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Reaching a Tenth

For about six months, I've been doing regular "hand yoga" exercises that I've developed, partly based on Sara Davis Buechner's Tonebase series on the technique work of Alberto Jonas.

Back in May, I was able to reach a tenth with my right hand, but just barely, and I couldn't play the notes at the same time. I had to play a note with the thumb, and then stretch, stretch, stretch so that my pinky could just catch the corner of the note a tenth up.

Last night I played the two notes at the same time with either hand! I tried to do it again on this video and couldn't. But you can see that the reach has become doable if I play one note and then the other.

Will I ever be able to play stride piano, which uses lots of tenths in the left hand? Probably not. But I can keep trying. The best part of these exercises, I think, is that my octaves are much more solid than they've ever been!

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