Hi

I'm about 8 months into my piano tuition (from being a complete novice). I've seen my skills develope fairly well - with the exception of my sight reading. However - we've been working with the Alfreds Adult book 1 and as I approach the last section I find the tunes I'm learning all seem to feature what I term 'a leap of faith'.

By that I mean, there is no way of 'feeling' you way up or down the keys to get to your destination. This usually happens when tunes have '8va' and you have to jump an octave when asked to play a second time - although an increasing number of the tunes still require it during normal playing.

Does anyone have any tips or experience on passing this difficult hurdle? My teacher says it comes with familairity and practice. I don't doubt her - it's just proving emmensely difficult.
There doesn't seem to be a way of gauging the jump without taking a sneak peak down at the keys (and I don't really want to be doing that).

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

It takes ages to really find your way about the keyboard without looking, I could only play looking at my hands for a long time which really impedes you sight reading! I went through a long phase of only being able to play from memory 'cos I was lost if I looked at the music.

Definately gets easier each piece I learn. Your knowledge of the keyboard slowly works out from the middle octaves as the years go by. I don't think anyone is ever totally happy with this, even professional pianists somtimes watch their hands when they're difficult sections.

The main thing is time - someone once told me that it takes an average person 20 years of daily practise to be come a reasonably competent pianist!

The brain will eventually learn to gauge the distances required but it does take time, and yes, even professional pianists need to look down sometimes! With an octave leap it's not so bad if you look as you just jump to the identical looking note higher or lower. Concentrate on the feel of the distance too and try to learn that. Then try with your eyes closed concentrating on the feel of the distance again - don't worry if you hit the note to either side, as you'll still be nearer your target! In time your brain will learn the distance needed. I often practise with my eyes closed at some stage especially when there are large jumps, although admittedly I've been playing for ........well, a long time, anyway!

The easiest answer to this one is that you DO need to look at the keys! There's no shame in doing it and it's not actually a bad thing to do anyway. The trick is to be able to watch the music when you need to, watch the keyboard when you need to, and know at which point you need to switch between the two...... Big leaps do get easier and your teacher is right about that. but until your muscle memory kicks in for certain distances, then look at the keys. A useful trick is to memorise one hand while you watch the other, just for the few bars or even single note that you need to leap for.

As you get better and better and continue progressing, you will find you get to a point where you HAVE to memorise because the music is impoosible to play without looking at the keyboard.

So go with your instincts, use your eyes for everything they are deisgned for, and tell yourself very proudly that you couldn't play bar xxx without looking so you memorised it instead...

Good luck

P.S. Try and look for what I call "anchor notes" in the music when you're making leaps..... is the top note of your previous hand position maybe only one note down from the bottom note in your new position? Look at the distance not just between one note to the next, but one hand position to the next. You might find the leaps aren't as big as they seem. Even an octave leap can often be only maybe one or two notes jump if you look closely (in the right hand e.g.) is finger 5 in your current hand position maybe one note away from finger 1 in the new one? That made sense in my head anyway, not sure I explained it very well

One useful technique when faced with specific problems is to extract the particular difficulty from its musical context and create a specific simple exercise based on it, which you then practise. So, in your case, you could start with simple leaps of say an octave which you can presumably reach, then increase to octave+1, +2, +3... notes.

Then, having done this, the original difficulty in its musical context should not be so hard. However, you are still at an early stage, and your progress seems good, so don't be too worried about this matter.

I would actively encourage students to look at the keyboard when they are practising 'leaps'. Taking it slowly enough that you never make any mistakes, and looking at your hands, practise the leap you need for a particular piece. Making absolutely sure its correct every time, gradually increase the speed until it is faster than you need to go, they slow down again and do it without looking at the keyboard. In time this will help and you will find that you will be able to judge the leaps you come across in music without having to do this laborious practice.

Indeed it does. Eleven years ago, I had been playing the piano for 55 years without having much clue about leaping to the correct bass note without looking. I then retired and started piano lessons again. After about five years of lessons, the left hand started getting to the right place more often than not. I am still improving, though far from 100%. My way of improving is lots of sight reading, of appropriate pieces, never looking at the hands, but always identifying what note is actually played, right or wrong.

Bernard d'Ascoli, who is blind, can go straight to any note on the keyboard using only his kinaesthetic judgment.

Thanks to you all for taking the time to assure me that I can overcome this hurdle - albeit with a large span of time.
Some pretty good suggestions - but I would prefer to become acustomed to the length using the methods supplied by chocolate dog. However, there's no harm looking into the other ways if things get a little frustrating.

Thanks again

More tips here.

Sneak a peek. I do.

Another tip; sit far enough back from the keyboard with your elbows slightly in front of your torso. From this position, you can sneak a peek with a quick eye movement - your head will not have to bob up and down.

Steve

as with most of the early stages of piano, i find it just takes practice. At a beginner level, nobody will really notice if you look down from time to time, and this will probably help you.


steve: its quite fun bobbing your head playing piano...although maybe not like paula radcliffe

Apart from practicing common leaps (3rds then 5ths then octaves) I did a lot for my left-hand leap technique by playing Chopin waltzes . Now, sometimes I 'visualise' my hand being on the right note: resist the temptation to look at where one's hand is before the leap - concentrate on where it will be when it lands the leap - and let one's hand do the rest. The subconscious is capable of quite amazing feats...

Far be it from me to spoil your fun. Bob away.

I was practising a piece where I had to leap nearly 3 octaves up the keyboard really quickly... just ended up doing the movement again and again and again until I could automatically gauge the distance and land at the right place without looking. Took me ages, though!

There's a wonderful ending to the Bb minor Chopin Scherzo - a large leap contrary motion to the two extremes of the piano - you'd have to be the opposite of cross-eyed to do that without having to 'leap in faith'!!

Chameleons have independently controlled eyes; can we learn from them?