Developing Fine Motor Skills

[carrie10]

Please hep, fellow teachers!

I have a young beginning student whose fine motor skills are pretty limited.  It is quite the struggle for him to curve his fingers.  So far we've tried holding onto toy balls, playing with play dough (e.g., pressing fingers into the dough, wrapping hand around balls of dough, etc.), and balancing coins on fingers once they're in the correct position.  So far none of my techniques has made a significant difference.

Has anyone else ever struggled with this issue?  Does anyone have any other tips/techniques to share?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[carrie10]

Ah, 'help', not 'hep'! 

[hmpiano]

I wouldn't worry about static appearances.  Can he depress a key without moving his arm?

[carrie10]

With much effort and strain he can play the keys without arm movement.

[hmpiano]

Could he wipe something off the keys without moving his arms without effort and strain?  Or maybe scratch the tip of his nose likewise?

[mcdiddy1]

Depending on the age of the student, the fingers may not be fully developed the way an adult hand is. How old is the student? The fingers do not have to perfectly rounded and held in one position. You could try having the student move the bench a bit further back and play with slightly flatter fingers. If the fingers can move efficiently and the joints do not collapse there is nothing that will stop the student from being successful at a slightly different angle.

[faulty_damper]

Work with the gross motor control; i.e. let him play using the control that he possesses.  It's not important that he is able to curve his fingers at this point.  What is important is that he is capable of playing in any manner he can.

From what you describe, you are actually preventing him from developing fine motor control by restraining his natural tendencies.  You are forcing something that is not neurologically possible at this point.

Fine motor control is a result of fine nervous control which is the result of repeated use of those gross muscles.  If he practices every day, then he should develop the fine control in a couple of weeks.

[ajspiano]

With much effort and strain he can play the keys without arm movement.

If your asking him to depress a key with a still arm its not half surprising that you'd end up with flat fingers? we're talking a bout collapsed PIP and DIP joints right? so the only motion that's being used is coming from the MP joint? ...which is really not a problem (infact - YAY! - since you don't want to breed conscious 'curling' [DIP/PIP making a fist motion])

...if you tell a child not to move their arm they'll make it go rigid, and not use it to support the fingers movement..   they'll proceed to grab at the key, kind of pulling back, and their fingers will totally collapse because they have no idea how to balance their arm freely and in the right position.

How old is the child? This may or may not be applicable..

Test it yourself first to ensure you understand whats going on anatomically and what the child will feel..  (that is very important, I guarentee most people will misinterpret this, form you're own idea and opinion about whats going on)

..ALSO, this is not a be all and end all solution, it is merely one possibility that will have to be refined over many years and a great deal of music. I'm sure I'll also spark some technique debate with people saying I'm insane.

We are going to play two notes together, a chord..  say C and D, fingers 2 and 3. Relax the fingers, push forward with the arm. If the fingers are relaxed, all joints will freely move, the fingers will curl under the hand.. The keys will not depress unless you let your arm's weight move down into the keys.

Then you can pull the arm back out, the fingers will extend..  this happens because of their resistance against the key, nothing to do with moving the fingers, just because the finger tip is connected to the key.

Build up a circle of motion with the forearm. So the wrist is slightly higher on the way in and slightly lower on the way out, this ensures a relaxed/supple wrist - and teaches basic phrase shaping. There is no need to be depressing keys yet - this should be fluent, no stiffness before you start worrying about the keys.

Now, as you push in to the keys - very slowly, and starting with a relaxed natural curve in the fingers - add a 'firmness' (this can be difficult to explain to especially young children) to the fingers, they will remain in the curve position and the keys will depress as the arm moves forward. It need only be very minimal, just enough to ensure the key depresses, no more, and can largely be released once the note sounds. Most importantly, the firmness is not created using a flexion or extension of the fingers similar to what would be used to make or undo a fist - I think (I'm not a physiology professor) it is more to do with the interossei, found in the hand, these are responsible for sideways motion of the fingers.. when both left and right (either side of 1 finger) are used at the same time the result is a firming of the finger, or slight extension type motion if you push it to the exteme - (don't push it to the extreme)

The arm push/pull element, and level of "firmness" will pretty much always need to be reduced once the overall pattern is understood - which is why this is difficult to do with really young kids, because they are not familiar enough with their bodies to understand what you mean.

Once this is achieved you can consider also adding other movements, finger flexion and forearm rotation as examples. Though in this example that will be too much for the student I suspect.

........

Once the chord can be played, this process can be used to teach the legato element.. allowing one finger to follow the other, and leads into the use of chord attack and parallel sets to develop technique, alongside pushing and pulling arm circles.


..........

Lastly, you wouldn't use this level of detail unless its absolutely necessary. You don't want to go sending the student into over thinking things they are already doing.. Or causing a misinterpretation that results in doing something they shouldn't. Exercise with caution.


EDIT:

I will add that this is how one might explain that process to an adult..  you will need to come up with ways to explain and visually demonstrate it that works for a child.

[j_menz]

I'm sure I'll also spark some technique debate with people saying I'm insane.

   Surely not.

IMO, the kid is 5 and just starting. Let him play with whatever action he likes for a bit and start refining as his coordination develops and the need arises.

Frankly, OP seems to be spending so much time correcting hand position that the poor kid is gonna get bored at not actually playing anything.

[ajspiano]

so much time correcting hand position that the poor kid is gonna get bored at not actually playing anything.

