Online piano lesson : how to play and practice octaves : technique for pianist

Here is another online piano lesson on how to play the octaves ; learn new techniques and tips for playing piano better. I now come to Octave Technique for which every sort of studies have been and continue to be written. Now the real octave wrist, combining great strength with high nervous tension and suppleness, is a gift of nature, like the capacity for playing staccato bowing on the violin.

Play octaves :  online piano lesson : tips and techniques for pianists

But those who do not possess the power can develop it to a limited extent. There are several methods of playing octaves, one being with a loose wrist and the 5th finger slightly stiffened. This is a good way for octaves in a slow tempo, but when speed is required it can only be secured by nervous contraction of the arm, the wrist being kept stiff meanwhile. To accomplish this needs much muscular strength, as the advantage of the loose wrist has to be discarded, and whenever the rapidity of the tempo increases, the stiffening of the wrist must increase also.As far as the practice of octaves go, I do not think merely playing them in scales is efficacious, and, as I have already said, there
are so many studies devised on this most difficult branch of piano technique that it is best to work with them.

Learn to play piano octaves : online lesson for pianists

Those of Kullak are, I find, especially excellent. It is very unwise ever to work at octave playing for more than ten minutes at a time, as it is so fatiguing and may injure the arm if overdone. But there are ways of helping oneself to relieve exhaustion during long sequences of octaves. Some of these devices are useful for all, though generally each player finds out means for himself according to the structure of his own particular muscles.