[Indra777]

Hey guys. So I started to practice Dali from FFIX PC and it's totally slaughtering me. The jumps in the left hand are just brutal. For some reason I just cannot seem to get past them.

Now my first reaction was to look at my left hand so I could see where my hand was supposed to jump to. But then I realized that that is WRONG...I don't want to get used to looking at my hands because then I can't focus on the sheets and I get to reliant on looking.

So does anyone have some advice on how to get past this? Like some exercises or anything? Help would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks a lot to anyone who cares to read.

[Nicol Armarfi]

Typically you wouldn't be reading during a performance anyway, so looking at your hands is not that bad if you have the notes down. When you're learning a piece however, just take the jumps slowly, but go between two notes recursively before moving onto the next jump. This should help you get used to controlling your energy during a jump, so that you don't end up pounding the notes or hitting wrong notes, and also help you learn the distance between the notes.

[Joseph Perkins]

This is what I seem to have the most problems in when I play piano. I should really take the time to work on it.

[The-Real-Link]

Just practice. There's no substitute for good classical study. Many of the classical pieces were written as study pieces for specific skills. So I would suggest learning classical music as well as video game and other contemporary music.

Like Nicol said, just take it slow and practice it over and over, and the jumps will come easier. Watching your hands is not bad, but when you are reading music you should try to minimilize it. I have a bad habit of watching my hands, and it has caused a weak point in my sight reading skills. That is something that I have had to work really hard to overcome.

[Joseph Perkins]

Originally Posted by The-Real-Link

Just practice. There's no substitute for good classical study. Many of the classical pieces were written as study pieces for specific skills. So I would suggest learning classical music as well as video game and other contemporary music.

Like Nicol said, just take it slow and practice it over and over, and the jumps will come easier. Watching your hands is not bad, but when you are reading music you should try to minimilize it. I have a bad habit of watching my hands, and it has caused a weak point in my sight reading skills. That is something that I have had to work really hard to overcome.

are there any classical pieces you would recommend?

[LegendaryCloud89]

Yeah, just simply practice slowly. As Nicol said, in a performance you hardly look at the sheet music anyway. So basically with practicing this a lot, you memorize it. Once it becomes memorized you are free to look at your hands obviously. But for now, a slow tempo is best.

[The-Real-Link]

The classical music depends on your level of playing ability. I would suggest the following:

Intermediate-Late Intermediate: Clementi's Six Sonatina's Op. 36, Some of Medelsohhns' Song Without Words. The Venetian Gondola Song no. 2 in particular.
Early Advanced: The easier of the Mozart or Beethoven Sonatas, as well as some of Chopin's Preludes and Mazurkas, and Bach's Two-Part Inventions.
Advanced: Mozart and Beethoven Sonatas. Chopin Preludes, Waltzes, Etudes, and Nocturnes. Bach's Prelude and Fugues. Some of the harder Schumann pieces. Some of Rachmaninov's easier Preludes. Some of the easier Debussy Pieces. Some of Liszt's easier pieces such as: Nuages Gris, The Consolations, and the Valse Ouiblee.

These are all based on my experience as a pianist. I have played, or considered playing many of these. These are also some of the pieces that are recommended by "The International Piano Guild".

[Nicol Armarfi]

TRL's list is more or less spot on. I'd have to stress however the ragtime style: rags are typified by the use of jumps, so if you look anywhere in that genre of music you should be able to find jumps with which to practise. I'm not huge on rags myself, however, so all I can say is that Joplin wrote great rags, but I'd imagine you already knew that. Just search up Scott Joplin and you should find some great examples .

For right hand jumps, the only things I can think of are exceptionally difficult pieces, such as certain passages of Prokofiev's Toccata in D minor and Liszt's Paganini etude La Campenella, but I'll let you worry about those yourself .

[The-Real-Link]

LOL. I meant to put Scott Joplin's rags on my list. I love rags ^__^
I also thought of La Campanella....but uhhh....I somehow don't think that would be in his skill range.

[Joseph Perkins]

thanks. I'll look some of these up.

Main Page - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library: Free Public Domain Sheet Music

That link is a wiki full of public domain music. They are all in pdf format and can be downloaded depending on the country you live in. Thought I'd share it for those that wanted it.