Typing and piano practice.

[faa2010]

My mother gave me typing courses (with the traditional typing machine, of course) since I was 10.  Now I don't have to look at the keyboard too much and I can type faster due to that and because I know the location of every letter and number (the basic keyboard).

Something curious happens to me sometimes, when I finish playing the piano, I type too much faster than before. What I can tell from experience, is that typing consists on one hand of coordination, while on the other hand are other things like memorizing, looking to the paper or the monitor and to the keyboard almost at the same time, etc.

Does playing piano help typing and/or vice versa?

[stevebob]

I think there are some elements of dexterity that are obviously common to both activities, and, in my experience, the ability to type fast does correlate with the capacity for velocity at the piano.

Another important connection for me is that I was always typing regularly during numerous (and sometimes lengthy) periods away from piano entirely.  Though it's normal to experience some loss of coordination, control and stamina in those circumstances upon resumption of piano practice, I feel certain that the degree of decrepitude would have been much more severe had my fingers not been exercised by hours of typing nearly every day.

[peterjmathis]

Yeah, some of the muscles are the same, so it does help a bit on a physical level.

[dss62467]

I was always a faster typist than the non-piano players in high school.  And the fact that my job has me on the computer ALL DAY LONG kept my dexterity so that I was able to jump right back into the piano after not playing for 25 years.   It definitely helps.

[synthex]

?

[banana-]

In my opinion, there are some really, really small correlations between a typing machine and a piano.
Main difference is that typing depends purely on hand dexterity, whereas playing piano involves way more horizontal movement including arm and shoulder activity. You don't even have to move your hand position on the keyboard, on a piano you're always moving from left to right. I do not think (who knows, I'm wrong, just my thoughts) typing helps playing piano at all, they differ too much.

If it would help anything at all, then it would be purely technical (not involving essentials such as fingering, theory, reading music, etc). It might improve feeling and touch of 'keys' even though they differ a lot in size. Perhaps for people who never use this part of the brain that involves small locomotion skills (finger movement) and localizing keys blindly, typing might benefit playing piano. I can't tell from experience, Ive typed blind since I was 12.

[kookaburra]

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