Octave Jumping/High Octave Exercises

[Kshel]

Hello all,

I'm happy to say that I've started teaching lessons and it is SO FUN. I love my students, and it is really enjoyable to see the progress they are making.

My question for you all is this: do you have any suggestions for practicing "jumping" octaves? We are doing work on arpeggios, but I am wondering if there is something more, ahem, fun/effective out there to try. All advice appreciated.

Thanks!

[MinuetinG]

Maybe you could just try working with long tones.

For example:
You pick and scale and work on going from the lower octave to the higher octave of each note.

Bb scale -

(low) Bb, (high) Bb, (low) Bb ... (low) C, (high) C, (low) C ... etc.

I guess the focus here would be trying to keep it slurred from the lower octave to the higher octave.

My lesson teacher told me to rock back and forth in order to keep a steady beat. That can be fun, right?

I'm not sure if that's actually helpful, but there ya go!

[Kshel]

That is helpful: thanks! I also figured out she might need a new headjoint in the past couple of weeks. She tried some different cuts and said she had to really work at it to play in the higher register on her current headjoint.

[Zevang]

To keep the sense of intonation it's good to do interval exercises using fourths, fifths and then octaves. Let's say you begin at low G, so the trick is to do a 4th higher and back, a 5th higher and back, then an octave and back to low G, one second to each note and 3 seconds at the low note. Something like this G-C-G_ (breath calmly here) G-D-G_ (Br.) G-G'-G_
Then, you go higher half a tone, G#-C#-G#_ (Br.) G#-D#-G# (Br.) G#-G#'-G# and so on...

The fourths and fifths are a form or preparation so the octaves become easier, and being all perfect intervals, they help to fix the notion of intonation through all the registers.

[Kshel]

That's great advice, Zevang: thank you!

[Bo]

That's great advice, Zevang: thank you!

I agree. Thank you from me too!