Exercises to strengthen 4th and 5th fingers

[pianoplayjl]

Do you guys have any specific finger exercises that can be used to strengthen the 4th and 5th fingers? I have so little control over the 4th and 5th.

[hbofinger]

Do you guys have any specific finger exercises that can be used to strengthen the 4th and 5th fingers? I have so little control over the 4th and 5th.

I've got the same issue (mainly 4th) since I have not played for a while, and then switched to a digital piano. Now that I have added a large grand with a heavier action I can clearly feel the 4th not being up to par.

I am going with Hanon's Virtuoso Pianist exercises. They are quite approachable, and you can get them here on Pianostreet (just put in "Hanon" as the composer). I'd say work on the first 10 exercises first.

[keyboardclass]

Here's my trill exercise:

Here's the notes:

...and before anyone comments - I know the elbows are low.

[49410enrique]

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[nyiregyhazi]

scales. arpegios. broken chords in 3rds, 6th, 10ths, 4 octaves in parallel and contrary motion (except for the melodic minors, contrary motion doesn't work as well but intervals are fine).  

The fifth finger only comes on one note per scale, or not at all in scales starting on black keys. While these are good to practise, I can't see how they have any tremendous relevance to the question.

Development of 4 and 5 is basically down to HOW you move- as long as you use them often enough. If you want focus on weak fingers, practise op10 no. 2. You can omit the middle notes if necessary, but practise chromatic scales with only 345. However, the style of movement is everything. Weak fingers don't tend to be that way from underuse but stay weak due to the wrong approach to moving them. You have to be very careful that you don't simply carry the wrong style of movement in such exercises- or they do more harm than good. You can end up feeling weaker still. One thing I certainly wouldn't practise is half-hearted semi-legato trills from a stiff arm (aided by the pedal to cover massive gaps in the sound). That's about the last thing that might get those fingers flying around the keyboard.

[49410enrique]

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[keyboardclass]

The lady doth protest too much, methinks!

[lukediv]

I had the same problems with finger strength. My teacher put me on to dohnanyi's finger exercises and i found them very helpful. Most of the exercises on the first 2 pages should help your problem. They only short but for me they worked great. You have to play them until your hand hurts but haha.

[nyiregyhazi]

hmm yeah i see your point. i shouldve thought it through a little more, although I will say that i have found that sometimes it's not a 'strength' issue but a tension issue, if the hand is not relaxed and in a natural position certain fingers will act 'sluggish'  and if i run patterns with special attention to not putting the hand and fingers in funky un natural (i.e. tense) positions in the movements the speed and ability to fully transfer into and out of the bottom of the keys with the 'problem finger' seems to remededy itself.

Yeah, fair point. A confident thumb action to open the "arch" in scales is a great way to loosen up the rest of the hand and put the weaker fingers in a prime position to move properly. There's a very direct relationship between what you do with the thumb and how the 5th operates. A simple way to illustrate that is to play a slow trill between 4 and 5 and then repeat it while an extended thumb rests on a note and keeps the arch open. The thumb makes a huge difference. The big danger with trying to isolate these fingers for practise is that it's easy to forget the thumb and end up playing from a totally disadvantaged position.

[pianoplayjl]

Thank you for the advice and I'll take them into acocunt. I never though of Hanon! I gave up when I reached ex 20.

[kitty on the keys]

Hanon is a great starter for a fire in the winter!!!!!!!!!!!! If you must do Hanon....rotate the wrist and have good allignment over they keys. Too many just use finger motion....not good! Who/what ever you choose to do for hand development.....use the arm and wrist and start with only 1-2 minutes a day...which I was told from a Julliard teacher....then build your time up. You will amazed with your quick progress and results. Diminished chords are good too....but again use the arm and wrist...and your posture is good too...no slumping. Good luck!

kitty on the keys

[pianoplayjl]

thanks, kitty keys!
the thing about relying on finger motion....My teacher also spoke to me about that.

[swansonjw]

The best I found for strengthening the 4th and 5th fingers are the Pischna exercises.  But you must use extreme care on these as you may have a tendency to force your hand to play them rather than slowly gaining the strength to play them without force.  I found when i started to play them that I would immobilize some of my fingers by forcing them into the keyboard.  When you do this, you end up with a bad tendency and you lose the advantage of these exercises.  Start with the "Little Pischna", then go to the "full" Pischna.  Be sure to practice the preparatory exercises.

[pianoplayjl]

thank you swansonjw for the advice. I shall try to find pischna exercises.