That's my major issue with it pursuing it..   hence the "exercise with caution". It needs to be connected with a musical goal that the student is actively pursuing on their own to really have a proper impact and stick.

..Otherwise even though they get it right under supervision it flies straight out the window, - they have no reason to be so concerned with it all. Their brain must click over something like "i'm trying to do this, that helped, therefore I'll keep doing it that way"

Did it say somewhere that he's 5? I was sure I read the whole thing..

It can also be done in pieces, like "that particular aspect of motion relating to this exact problem"

I rarely explain it in its entirety like that unless I've got a student with past lessons and significant problems to unravel.

[j_menz]

Did it say somewhere that he's 5? I was sure I read the whole thing..

Actually, no. Not sure why I thought that. 

[ajspiano]

Actually, no. Not sure why I thought that. 

I think something roughly around there is implied..   

Its going to be up to the OP anyway, since some kids that age are pretty on the ball and could manage focusing on something like that, and others it would be completely impossible - unless you could turn it into a whole bunch of step by step games.. - probably difficult, not sure what the games' purpose would be.. 

[keypeg]

I've been reading back and forth: the original post, and the posts of Ajspiano.  The OP wants the student to learn to curve the hand, doing things like holding a ball, and to be able to play in the style where you can keep a penny on the wrist.    Then Ajspiano writes a longish post describing movement of the arm, behaviour of the fingers.

I'm looking at this from my perspective.  Originally I played in the manner the OP is after.  I was self taught when young, and by chance my fingers were curved as if holding a ball, and you could rest a penny on my wrist without it falling off.  I played lots of Clementi and other sonatinas of the period, and maybe that's why it developed that way.

Presently I'm working hard with my teacher to get rid of that way of playing.  The types of movements I'm aiming for resemble what Ajspiano has described.  Interestingly, my teacher often refers to the natural way that young children have.  I'm trying to recover some of that.  Ajs, when you describe the part of when the hand moves back the fingers uncurve, that is exactly what I've been trying to restore since a week.  These fingers that perpetually curve as soon as they play melodic passages are creating tension and impeding free movement.  That goes all the way up into the arms.  I totally understood your explanation, and it goes with what I saw in your playing in the student forum where I commented yesterday.

I know that both the "hold a ball" and the "penny on the hand" are generally being discontinued because it's said that they belong to a different type of keyboard than the modern one, and different kind of music.  It's said that these create a lot of problems and tension. I think Chopin already was against it.  So are these even goals to pursue?  Might the child be doing something good and natural?  Or - in Ajspiano's post I see ways that the fingers come into the right shape, including some curvature, but not by being deliberately shaped that way.  It feels right.

[nyiregyhazi]

We are going to play two notes together, a chord..  say C and D, fingers 2 and 3. Relax the fingers, push forward with the arm. If the fingers are relaxed, all joints will freely move, the fingers will curl under the hand.. The keys will not depress unless you let your arm's weight move down into the keys.

Then you can pull the arm back out, the fingers will extend..  this happens because of their resistance against the key, nothing to do with moving the fingers, just because the finger tip is connected to the key.

Build up a circle of motion with the forearm. So the wrist is slightly higher on the way in and slightly lower on the way out, this ensures a relaxed/supple wrist - and teaches basic phrase shaping. There is no need to be depressing keys yet - this should be fluent, no stiffness before you start worrying about the keys.

Now, as you push in to the keys - very slowly, and starting with a relaxed natural curve in the fingers - add a 'firmness' (this can be difficult to explain to especially young children) to the fingers, they will remain in the curve position and the keys will depress as the arm moves forward. It need only be very minimal, just enough to ensure the key depresses, no more, and can largely be released once the note sounds. Most importantly, the firmness is not created using a flexion or extension of the fingers similar to what would be used to make or undo a fist - I think (I'm not a physiology professor) it is more to do with the interossei, found in the hand, these are responsible for sideways motion of the fingers.. when both left and right (either side of 1 finger) are used at the same time the result is a firming of the finger, or slight extension type motion if you push it to the exteme - (don't push it to the extreme)

The arm push/pull element, and level of "firmness" will pretty much always need to be reduced once the overall pattern is understood - which is why this is difficult to do with really young kids, because they are not familiar enough with their bodies to understand what you mean.

This is a very interesting description and quite similar to some stuff I'm in the process of writing up myself. The collapse of the fingers under the arm pressure is what I'd call a "negative movement" (that kills efficiency of energy transfer if allowed during depression). I'm looking at a similar idea myself- where the fingers are felt to collapse but then the extension movement is used to bring them back to full length- all before depressing any keys. If you create any "firmness" in interaction with the key's resistance, you are unlikely to give way.

However, I'd just say that I don't particularly like the word "firmness". It always suggests clenching. I prefer to feel that the finger prepares by trying to extend slightly, but not enough to move the key. Afterwards I prefer to finish the job and extend further to move the key. My problem with trying to be "firm" is that is suggests clenching. I think the type of method you describe can often show people a feel for the extending action that prevents collapse- but I think it's easier if you intend a full movement. For a finger to be still, you must get a very exact balance- where you only just try to move by enough to stop collapse. If you intend to move more than that, it's much easier to eradicate the unwanted collapses- and the additional movement is a positive factor that goes into moving the key. Although I use a very similar approach, I have recently decided to restrict the concept of firmness to the initial sense of pushing the knuckle up and away from the key without moving it. After that, I only look at intent to move- whether as the bare minimum to avoid collapse or as a lot more. I find this makes it very easy to avoid bracing and clenching.