The Octave Practice Technique

The octave practice technique was something I learned from my college piano teacher, Rebecca Mattek. I had worked and worked on hitting this one chord all week, and I just couldn’t get it. She had me do this practice technique and I was able to hit the chord immediately.

This was the first practice technique I ever learned that truly felt like magic. After that, I started to see the magic in all the different practice techniques.

When Do I Use the Octave Practice Technique?

The Octave Practice Technique is supposed to be used when you always miss that one chord. Usually it’s a jump, but sometimes not.

Sorry, winds/strings/percussion, this practice technique is for piano, only.

The Process

Step 1: Play the chord, as written, both hands. You may have to start with the bottom note and add one note at a time until you get to the top note.

Step 2: Play the chord an octave up. If you had one incorrect note, make sure you fix it, then play the entire chord again, correctly.

Step 3: Continue to do Step 2, going up an octave each time, until you run out of room.

Step 4: Do the same process as in steps 2&3 except going down an octave each time until you run out of space.

Step 5: Same process as 2&3, going up from the bottom octave, but stop when you reach the point where the music is written.

Step 6: Back up to the beginning of the phrase and try playing it. If it didn’t work, try twinkling.

Why Does This Work?

Simple answer: repetition.

You just played the same chord in every octave on the keyboard. Twice. How many times did you repeat it?

You also just jumped to that chord in every octave on the keyboard. Twice. You practiced jumping to the chord as many times as you practiced playing it.

Conclusion

This practice technique works like magic. I use it a lot, and I hope you will, too.