Typing speed/accuracy and potential for the same with piano

[xelios]

Perhaps an odd topic, but I'd like to get some opinions no less.

What do you think typing ability -- high speed combined with high accuracy in particular -- says about someone's potential for achieving that same speed and accuracy on piano? I'm not talking about creativity here, but pure physical ability.

I ask this because I observed two separate students (my two best students no less) use my PC to send e-mails, and saw that their typing was extremely rapid.  Just for fun, I had them both take a quick typing test online to measure their speed and accuracy, and both were between 95-115 WPM with 100% accuracy.

Obviously this indicates nothing as far as musical ability, but as an indicator of the potential for dexterity, speed, accuracy, whatever you want to call it, I think there is definitely something here.

Or is it simply a coincidence that my two students who have the least issues with coordination and accuracy, especially at high speeds, also happen to be great typists?

[gyzzzmo]

What about reversing your question, that pianists have better finger control and thus can learn typing fast more easy?
Sounds logic to me.

[xelios]

What about reversing your question, that pianists have better finger control and thus can learn typing fast more easy?
Sounds logic to me.

Yes, of course that's possible as well.  I think that is how mine worked actually since I'm older and was playing piano before I ever typed.

The only reason I asked the other way around is that these students have just begun piano not too long ago (less than a year), so they were typing beforehand.  I believe there is some connection either way; maybe the same parts of the brain are used in both.

[go12_3]

Typing and piano playing has come easy for me.

[gyzzzmo]

I do think that if somebody starts learning to type 10-fingered early, that it has the same effect as starting to learn playing piano early: Your brains get concious of using all of the 10 fingers seperatly and adapts.

[chopiabin]

Though I'm sure there is a connection between your students' typing abilities and their dexterity at the piano, I certainly don't think it's categorically true that great pianists naturally have excellent typing skills. I like to think that I'm a fairly advanced pianist but I'm awful at typing (in elementary school computer class I could only type 11 wpm), and my piano teacher, who's also an organist, can neither type nor drive a stick!

[lostinidlewonder]

There really is no connection in my opinion. Typing is much easier than playing piano as your hands can stay still the entire time while you type in single position. Being good at typing doesn't mean you have the aplitude for piano just like riding a tricycle doesn't mean you could ride a motor bike. You probably could say, if you have no ability to to type on the keyboard then probably you cannot learn to play the piano.

[Bob]

Yes.  Goes both ways.  Although I think piano is speeding up my fingers more than typing.

[gyzzzmo]

There really is no connection in my opinion. Typing is much easier than playing piano as your hands can stay still the entire time while you type in single position. Being good at typing doesn't mean you have the aplitude for piano just like riding a tricycle doesn't mean you could ride a motor bike. You probably could say, if you have no ability to to type on the keyboard then probably you cannot learn to play the piano.

Typing requires individual finger movement, as does playing the piano. Theres not a question of harder/easier, though ofcourse playing the piano also requires being able to move the finger in more directions. But for people who neither type or play piano, there are only '3 fingers' on a hand: the thumb, the 2 finger and the 3,4,5 together. In that way typing gives an advantage, since they get forced to use those 3,4,5 also seperatly.