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Does anybody have any suggestions for improving accuracy in leaps? More specifically, leaps of greater than an octave for one hand, or both simultaneously. Somehow I feel like there should be a way to be able to do it flawlessly, but in my case, I feel like I have to rely on blind luck to hit the notes.

Is it the speed that you're having trouble with, or are you having trouble just feeling your way around without looking at your hands?

Speed... if it was slow, I wouldn't exactly consider them leaps...

Have your finger on the key before taking the note. Also, try practicing the jumps with closed eyes.

Watch a blind pianist like Marcus Roberts play. Playing a leap blind is like changing fingers on a held note, to some extent. In the left hand going higher, you play the lower note, and leave your thumb on the octave above, then switch to another finger on the octave and play the interval above that. If it's more than 2 octaves, it's difficult! (With the right hand, or going lower, make the appropriate finger substitutions.)

You should also use the spacing of the black keys as signposts. You can pick out Bs, Cs, Es, and Fs from there relationship to the black keys pretty easily.

On piano there is this theorem:

The shortest path between two distant keys is a 'curve'.

In learning a Scriabine Etude with large skips I had to play the first chord then quickly move and shape my hand over the next one BUT NOT PLAY--just prepare. Then to skip back down I had to reverse the procedure. After this kind of practice it started taking shape and then became the flowing continuity that was the desired effect. You might try that. Of course, before I forget, after the first step, the next step is to actually play everything!

Practice the Mephisto Waltz!!!!!

"My schedule is terrific. Right now I battle the Mephisto Waltz daily... From now on, I will see nobody at all, go nowhere, and have nobody here. Charming, eh? If I could play beautifully after this fuss, perhaps it might be worth it?" -- William Kapell

Would it be worth it? I don't know... :rolleyes:

Well I don't know how hard that piece is, but the piece I'm working on is the Liszt Sonata so... I don't know. You be the judge.

For that performance, it was worth it (especially since he, not we, did the suffering).

If you're talking about large broken chords or arpeggios with large leaps, my teacher has said that the goal should be to play it in as straight a line as possible and as legato as possible.

Other than that, what helps me is playing it "blind" -- i.e. without looking at the keys. Of course you'll mess it up royally at first, but after awhile your accuracy should improve. I do this even on pieces without octave-plus leaps because it helps me get my fingers to "learn" where they're supposed to go...

The Marcus Roberts octave trick is a cool idea; but can you really do it at speed? I'll have to look for some videos of his playing.

La Campanella is good practice for leaps...its better if you practice a technical difficulty by learning a piece or a portion of a piece that contains that difficulty.

two techniques that help:

1) Play slow, move fast. That is, during slow practice, move from the pre-leap note to the post-leap note instantaneously, think of it as no travel time,you're just there, boom.

2)Shadow the octave. If you're talking about leaping to a single note with the fifth finger (like the famous Scarlatti sonata with the cross overs) aim for (and look at) the note one octave closer with the thumb, but play the real note with the fifth finger.

yeah I'm doing La Campanella right now to work on leaps - seems to be working great, but then again most of the leaps in that piece are to the exact same D#!