i'm wondering if the jazz pianist who are great at playing fast lines with right handed octaves (like tatum, peterson, hiromi, etc), do they us 1 and 4 fingering on the black keys and 1 and 5 fingering on the white keys like classical pianists do? hanon shows the fingerings this way. or do they use mostly 1 and 5 universally for both black and white. it seems using 1 and 4 on black key octaves requires less hand motion and is easier to locate without looking at the keys. the advantage  to doing it all with 1 and 5 is that there is no changing and it's easier to insert a harmonic note or two inside the octaves (not sure). i also think a loose wrist is essential to avoid injury and for speed, yes?
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well, tatum and peterson are dead.  maybe you could shoot hiromi an email

for what it's worth, i'm a 4 on the black keys guy most of the time
like monk i use my elbows and da feet.
using the 4 on the black notes works great for me, especially if i want to play the runs even and/or legato style.  there's just no elegant way to get that little finger up on the black note, and no need- the fourth finger is pretty much waiting there to play it.

ok, i didn't answer your question, just explained my preference.  in answer to your question, i don't know about the pianists you mentioned, but i saw michele camilo use the 4th on black notes  during some fast right hand octave work in a video i watched a while back.
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what's hiromi using for the very fast octaves, 1-4 or 1-5 on black keys?

starting at 4:25 time (in g- blues territory):


at 1:30 (d minor blues territory, not many black keys):
watched the first hiromi video, surprised that her technique is kind of weird.  i didn't find the fast octaves you were talking about, but i did see her use her fourth finger on the black notes for some of the octave stuff she was doing.



michel camilo solo piano, check out @ 5min where he begins ramping up for some ridiculous octave stuff.  when it's slow enough to see in the beginning, he's definitely using his fourth finger on the black notes.
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here's a slow motion (few seconds of normal speed first) of the great vladmir horowitz playing octaves.  you can see the fourth finger hitting the black notes on many of the hits.  he seems to use his fifth on some of the black notes though, just moving his hands at super sonic speed to grab the notes.  no sound in this one but it shouldn't matter.
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no video either :)
lol really fasy!!!
fast
ha, sorry guys:



at first you think the thing is sped up because it's silent, but then you look at his body and obviously it's in real time, but his fingers look like an old silent movie.  then they slow it down and it looks like one of those national geographic slow-mo shots of a hummingbird or something.
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i've been watching even more videos of fast octaves and have come to the conclusion that if you are playing at a loud level, really hitting the keys, most of the guys out there are doing thumb and fifth finger. no matter how fast they are going, it's all about loose wrist and fast forearm motion. the fingers don't even move.  this is evident in michel camilo's playing when he's ripping on a latin jazz solo and does one of those 32 note octave runs in one or both hands.

now, the players who are doing something more melodic where they want connected notes, like when you're playing a scale, i notice that they are almost always using 4 on black notes and 5 on white notes.  

in summary, i think changing out 4/5 in the right hand when doing octave lines is imperative if you want to phrase something that should sound connected, but if it's not realistic or necessary to have that sound, then using the 5th on every note doesn't appear to be an issue.
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