I am planning to take the RCM Grade 10 exam in another year and am currently working on getting all technical requirements up to speed. Everything seems more or less on track with the exception of octave scales. The syllabus requirement is 2 octaves at a minimum speed of 16th notes at 80 bpm. Currently my speed in only half of that.

My teacher has instructed me to treat the wrist as a hinge, and keep my wrist fairly loose and free of tension while at the same time maintaining enough tension in the finger tips to be accurate and clean in the notes I strike. I am having a huge problem balancing these two. I either keep my whole hand too loose which results in inaccurate notes and overall sloppiness, or my whole hand is too tense in which case I tire very quickly and get a sore wrist.

Can anyone recommend any exercises or provide any tips to help me get my speed up and stay accurate at the same time?

Octave playing DOES take quite a bit of practising! Initially, it doesn't come quickly; so don't expect it just to fall under your hands!

My teacher (many, many years ago) had me practise them by playing one octave pair and moving immediately to the next note of the scale, but without sounding the note: so your fingers (1 and 5or 4) land on the next octave silently. Then you play THAT octave and move silently to the next note in the octave scale. Loosens up the wrist: which is SO important.

Also, after nailing down the bouncy octaves of the last movement of Brahms's BFlat Major PC I've come to the conclusion that the CLOSER you fingers stay to the keyboard, the faster (and easier and more legato) the octaves.

Just a personal observation. I stand to be corrected by the cogniscenti who inhabit these hallowed halls.

JG

Kendall Taylor has a couple exercises for octaves in his book but I can't recall them right now, and I'm at work and don't have access to the book. I will try to remember to look it up this evening and post it for you.

I believe one of them involves starting with playing sixths rather than octaves -- just to master the wrist movement without all the strain of an octave hand extension.

I did my RCM 10 15 years ago and thankfully octaves were not required at that time, but I'm working on my teacher's ARCT right now, and will have to tackle those octave scales at some point, so I will be interested in your progress and hearing what helps and what doesn't.

I completed my RCM 10 three years and had to suffer through the octave scales. They're brutal. The best advice I can give is to make sure you are completely relaxed. Avoid wrist tension and make sure your wrists do not lock up while you're playing.

Have you tried practising in groups? For example, playing two octaves up to speed, resting, then trying three octaves up to speed, resting, and then trying four octaves up to speed... and so on. Try playing the octaves in various rhythmic patterns too - with the metronome of course - such as a dotted-eighth sixteenth pattern.

It also helps to practise just thumbs of the octave in each hand. Likewise, it also helps to practise just the fifth finger in each hand.

Pick a metronome tempo that you can handle - even if it's very slow - and increase the tempo by one increment every day.

Good luck!

Exactly!

I have the same problem, and I'm never sure what fingers to use when I want it to be as legato as possible, too.

For octave passages with black keys, I often use the 4th finger on the black key, and 5th on white keys.

But, for octave passages over mostly the white keys, I'm not sure what fingering to use. My teacher mentioned 1-5, 1-4, then 1-3 for example, but my fingers are short, so this is very difficult.

Do most people just use 1-5 for octave passages over mostly white keys?

No matter what I do, my hands and wrists get tired, so I know I need to relax, but I think I'm using the wrong fingering, too.

Thanks for any advice, and I hope I'm not derailing the thread too much!
Kathy

Thank you for all the suggestions. The loose wrist is certainly key as I do tend to tense. Practicing 6ths first does seem to help as it allows you to get the feel of the loose wrist without straining the hand. Glad I've given myself lots of time to deal with this as there is obviously no quick fix!

By the way, about the wrist - it's a good deal more complicated than a simple hinge, it's more like a set of multiple hinges. Google it for pictures of the structure. For me, it helps to see the underlying anatomy, which helps me get an idea of how flexible it really is. Simply having the image of the structure in my mind helps to loosen it up.

Don't only focus on the wrist for tension. For years I focussed on reducing rigidity in my hands and fingers, and just now am realizing that a lot of this in fact is a cascade effect from further up in the arm.

First, your arms must be loose enough to move from side to side without much effort. My suggestion is to, as smoothly and easily as possible, and without playing the notes or moving your wrists, just make your hands glide up and down the keyboard by moving your arms and torso (if necessary).

Another place that causes me problems are the muscles that hold the elbow at 90 degrees - I guess these would be the biceps and the muscles on the top of your forearm. These should also not be rigid.