easy, with or without looking.

[ranjit]

Say I need to jump with the LH from a low Ab to a C natural two octave and a third higher. I start at the low Ab and then jump to then Ab an octave up, then back down, then up to the Bb a ninth up, then back down, bouncing up and down until I've reached the target C natural and even gone a bit above it.

Just a thought -- Isn't this pretty much exactly what la campanella does for the RH?

[brogers70]

Just a thought -- Isn't this pretty much exactly what la campanella does for the RH?

Maybe so. As soon as I climb Everest, swim the English Channel, and run the length of the trans-Siberian railway, I'll have a look at tackling La Campanella.

[j_tour]

Initially, start out with some soft LH arpeggios, then build up to that left hand pattern, and bam, you've got yourself an arrangement people will dig!

Nowadays, whenever I see a few left hand jumps, I breathe a sigh of relief! I'm always tempted to do the ones in the Chopin waltzes in octaves, and an octave below where they were intended, just for the heck of it.

Yeah, that is right! 

It's almost a shake-n-bake of how to make an instant arrangement from a lead sheet or whatever.  TBH, I'm a little bit shocked every time I hear of somebody struggling to just take a lead sheet and play it.  It doesn't take much imagination to play the tune and make it sound good.

That's mostly why I'm trying to build things in my LH beyond playing rhythm (which is not always formulaic leaps), but to improvise in unison/thirds/sixths and whatever else.  Or just ostenatos or a monteno, which is also a valid style. 

I prefer something else for improvisation on a standard tune, but I think octave (or greater!) leaps in the LH is a basic tool.

Yes, but somehow that intuition does indeed subconsciously transfer to the RH in octaves, let's say.  I think someone recently said here the nice word "proprioception," which is what it sounds like.

Let's face it:  you're at the keyboard, so that should be your home.

[ranjit]

Maybe so. As soon as I climb Everest, swim the English Channel, and run the length of the trans-Siberian railway, I'll have a look at tackling La Campanella.

Just saw this, lol. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to play the first few measures -- they are not that difficult. Playing the whole piece probably is.