Finger strength...

[DJC13]

What can I do to strengthen my fingers without hurting myself?  For the last week, I have been pressing the keys with a great deal of force while practicing scales and arpeggios and it feels as if my left wrist wants to cramp up on me!  And after about 45 minutes of practice, my fingers start aching!  Obviously I am not going to be practicing like this anymore.  I have only been playing the piano for about 5 months. I would really appreciate it if you guys could give me some finger strengthening techniques that won't hurt me in the long run.  The last thing I want is tendonitis.

Thanks

[bernhard]

There is no need to strengthen your fingers. Nor will it do much good. Learn to use the big muscles (shoulder, upper arm), rather than the fingers.

Piano playing (and most things actually) is not about strength, or flexibillity. It is about co-ordination and economy of movement.

Read Sandor's book (On playing the piano) to get informed, and then search for someone who can guide you, since these things cannot be properly learned by oneself.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[robert_henry]

Well said, Bernhard.

I like to think that it is really our weight that activates the keys, and that our muscles simply AIM this weight.  Finger flexibility should be our goal, not strength.  

The action of a piano is much heavier than it was three hundred years ago, and our halls are bigger, so that is why there has been a gradual acknowledgement of the importance of weight, especially since 1900 or so.  Hence, composers/pianists of yesterday could get away with simply using their fingers to play.  (The ideas in this paragraph are out of order, but I'm too tired to to revise it.  You get the point.)

Robert Henry

[bernhard]

I like to think that it is really our weight that activates the keys, and that our muscles simply AIM this weight.  Finger flexibility should be our goal, not strength.  

Robert Henry is right. Over several threads in this forum he has given consistently excellent advice on this subject. I suggest you click on his name, and read through his posts (it will be faster than trying to look for it in all threads).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[DJC13]

Well said, Bernhard.

I like to think that it is really our weight that activates the keys, and that our muscles simply AIM this weight.  Finger flexibility should be our goal, not strength.  

The action of a piano is much heavier than it was three hundred years ago, and our halls are bigger, so that is why there has been a gradual acknowledgement of the importance of weight, especially since 1900 or so.  Hence, composers/pianists of yesterday could get away with simply using their fingers to play.  (The ideas in this paragraph are out of order, but I'm too tired to to revise it.  You get the point.)

Robert Henry

Thanks for the response!
How should my posture be when playing?I read in one of your other posts that you should have loose shoulders and loose wrists.   Again, thanks for the help!

[bitus]

Very good point, Bernhard and R_H
There are two mistakes that i find in your description, DJC13: relaxation and slow practice. I am assuming you are trying to play loud and fast
If you practice slow, you have time to think about every detail of your position.
The back should be straight, but not exagerate - relaxed. Shoulders should be low, and the fingers should be at the lowest point of the line: showlders - elbow - wrist. The energy should flow naturaly. Also, the feet should be pivoting points to the body. You don't want to waste any energy, but to direct it to the fingers.
Correct me if i'm wrong,
The Bitus

[Greg_Fodrea]

Just adding my voice to the excellent advice already given here...

You may want to study Russian Technique for tips on posture, relaxation, and - most importantly - playing with weight, not strength.  Robert Henry's right: it's agility and flexibility we should be shooting for.

I use Hanon with my students for development of the fingers, but always with an emphasis on relaxed playing style.

[bernhard]

Just adding my voice to the excellent advice already given here...

You may want to study Russian Technique for tips on posture, relaxation, and - most importantly - playing with weight, not strength.

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=perf;action=display;num=1070796095

The Irish School (John Field invented the "Russian School")

The Venezuelan School   (Tereza Carreño claimed that Breitkopf wrote his influential book on weight playing after seeing her play and examining it closely. Tereza was most taught by her father - a Venezuelan)

The English School (Tobias Matthay revolutionised piano playing and pedagogy with his ideas on effortless playing).

The Tasmanian School (F. Matthias Alexander, although not a pianist, has had more influence on postural alignment as applied to musicians in general thatn anyone else).

Just a few out of the top of my head. I am just fed up with Soviet appropriation and propaganda.

And that goes for Americans too. Yes, the Right brothers, never invented the airplane. Alberto Santos Dumont (a Brazilian) did. Ask any French.

[xenon]

Finger strength is important too.  I've just came back from a masterclass with Jamie Parker, and I was playing Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso.  The last part is a thunderous passage of octaves, and I was playing on a Kawai (blasted pianos...).  Well, I was trying to make a huge sound in that part of the piece.  The strength wasn't bad, but it wasn't exceptional.  I was using my whole body to try to put energy into my playing.  Then, Jamie Parker stepped in.  He played that passage like a monster!  His hands moved so fast in rapid succession that his hards were like a sewing machine.  And he was playing so hard that the whole piano was shaking!

Sure, you need the arm strength, but if you don't have the finger strength, then you can actually break your fingers trying to play like Jamie Parker.  I took a look at his hands, and his fingers looked like they could bend steel...

[bernhard]

Sure, you need the arm strength, but if you don't have the finger strength, then you can actually break your fingers trying to play like Jamie Parker.  I took a look at his hands, and his fingers looked like they could bend steel...

I disagree.

Consider two different kinds of finger strength:

1.      Get one of these big water bottles (20 l) they have in offices for people to drink. Can you lift it by grabbing the top with the tips of your fingers? To do that you must have strength in the forearm muscles (not fingers) that curl the fingers. You must also be able to keep your first joint (nail joint) curled, since if it opens the bottle will fall. This kind of strength is completely useless for piano playing, since I cannot think of any movement that uses it (except perhaps for moving the piano!)

