Benefits of practising with cold hands?

[pianoplayjl]

My hands are usually warm when I play the piano, with the exception of winter when my hands are ALWAYS cold. My hands have more dexterity, more flexible, etc. Does anyone know the benefits of practicing with cold hands?

I find, somehow, even though performing with cold hands is something I wouldn't want, I have more control over a piece.

JL

[joeplaysthepiano]

As far as I can tell, there are no benefits to ever doing anything on the piano with cold hands.  You are likely to get yourself injured.  Avoid at all costs.

[jtguru]

I think the main argument made for practicing with cold hands is to get yourself somewhat used to it, for the case when you have to perform with cold hands. But if you do this, you have to be cautious, because as the above poster says, you can injure yourself much more easily when your muscles are not warmed up.

[megadodd]

Reumatism

[48dreams]

My hands have more dexterity, more flexible, etc.

I find, somehow, even though performing with cold hands is something I wouldn't want, I have more control over a piece.

More dexterity, flexibility and control WITH cold hands?  That's absolutely a new one to me.

[birba]

Better cold then hot and sweaty.

[pianoplayjl]

More dexterity, flexibility and control WITH cold hands?  That's absolutely a new one to me.

Clearly I didn't make myself clear. 'My hands have more dexterity, more flexibility, etc' applies when my hands were warm. When my hands are cold, I have a bit mroe control over the piece and my slips happen less.

JL

[48dreams]

Clearly I didn't make myself clear. 'My hands have more dexterity, more flexibility, etc' applies when my hands were warm. When my hands are cold, I have a bit mroe control over the piece and my slips happen less.

JL

Odd.  I'd be willing to bet that for most the extra control comes along with more dexterity, flexibility and warmth.  When my hands are cold I'm good for nothing.

[roescoe]

Better cold then hot and sweaty.

That is kind of the way I feel, being subject to somewhat sweaty hands myself. But for me it also seems that when my hands are "deathly cold", as they can become even if I am typing or using my ipod touch; (both activities that require finger motion, which is odd) that I can play with more acuracy.

I think the main benifit is more "solidness", from being numbed, but for some people they could injure themselves, luckily I have never injured my fingers in that way.

But I would say use caution.

[jesc]

(clarification: I mean cold not in the freezing/shivering sense.)

This may seem odd but it works for me. I use the notion of cold and warm hands for a different reason.

I use them to gauge the stamina my hands have left. The warmer my hands become and when I think I'm crossing a certain line (in truth this is difficult to determine. I recently practiced all my difficult pieces for two hours straight and didn't feel pain in any way. The downside is, I felt spent and had to take a break for the rest of the day.). Sometimes I forget that an etude was designed to be 2 mins long and when you're practicing you don't notice that you've been playing the etude for half an hour straight (repetition of difficult passages).

Right now what I do for practice is, start with cold hands, then play... when it becomes warm at a certain point, stop and rest (usually 1 hour practice then break). Then when my hands are cold again and well rested, practice again. This enabled me to maximize my practice for 1 day.

Note: I only do this when I'm practicing difficult pieces simultaneously. For easier pieces, I don't even think about making a cycle.

[johnmar78]

Jesec, you and I on the same par now, I LIKED TO TRAIN ON COLD HAND, including my students.

I used to go for local piano competition, where at the back stage I saw some people wearing gloves, because we have no acess to warm up room at all. Its only a local Estedford paino comp.
I was thinking, these people are really serious about there hands being exposed to cold, especially the comp its in the winter season. Well, I thank you for myself and my former teacher who taught me cold hand playing is best for self awareness for mistakes/slips. At end of that comp, I won 2 out of 3 section I entered, WITH NO GLOVES , last one came third.

But DO NOT EXPECT TO play full speed for Chopin op10-1 when your hands are cold.

So its up to individual, take it or leave it.

[scriabinophile]

I read your question with great interest, as I am now in my mid-50s and suffering from a painful finger ailment, which my doctor has yet to diagnose.  I suspect it could be some type of osteoarthritis probably due, as least in part, to mistreating my hands when I was younger.  I often practiced with cold hands when I was preparing for competitions. Don't do it! When you're young, you think your body will last forever.  But when you get older, all those stupid things that you did to abuse your body can catch up with you.  Now, I often have to take NSAIDS just to deal with the pain in my fingers, and many days I cannot play the piano because it simply hurts to much. Take care of your hands when you are young.

[johnmar78]

lol scriab, i am not far from you, so far nothing happening to my hands...lucky..

[slobone]

A friend of Glenn Gould's once asked him why his hands were always red and he said, Because I spend a lot of time bathing them in hot water. He also wore gloves outside in any weather.