[MusicTlk] Question for blind pianists

[Mike Jolls]

Ella and Karen

Here’s a follow up question.  Ok I get the muscle memory thing.  How do you get the muscle memory?  A lot of repetition, try and fail until you finally get it?  If that’s the answer I can see I have a lot of work ahead of me.  

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 14, 2019, at 2:47 PM, Karen McDonald via MusicTlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Mike, I play a lot of Joplin pieces and some Gershwin pieces as well. I also play William Bolcom's Graceful Ghost Rag. My hands are small so these pieces are often a challenge for me. However, muscle memory works for me every time. I love Joplin and I hope you will find as much pleasure in playing his music as I do.
> 
> Peace
> 
> Karen
>> On Feb 14, 2019 3:19 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.
>> 
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