Locked Pinkie!

[kateb]

I have an adult student who cannot play a harmonic interval larger than a fifth because her pinkie locks, (as in "don't lock your knees when stretching") cramping up her entire hand. This is a problem in both the right and left hand.

It seems as though her pinkies are especially weak, because when I ask her to play with them curved, they twitch.

Any advice? For now I have her playing patterns that include melodic 6ths to try to strengthen the fingers. She can do this with curved pinkies.

Thanks in advance!

[kateb]

Oh my. Doesn't anyone have any advice for this?? My poor student! (I am the author of the original post on this thread.)

As it now stands, I'm having my student do exercises in "A Dozen A Day" in hopes that she simply needs to strengthen her fifth finger muscles.

Have any of you had this problem before?

[Nana_Ama]

well my pinkies do that too... so now I am practicing Hannon... I don't know if that helps.  I've onlty been playing for two years so =/

[jbmajor]

It may be just because her fingers aren't used to that type of movement, ie the muscles which trigger that movement are atrophied.  This could be similar to why some people "knuckle" the keyboards(Billy Joel even did that at one point, but he was a boxer at the time).

The key is to get those fingers used to moving in new ways, and get those muscles responding.  Have her try to exercise her pinkies, as well as every other finger.  Maybe try running the fingers/hands under warm water before playing would help also, as it loosens up the joints, making the digits more responsive.

[CC]

I haven't had experience with people who had that kind of difficulties, but here are some things that you might try.

(1) Don't teach curled fingers.  Let her do whatever is comfortable, even perfectly flat. Especially in the beginning, curling causes stress.  There is even some controversey as to whether curling isn't detrimental -- there is a thing called "curl paralysis". Curl will be needed later on, but not specifically on the pinkie, so there is even less need for curl on the pinkie.  The importance of curl is mostly a myth with no support, although you definitely need it for advanced players, but that's a completely different topic.
(2) The first thing to teach is relaxation.  In order to teach relaxation, you must have repetitive motion that normally creates stress, and to practice only HS, and changing hands every 5-10 seconds so that there is no time for stress to develop.  One way to teach relaxation is to do the "quad exercise" repeat an interval 4 times.  Suggested RH quads: 15,25,35,45. So you play 15,15,15,15;25,25,25,25; etc. with 1 on C and 5 on G. As you increase speed of repetition, stress will develop, so that you can teach relaxation -- feeling of all stress draining from hands, fingers, arms. As soon as RH tires even just a little (5-10 secs), switch to LH, repeat.
(3) many problems with pinkie originate on the other side of the hand -- the thumb.  Therefore be sure to practice 15 a lot.  Often, when you press thumb down, pinkie goes down better; those who have weak pinkies try to lighten the thumb and lean on pinkie and the pinkie freezes up. In fact, is the thumb also weak?
(4) after interval play, break up the interval, so now you practice first 1,5,1,5,1,5,1,5,  then 2,5,2,5,2,5,2,5, etc., then reverse: 5,1,5,1,5,1,5,1, like tremolos.  One of the two will be weaker.  Work on the weaker until they are similar. the 1,5 should be as fast as possible, then pause, then another 1,5. See "parallel sets", section III.7.b in link below.
(5) now repeat (2)-(4) with 1 on C, 2 on E and 5 on A. o widen reach. First slowly, and spread reach only on keydrop but then immediately relax whole hand on upstroke.  In other words, learn to relax BETWEEN each stroke.
(6) do not overdo this.  Start slowly and advance in speed only when hand is willing to do so.  Do only a few the first day (just teach the general idea), then increase.  If sore the next day, you have over-done it.  There should be no visible improvement during practice, but visible improvement the next day.
(7) choose the "changing hands" interval so that the rested hand does not get cold and sluggish; this is just as important and not getting the working hand tired.
( after this, read the section on "stretching and other exercises", section III.7.g in link below.

[rhapsody in orange]

Hmm. How about Czerny's Practical Finger Exercise? Op. 802. I used to use that and it helped in finger agility as well. And how about keeping a conscious effort on the pinkie such that it doesn't tense up? I personally had no experience of a locked pinkie but I used to have a tense arm/wrist until my teacher told me to just practise a particular section of the piece very slowly, doing it the proper way and noticing how it should feel like. Do it a few more times till you get used to the feeling and it should improve naturally. That works for me =)

[ChristmasCarol]

I absolutely would go to a chiropractor for this one.  Just my opinion. I have benefited tremendously from body work - rolfing, massage, lomi lomi, chiropractic.   Something like this muscle cramp may originate in the wrist or in some other kind of function of the body that is out of balance. 

[rlefebvr]

I used to have a pinky that would just hang there. Not sure if that is the same type of problem, but I got it to be stronger by playing five notes one finger and one hand at a time very very slowly.

Play one note down and make sure all the fingers including the pinky stays on the note. Play next note very slowly and make sure all the other fingers stay on the note and so on and so on.
One of the hardest exercises I have ever done.Make sure the student only does it for a couple of minutes a day and slowly strength and position will come.

Don't expect the fingers to quickly be perfect.  You should see some result within two weeks and maybe six months down the line the student won't even have to think about it.