Welcome to this lesson on Octaves

Octaves. They make anything sound bigger and flashier. And they’re all over the place in music. Getting solid octaves is a key pillar to your piano technique. The first video’s on the form, and the second video’s on some practice strategies to learn octaves faster.

Octaves Fundamentals

Accelerated Learning Methods for Octaves

Key points from the lesson:

1. The biggest thing to learning octaves is learning to RELAX. This is challenging, but once you got it you got it. So focus on relaxing as much as possible.

2. If you have big hands, use your 4th finger on black keys. Otherwise, just use your 5th finger on everything.

3. To stay relaxed, keep your hand in a closed position, and and only extend it at the last second to hit the octave.

4. The motion should come primarily from the wrist, not the arm. Using a smaller lever will help you play octaves faster.

5. Try some of the accelerated learning techniques to learn octaves faster and more efficiently.

Action Step:

Time to learn rock solid octaves! Sit down at your piano and try these techniques. Remember, octaves can be very straining on your wrists, so be careful and if you EVER feel pain, stop and switch to another exercise. A good strategy is to rotate between Octaves and another exercise (like scales) to give your hands a “break” every once in a while.

Note, that this bonus lesson comes from the Technique Mastery course. To find out more about the course, click here.

Happy Practicing!

-Zach

PS – Please don’t share the links for these bonus lessons. They’re only meant for people who bought the ebook and got the bonus. Thanks!