Jumping octaves on the treble side---How to do it?

[Happy girl]

Does anyone have practical hints on how to approach jumping octaves accurately on the treble side?

I have gone back to the Palmer Hughes books; they love jumping around the octaves, giving very little time to relocate & no instruction how to do it.

I found these exercises for the accordion, but nothing about giving hints on how to jump effectively. Technical Exercises for Piano Accordion - Lesson 6 - Octaves - Bing video Should these be mastered first before attempting jumps?

The link below is geared for the pianist, would these hints & tips be useful for the accordionist or just serve to confuse an already confused mind?

top-tips-for-practising-octaves.pdf (wordpress.com)
for the accordion. But nothing giving hints on how to jump effectively.

 

[debra]

There is only one approach to study and master large jumps: practice, practice, practice.
But there are some other hints: 1) make sure your accordion is strapped on securely and fairly tight (not wobbly), so that the keyboard is always in the exact same position, which should be near vertical (sufficiently vertical that you cannot see the keyboard), and 2) always play the same accordion, so your "muscle memory" can learn where each key is. You should be able to just strap on your accordion, get set to start playing and then just take any random note in your head (or on paper) and play it without looking or feeling where it is. When you can hit every note you want without looking or feeling you can also make large jumps without looking or feeling. When you have trouble with this, go back to the start of my mail which says: practice, practice, practice.

 

[Chrisrayner]

These problems are less tricky for those of us playing CBAs.

 

[oldbayan]

These problems are less tricky for those of us playing CBAs.

Yes. More notes in smaller spaces!

 

[jozz]

what comes to mind is:

• having your little finger present at or near the target location
• using the black keys as landmarks
• determining first if the passage can be accommodated by better fingering
• determining if the passage can be stretched instead of 'jumped'

 

[Glenn]

I think Paul has it spot on....
Playing the same accordion, as Paul says, is for me the most serious issue. Many of us have a number of accordions and even though I’ve been playing for more than a decade I still find it useful to have a few moments to calibrate myself.

 

[Zevy]

There is only one approach to study and master large jumps: practice, practice, practice.
But there are some other hints: 1) make sure your accordion is strapped on securely and fairly tight (not wobbly), so that the keyboard is always in the exact same position, which should be near vertical (sufficiently vertical that you cannot see the keyboard), and 2) always play the same accordion, so your "muscle memory" can learn where each key is. You should be able to just strap on your accordion, get set to start playing and then just take any random note in your head (or on paper) and play it without looking or feeling where it is. When you can hit every note you want without looking or feeling you can also make large jumps without looking or feeling. When you have trouble with this, go back to the start of my mail which says: practice, practice, practice.

As Paul said, "Practice, Practice, Practice." One exercise that comes to mind is #56 in Charles Nunzio's "Hanon for the accordion". It is not easy. I'm starting to work on it myself.

 

[debra]

These problems are less tricky for those of us playing CBAs.

Very true. We play 2 octave jumps, and a one octave "jump" is not really a jump as it's just 4 buttons away...
But I have the piano since I was 7 and PA since 11 and the biggest problem besides just a lot of practice was always switching between the instruments. Piano keys are *a lot* wider than accordion keys. (and the keyboard is horizontal versus vertical).

 

[Ventura]

a different idea might be to learn a few songs and mimic the
accompaniment of the Guitarist where octave jumps are a big
part of the song

(Daisy jane comes to mind)

i had to commit those jumps to memory to accompany a Vocalist
and i still play that song with a nice Guitar sound through MIDI to this day

or learn the intro to Roundabout just for fun (and the octave harmonic)

 

[JeffJetton]

Yeah, or the full-on "Hail Mary" jumps, like on "Glow Worm" in book 5, you just got to practice. (Although I'll admit to the occassional quick glance at the keyboard.)

But as jazz points out, there are some cases where you can "cheat" a bit through creative fingerings. For example, if you play the beginning of book 2's "The Echo Waltz" with 5-3-1-5 instead of 5-3-1-2, that lets you find your way to the lower octave without having to make a blind leap.