(34) Fast Octaves, Small/Big Hands

PS #1 [parallel set #1, (10) Parallel Sets Catalogue] should be used for practicing fast repeat chords and octaves (such as those in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #6). Start with quick double octaves, HS, as fast as possible without stress, CC,CC, where CC is the C octave; do not move around, like CC,DD until the single octave is satisfactory. Practice one octave for the LH and one for the RH so you can switch hands and use the better hand to teach the other. After a hard workout, always play slowly several times, completely relaxed, before switching hands or quitting.

There are two ways to increase speed. One is to reduce the vertical hand motion. For grands, this can be reduced to less than the maximum keydrop because of their special repetition mechanism. Uprights will require a larger amplitude. This principle of increasing speed with decreasing amplitude can be demonstrated with a basketball or tennis ball. First, bounce (dribble) it up and down 2-3 feet; then gradually reduce this height. As you push the basketball lower, its bounce frequency will increase. This happens because the basketball bounces back when it hits the floor. In piano, your hand has to supply the bounce when it hits the bottom of the keydrop. For fast repeats, the bounce is a fast up and down snap of a loose wrist with the forearm moving very little, just as the basketball bounces off the floor and the hand. Practice this snap when practicing CC,CC.

A second trick for increasing speed is to play the double octaves in one down motion of the forearm. The basketball analogy works for this concept also because the fastest dribble occurs when you simply press down on the basketball: the same physical principles apply to the piano and the ball.

Then advance to 3 repeats, then to quads, then a series of quads, playing each quad with one down motion of the hand. Apply all the methods discussed above for acquiring technique. Where power is required, use the power thumb position [(31) Thumb, Most Versatile Finger, Power Thumb].

In order to play many octaves in succession, push down on the piano continuously as you play and let the bounce of the hand bring it back, as in the basketball example. Once you learn to provide the bounce, you can push down on the piano but the hand will not go down.

The down pressure is needed because so many keys need to be depressed, and the faster the play, the greater the down force that is required.

At first, speed is acquired using the smallest keydrop possible, but once the skill is acquired, the amplitude of the hand motion can be increased. One way to increase the amplitude is to increase the bounce back from the keydrop.

After the repeated octaves is satisfactory, advance to moving octaves. Again, start first with only 2 octaves: CC,DD. Only when this is satisfactory, move on to three, CC,DD,EE, etc. Then CC,EE, and CC,FF, etc., gradually increasing the distance of the jumps [Jumps, PP, FF].

The key to the success of this method lies in finding ways to accelerate the double octaves such as CC,CC; black keys may be easier – the easier, the better. Once these fast doubles are attained, the brain "gets the idea" of what "fast" means, and how to do it. Then the rest of the work becomes easier. Most people will not be able to achieve all this in one or a few sittings, but will need to make use of post practice improvement [Post Practice Improvement, Sleep, Fast/Slow Muscles]. Too many repetitions in one sitting can become counter-productive, resulting in loss of musicality and bad habits. After about 10 minutes, the conditioning for post practice improvements becomes less effective, so that hours of repetitions will mostly be wasted or worse. Remember to practice slow, fully relaxed, a few times after every fast workout. Practice at P; resist the temptation to play louder, as that will only slow down the movements. This point is certainly counter-intuitive.

Small hands: For most pianists, the black keys may be easier because they stick out of the keyboard so that the chances of inadvertently hitting neighboring keys are lower. Unfortunately, those with small hands may not see much difference between black and white keys because the shortest distance between black octave keys is larger than the shortest distance between white octave keys by 1.3 cm, although the octave distance between the centers of all keys is the same. Therefore, try both black and white keys to see which is easier for you. For those with larger hands, the black octaves are significantly easier, and should be used.

There are two sets of muscles for spreading the fingers: one set to spread the palm only, and another to spread the fingers. Everybody naturally uses both sets, but those who are not aware that there are two sets of muscles tend to use mostly the finger spreading muscles, which is the wrong thing to do. This locks the fingers into position, making it difficult to move them and produces stress. Use mostly the palm spreading muscles in order to free the fingers to move. Most people with small hands keep the hands stretched all the time during the octaves. Pianists with small hands must do two things: (1) palm stretching exercises and (2) learn "rapid relaxation" [Relaxation]. Palm stretching may not seem to accomplish much short term, but over a lifetime, it can make all the difference, especially as the ability to stretch decreases with age. Stretching [(46) Stretching and Other Exercises] must be done regularly all your life, and is most effective when started at a young age, when everything is still flexible. Rapid relaxation is an important skill to develop whether the hands are small or big, because rapid relaxation is not a natural body process and must be cultivated. Always practice octaves by quickly relaxing after each octave is played. Do not contract the hands, just release the spreading tension. These extra steps may seem to slow down the repetitions but, once they become a habit, the extra relaxation will allow faster play and will free enough energy to keep playing fast octaves indefinitely.

Those with big hands, especially fat fingers, have trouble playing between the black keys. They may need extra curl in order to avoid hitting the fallboard. One solution is to play the white keys in front of the black keys by using extra curl. Another is to twist the hand by pronating or supinating so that the fingers are inserted between black keys sideways because fingers are thinner than they are wide.