Fingers

[in_love_with_liszt]

This is merely out of curiosity for the human body...
I've noticed that many pianists have, or had very thick muscle-y looking fingers. I personally have thin knobby fingers (supposedly Liszt did too...?) and was curious as to what makes someone (like say Rachmaninoff) have sausage fingers, and someone like me have long toothpics? Is it genetics? Men seem to have bigger fingers than women in general too...

[larse]

I think you should talk with a doctor, but I think it's quite genetic what type of fingers you'll get. I have short, thin and boney like yours. All I know, though, is that the human hand was not created to play the piano. That's for certain. My doctor complaints regularly on my arms. Not that I'm reckless, but he's just quite dramatic, and his daughter runined her arms for the rest of her life. She cannot even write.

And men are in general larger than women as well.

[Motrax]

I think piano shapes your fingers a bit. I used to have long spindly fingers, but now they ar emore square at the end and look a little more massive. Not fat, mind you, just more... well-rounded.  

[Tash]

yeah it's just the way your body was created. everyone's individual. i have pretty longish, skinny fingers, my teacher loves them though i find it annoying cos they tend to get in the way, like playing part of beethoven's piano sonata in Bb op.22 and in the octave bit of the 1st movement my fingers kept hitting the wall of the piano behind the keys- v annoying.

us humans never do anything our bodies are meant to do if we did then we'd be bored as hell

[Shagdac]

Larse....I was curious when reading your post. Do you mean the Dr's. daughter ruined her arms playing piano?
If so, how? And why is the Dr. on you about your arms and playing piano? Just curious.

thanks,
S

[allchopin]

cziffra


Arrau

That should make you feel a tad better...  
oh wow, these pictures are quite imposing

[faulty_damper]

It's mostly genetic but also how you use your hands can have an effect in its development.

An example of this is this one young woman, 15 years old, who has been climbing trees with her pet monkey since she was four.  At age 13, she entered her first rock climbing competition and beat the previous top rated champion who's been climbing professionally for years.  She had not climbed indoors until she was 13.

Anyway, there was this show on cable TV that used science to explain amazing things that happen to people so that people can do.  She was one of them and she was probed to figure out just how she climbs the way she does.  They measured her and what struck me were her hands.  She had very nice hands in the functional sense but her fingers, the doctor said, were extremely long (they seemed normal length to me).  Her knuckles and finger joints were larger than normal to support her weight while climbing the doctor said.  Her arms and legs were very long, too.  Her armspan was abnormally long, too, at 2" longer than her height.   All of these physical traits are traits that shd would not normally have if not for her years of climbing trees as a child.

I also remember her specifications that read out on the computer screen.
Height: 5' 3"
Weight: 110 pounds
Body fat: 16.3%
Armspan: 5' 5"

---
So how you use your body has a direct effect on its development.  Until you get too old and your growth spurt stops. :-/

[Piazzo22]

the human hand was not created to play the piano.

Nope, the piano was created to be played with the human hand.