collapsing fingers

[juelle]

I have an accomplished student (a transfer) whose fingers collapse at both knuckles.  Her hands have been growing quickly and she can now reach a 10th.  What can I do to help her keep a curve in her hand and prevent injury?   

[lostinidlewonder]

Flattened fingers are desirable in top class piano playing, but what do you exactly mean but "collapse at the knuckles"? Perhaps get her to play some Bach WTC to encourage a more "traditional" hand posture.

[javacisnotrecognized]

You might want to look at Alan Fraser's book/dvd "The craft of piano playing" which talks about this issue in depth (And provides some exercises to counter it). You can see the demo here:

There is also a complete masterclass uploaded on youtube:

[juelle]

Thanks, I'll take a look at those YouTube videos. 

[missmusicteacher]

Do you mean this:

https://rheuma.netfirms.com/books/lectures/lectur9.jpg

How old is your student?  My 9-10 year old students have collapsing fingers, and I think in their case it is just that their finger muscles have not developed enough yet.  It takes awhile to learn to control the muscles enough to prevent the fingers from collapsing.

Or, perhaps your student is like me and has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.  It is a connective tissue disorder with several main subtypes; I have Type III, hypermobility type.  The primary symptom is hypermobile joints and frequent dislocations.  I dislocate something daily...everything that can be dislocated and even some joints that I didn't think could be dislocated! In my case, I have played piano for close to eleven years and am a music major at college.  My finger muscles have developed enough that were it not for the EDS, my fingers shouldn't be collapsing.  But as it is, it is completely out of my control and something I just have to adapt to.