Keep pinky from stretching out

[eins]

I don't remember where in my early life this was ingrained, but I can't help stretching out my pinky when my ring finger presses down on a key and particularly, when the ring finger reaches out for a black key (like in a RH G scale).

My teacher said to make an effort and consciously keep all finger cups in contact with the keys, and only push down with the single finger that plays a note. Slowly, very slowly at first. That kind of works with full concentration and it feels awkward to do it so slowly. As soon as I speed it up a little or forget to concentrate on maintaining key contact, there it kicks out again into the distance. Bad pinky! Sit!

Any other tips (short of super glue)?

[Rach3]

Finger independence exercizes could help you. Dohnányi's are the best. Liszt also wrote a set (book I of his technical exercizes), they're quite different from Dohnányi's. The point of them is you spend a few minutes a day doing doing really "tricky" things like hold down  RH123 and alternate 4-5 (actually much harder than that), and thus mentally train yourself to distinguish the fingers, make them 'independent' of each other. I think it's as much in the brain as in the fingers.

-Rach3

[xvimbi]

If your pinky posture is a result of tension across the hand when your ring finger plays, then trying to get rid of that tension will likely cure your "pinky problem", at least to some extent.

However, if that is not the case, I think, one should let the pinky do whatever it wants to do, as long as it does not interfere with the playing. Forcing the pinky into a position unfamiliar to it may cause more problems in the long run than it is good, e.g. when the new posture causes tension across the hand.

If you watch famous pianists, you'll see that their pinkies go all over the place, some stay glued to the keys, some are high in the air. However, we all know that we shouldn't really imitate what other people are doing. We are all different, so we should be doing things that feel natural to us.

Concerning rach3's recommended exercise: if you want to do this, make sure you spend as little time on it as possible (IMHO: zero), because having fingers 1,2,3 depressed while fingers 4 and 5 are trilling is one of the unhealthiest movement patterns any author of technical exercises has to offer. Human fingers cannot truely be independent, so forcing finger 3 into one position (depressed) and expecting finger 4 to do something completely different (moving up and down) is expecting a bit too much of the human playing apparatus.

[TheHammer]

Firstly, listen to what xvimbi says, such exercises may harm you much more than you would expect.

Secondly, don't try to force the pinky down. If it goes up by tension, this up-going is wasted muscle activity, so you want to get rid of it. But if you now force the pinky to stay down, that means you try to fight one muscle with the other (hand anatomy isn't really my strong point, but you get it). The result is even more tension and possibly an injury.
Rather try to make out the command of your brain to your pinky, telling it to move up. This command has to occur somewhere in your brain. If you are aware of it, just try to NOT GIVE the command. Then the pinky will not be able to raise and you will have all finger energy at your disposal. Have a look into Alexander technique or similar approaches, dealing with the mind, rather than with the fingers.
And, as xvimbi mentioned, try to get rid of any posture/hand placement problem you might have, that could cause your pinky to go up.

[whynot]

"Pinky posture," the perfect term!  I agree that the pinky itself isn't a problem, but rather the fact that the hand is tense enough to be throwing that pinky out there-- possibly for balance or relief.  I also agree that if you just try to rein in that finger, it isn't likely to solve any underlying tension, and may cause even more. 

So I was wondering:  when you're playing the G scale you mentioned, how many distinctly different motions do you make?  I mean, do you see your wrist/arm/hand going up and down strongly on every note? making a hard tap on every key as you press it?  Because that's a "fingery" sort of playing where there's excess drive or tension in every note.  A common result of that style is to have flying fingers-- maybe to balance the extra motion.  The opposite and more relaxed approach is to flow through all the fingers in one hand position using only one gesture-- like using a single bowing for multiple notes:  "woosh."  If you think you're doing the "fingery" style, you'll want to see the thread on how to play scales etc as fast as possible while elimination excess motion/tension.  Search Bernhard posts for fast playing or fast scales.  It's a great explanation, you'll see how to use it right away.  Forgive me if I've gone on and on and this isn't a problem for you after all!  So hard to know...

[quantum]

According to what I was taught, stretching out your pinky is actually a good thing!  It enforces a more "open hand" position, and thus resulting in better freedom in finger articulation.  It places the pinky in a position that is ready to play any number of notes that lie in it's range.  From personal experience, I have found that the tension created is actually positive (if done to the correct degree) and frees other muscles from tension.  This method of playing is probably much more in useful "real music" than in excercises. 

Of course this is method of playing, gives a certain sound and is used in certain passages of muisc.  There is also the close to the keys method that results in more liquid tone and faster velocity.


The finger independence exercise of holding down notes while playing others, is usefull for becoming aware of how you can control your fingers, but is rarely encountered in real music.  Don't spend much time on it.  I must also agree with others that this excercise may also lead to harm.