How do you feel about this practice method?

[jayeckz]

The notion is to keep the wrist low, hand extremely steady, and lift the finger as high as possible.  The wrist must be completely loose and free of tension.  Best effort should be made so that only the finger being used to hit the key should be moved.

The first exercise involves lifting the finger high and then pressing and holding the key until the split second that the next key is depressed. 

The second exercise involves lifting the finger high and playing staccato with zero wrist or hand motion.

These exercises can be applied to a lot of hanon, scales, arpeggios, Chopin etudes such as 10-2,10-4, and 10-5 (generally any piece with single notes in rapid succession).

I personally feel this approach is absolutely silly and borderline dangerous, but my teacher swears by this method.  Such insistence on my teacher's part has made me agree to this approach.

What do you guys think?  Is there any benefit from this sort of practice?

[carlinton]

Some type of exercises can be a big turn off especially to beginners. It's better to choose simple exercises and then move on to harder ones later. Scales and arpeggios are great exercises and are used mostly by great piano players. Both exercises can help with finger strength and fluency.

[jayeckz]

Some type of exercises can be a big turn off especially to beginners.  It's better to choose simple exercises and then move on to harder ones later.

This is a somewhat random and extremely general statement.

When you say exercises, I think of drills or pieces designed to improve/build technique.

Usually these exercises, like Hanon for example, may have a specific methodology.  Sometimes, there may just be notes with no methodology (which leaves the exact mechanics of playing up to the instructor).

I guess I was unclear before; so I'll rephrase. What do you think of this METHODOLOGY of lifting the fingers as detailed in the original post?

Scales and arpeggios are great exercises and are used mostly by great piano players. Both exercises can help with finger strength and fluency.

Again, an extremely general statement! I agree that scales and arpeggios are great exercises; however the statement that scales and arpeggios are used mostly by great piano players is completely incorrect.

The world is full or more terrible pianists than great ones.  I'd bet a lot of money that a far greater number of terrible pianists practice scales and arpeggios than the number of great piano players.

On another note, scales and arpeggios definitely CAN (in other words have the potential to) improve finger strength and fluency.  From a personal experience, however, there needs to be practice with intent and focus.  Note that intent is meant in the sense that the practice has a clear objective i.e. improving finger release from keys, relaxation, play pp, stacatto, legato, etc.

My question for you: Do you think the method of practice outlined in the first post is beneficial?  Why or why not?

[outin]

The notion is to keep the wrist low, hand extremely steady, and lift the finger as high as possible.  The wrist must be completely loose and free of tension.  Best effort should be made so that only the finger being used to hit the key should be moved.

The first exercise involves lifting the finger high and then pressing and holding the key until the split second that the next key is depressed. 

The second exercise involves lifting the finger high and playing staccato with zero wrist or hand motion.

My experience:
The first time I tried something a bit similar to this I got carpal tunnel symptoms. That was 6 months ago. So obviously I did something wrong.

I also did something like this just recently to improve the sound of my playing and get the fingers (palm muscles) more involved in the playing and learn to relax the wrist. This time I found it very beneficial and no negative symptoms.

So I guess as with any method, is works if you can understand it and do it correctly but if not it might lead to a disaster.

[tchristec]

I might not know much but it sounds to me like this method could easily lead to hand injury.  It is almost the exact opposite of the Taubman approach which has been known to be therapeutic to those who have injured their hands/arms/fingers due to improper playing technique.

[lelle]

The notion is to keep the wrist low, hand extremely steady, and lift the finger as high as possible.  The wrist must be completely loose and free of tension.  Best effort should be made so that only the finger being used to hit the key should be moved.

The first exercise involves lifting the finger high and then pressing and holding the key until the split second that the next key is depressed. 

The second exercise involves lifting the finger high and playing staccato with zero wrist or hand motion.

Stupid stupid stupid. This kind of exercise could get you injuried. Pressing with your fingers is not a good idea because it puts unecessary strain on the muscles. Trying to hold everything still except the fingers excludes the rest of your entire playing apparatus, and you need your upper arms and forearms to be active as well in like all pieces ever written, so why block them? Plus the fact that some fingers share tendons so it is virtually impossible for some hands to keep all the other fingers still while moving some fingers. If you try to hold everything still it will more often than not create unecessary tension in the entire system (do you associate the words "holding still" with freedom and fluency of movement?). Things do not become easier to play if you focus on the fingers and ignore the rest of the playing apparatus. The fingers are weak so trying to playing using their strength alone will make everything more difficult and could give you strain injuries.

[nick]

The notion is to keep the wrist low, hand extremely steady, and lift the finger as high as possible.  The wrist must be completely loose and free of tension.  Best effort should be made so that only the finger being used to hit the key should be moved.

The first exercise involves lifting the finger high and then pressing and holding the key until the split second that the next key is depressed. 

The second exercise involves lifting the finger high and playing staccato with zero wrist or hand motion.

These exercises can be applied to a lot of hanon, scales, arpeggios, Chopin etudes such as 10-2,10-4, and 10-5 (generally any piece with single notes in rapid succession).

I personally feel this approach is absolutely silly and borderline dangerous, but my teacher swears by this method.  Such insistence on my teacher's part has made me agree to this approach.

What do you guys think?  Is there any benefit from this sort of practice?

Don't agree. Too much tension. Raising fingers as high as possible creates the tension.

Nick