[MusicTlk] Question for blind pianists

[Donald Winiecki]

For what it's worth, research by David Sudnow (a sociologist and jazz
pianist) found that it's not (or not in the first place) the brain, but the
body that learns these things.

Pay attention to where your hands are in relation to your body when you're
starting and ending the leap across those octaves. You'll find that not
only are you able to 'feel' the big movement from launching to landing
place, but your hand will actually start to change position as you jump
from one set of keys, so that the fingers are spread and positioned to land
just where you want them to land, at the time when they are supposed to
land, and to bounce off those keys to the next landing place, and the next
one, etc.

In all this, you're training your body, more than you're (intentionally)
training your mind.

Once your body is familiar with the territory and how to change from
launching to landing spot on the keyboard, it will be like walking down the
stairs where your legs and feet 'know' how to position themselves to
prepare for touching the next stair, prepare for accommodating your weight
in the transition, and more.

Hope this helps,

_don



On Thu, Feb 14, 2019 at 1:19 PM Mike Jolls via MusicTlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Linda Mentink (and others), here’s a piano question.
>
> I’m working on some Scott Joplin – The Entertainer in particular.  Of
> course this piece is using Stride Bass where the left hand has to jump
> around a lot.  There are, at certain parts of the music, jumps for the left
> hand that are two octaves.  One jump in particular is from Bb right below
> middle C to a D natural two octaves below middle C … quite a big jump.  I’m
> trying to learn how to do this jump by feel, in other words not look at my
> hands.  Invariably I miss the jump.  This is very frustrating.
>
> I’m hoping someone can give me some tips.
>
> Let me just say before I go on that I already know, from other pieces I’ve
> played, that playing by feel is entirely possible.  Thank goodness I
> already know that.  Where the jump isn’t too far, I can usually do that by
> feel.
>
> My question, however, is about making BIG jumps.  Do blind pianists
> eventually (after hours and hours and thousands of attempts when doing
> these large jumps) eventually get to the point where their brain just knows
> how far to go?  They know what they have to do and they have just learned
> (or rather their brain has learned), through repetition, how to do it.  Or
> maybe they take time in their daily practice routine and do an exercise
> where they practice making jumps so that they give their brain practice in
> doing this.  That way, when it comes to playing a piece of actual music,
> they already know how to do this.  This is all an assumption on my part,
> and I’m asking the question to confirm it.  In some parts of the music I’m
> playing where an octave jump is in order, I can usually do that.  My hands
> are large enough that I can feel the octave jump.  But with these big
> jumps, I’m trying to read the music and not look at my hands (ultimately I
> will memorize the music).  My problem is that as soon as my hand leaves the
> keyboard and I try to make the big jump, I lose context as to where I am
> and I am uncertain as to whether I can accurately hit what I need to hit.
> Sometimes I hit it, sometimes not.
>
> Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
> Windows 10
>
> _______________________________________________
> MusicTlk mailing list
> MusicTlk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/musictlk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> MusicTlk:
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/musictlk_nfbnet.org/dwiniecki%40handid.org
>