2.      Have you ever seen martial arts masters break wooden boards with their fingers? You may think that this requires enourmous finger strength. Some people actually try to develop this kind of finger strength by throwing their hands into buckets of gravel and developing huge calouses. They usually break their hands, and invariably end up with arthritis in later life. However I have met several martial artists who had no apparent superhuman strength, and their hands were baby hands, and yet they could go through a coke can with their fingers. They explained it to me. It was not about strength, it was about alignment. The power came from the hip (legs firmly planted) and was transmitted to the finger. As long as all joints were properly aligned there would be no damage to the finger (or anywhere else). But even the tiniest miscalculation could result in a broken finger/hand/arm. Now, this kind of alignment is very appropriate for powerful piano playing, and tehrefore you do not work/train towards finger strength, but towards joint alignment. Try this for a start: Do pressups on your fingertips. But not on the floor. Do it standing up against a wall. Place your fingertips on the wall and slant your body a little (by getting your feet away from the wall). Your aim is not to develop arm strength (that’s why you are not doing it on the floor), but to investigate joint alignment. The most important direction is to not let your nail joint bend. Keep it aligned. And bear in mind that writing about this stuff is often misleading and can lead to the wrong practice. So find someone who knows about this stuff and ask him/her to demonstrate/guide you.

3.      Do not listen to much to people’s explanations. Watch carefully what they do instead. A pianist may be convinced that he achieves his effects by finger strength, but close observation of what s/he actually does is a much safer bet. My favourite story is about Liszt teaching students to play octaves with a rigid wrist, and yet he would shake them out of his sleeve so to speak.

By the way, how did Jamie Park sound?

[bitus]

Bernhard, that was really interesting reply, and I must say i'm fascinated by the way martial artists (and in general asian thinkers) look at things. Myself, I realised piano playing is not about the physic as much as it is about the mind. If you take time to analyze your playing, it can improve substantialy after close observation. The same with practice... if you try to understand the piece you're practicing on, in your mind, then playing should me much easier.
The Bitus.

[danny elfboy]

Bernhard, that was really interesting reply, and I must say i'm fascinated by the way martial artists (and in general asian thinkers) look at things. Myself, I realised piano playing is not about the physic as much as it is about the mind. If you take time to analyze your playing, it can improve substantialy after close observation. The same with practice... if you try to understand the piece you're practicing on, in your mind, then playing should me much easier.
The Bitus.

Your post sounds like ruins from a nostalgic past.
Suddenly music is nothing more than the sum of all notes, musical sensitivity is nothing more than the sum of all synapses and hormones, piano technique is nothing more than the sum of gradual muscle workouts. We declared the death of "artistic soul" and suddenly some of the most empty individuals are going gaga over the piano.
We just are left with zombie labourers. Labourers of society, labourers of psyche, labourers of education, labourers of science and now labourer of music.
The hell with minds!! they are clearly a thing of the past

[ramibarniv]

What can I do to strengthen my fingers without hurting myself?  For the last week, I have been pressing the keys with a great deal of force while practicing scales and arpeggios and it feels as if my left wrist wants to cramp up on me!  And after about 45 minutes of practice, my fingers start aching!  Obviously I am not going to be practicing like this anymore.  I have only been playing the piano for about 5 months. I would really appreciate it if you guys could give me some finger strengthening techniques that won't hurt me in the long run.  The last thing I want is tendonitis.
Thanks

We want to use arm and forearm weight in our playing and we need the fingers to be strong enough to hold that weight like pillars which hold a building.
The difference is that a building stays still and our hands can also drop from any distance above. The higher the distance we drop our hands from, the stronger our fingers need to be in order to support the weight put on them, or through them.
Normally if you play from childhood, this strength will develop naturally, like many other aspects of piano playing.
Being you are not a child (I assume so), you may have to do something about it.
BUT, you must be very careful and cautious.
I suggest that you don't at all press the keys with a great deal of force while practicing, only try to feel as if you are resting your hands with the fingers on the keys.
If you really think that your fingers are not strong enough to hold/support the weight of your arm, here are a few things you can do away from the piano.
1) Rest your entire hand and forearm relaxed on a table with nicely curved fingers. Push down the top knuckles (collapse the arch) and back up, like spider push-ups. A few times at the time and gently.
2) Do push-aways from a wall using the tips of your fingers to push the wall. This time do not collapse the arch. Start moderately with both the distance from the wall (start standing pretty close) and with the number of times and increase gradually every few days, or a week. Again, do it very cautiously and gently.
3) Make the letter O with each finger against the thumb and press lightly to the slow count of 4, hands separately and alternately, so one hand rests when the other is doing it.
4) Rest your hand on a table and keep fingers curved, press lightly with any finger of the other hand on the knuckle nearest the nail to collapse it and resist it by getting it back to the nice curved position. Gently please.
5) Put opposite hands' fingers (one of each) cushion to cushion in a position like interlocked loops and pull away lightly and gently.
6) Squeeze a soft rubber ball, one hand at the time. Gently! you can also do it with just 2 fingers, one of which is always the thumb.
Please make sure, all very gently, very cautiously and don't over do any of it.
Most likely you don't need any of it, if you just learn to play with a correct technique.
Best wishes,
Rami
https://www.youtube.com/user/barniv
https://ramisrhapsody.tripod.com/