New Glove to Improve Technique?

[benzwm02]

I recently heard about a company designing a weighted glove to help build technique and muscle for pianists. It works by isometrics and has the tips of the gloves cut out so you can still use finger tips to play and move around the piano.

I was wondering if anyone here would try it out or think about using something during their practicing? What do you think?

[j_menz]

Sounds like pointless gimickery to me. I wouldn't waste my money on it.

[austinarg]

Schumann did something similar with unfavorable results...

[thalbergmad]

Schumann did something similar with unfavorable results...

Indeed, he decided to concentrate on being a composer.

Thal

[austinarg]

Indeed, he decided to concentrate on being a composer.

Thal

Somehow I was expecting this kind of answer... and from you, nonetheless. 

[landru]

Indeed, he decided to concentrate on being a composer.

Somehow I was expecting this kind of answer... and from you, nonetheless. 

Hey, at least he called him a composer - that is a step up from what he really feels!

[lelle]

A "weighted glove" sounds really stupid. I've learned that playing the piano is about coordination, not muscle strength. From my googling of "isometrics" it sounds like static muscle work? Static muscle work is never good, you need free, supple muscles when you play.

[nyiregyhazi]

I regularly practise with a 1 kg wrist weight. It actually lightens things up- by getting you much better at supporting weight at the shoulder while still connecting the fingers properly to the keys. If I'm having an off-spell a few minutes practise with it on usually works wonders. It stops you digging in too hard.

[dinulip]

Unnatural and dangerous!  I'd stay away from it!

[nyiregyhazi]

While it doesn't surprise me that virtually every response is negative, you lot should stop being such a bunch of big Phillistine girls. Claudio Arrau insisted on carrying his own suitcases and countless pianists have extremely well developed and powerful hands. The idea that actually using the muscles automatically injures you is nonsense. It's just silly to write this device off without even trying it. Wrapping yourself up in cotton wool doesn't produce the means to play both powerfully and effortlessly- and I'd happily bet that at least half of those complaining here have a pretty poxy fortissimo.

PS. I was recently given a device that is designed for toning the calves, for free. It sends electricity up through the feet. When I use it on my hands, it works wonders. Playing is remarkably easy and effortless, after the experience. Sometimes you do a lot better by actually using your muscles than by whimpering at the thought of doing so.

[nyiregyhazi]

A "weighted glove" sounds really stupid. I've learned that playing the piano is about coordination, not muscle strength. From my googling of "isometrics" it sounds like static muscle work? Static muscle work is never good, you need free, supple muscles when you play.

Isometric muscle work is exactly what the fingers are doing when they keep a key depressed. Is that a bad thing? In a slow piece, the overwhelming majority of all actions in the hand are isometric ones that keep keys depressed. We can ban long notes outright, if the above is true.

When done with awareness and sensitivity, finding an isometric balance is one of the most important types of coordination. It's inescapable, so the only choice is to do it well or badly. Doing it well retains movability, whereas doing it badly hinders it.

[j_menz]

While it doesn't surprise me that virtually every response is negative, you lot should stop being such a bunch of big Phillistine girls. Claudio Arrau insisted on carrying his own suitcases and countless pianists have extremely well developed and powerful hands. The idea that actually using the muscles automatically injures you is nonsense. It's just silly to write this device off without even trying it. Wrapping yourself up in cotton wool doesn't produce the means to play both powerfully and effortlessly- and I'd happily bet that at least half of those complaining here have a pretty poxy fortissimo.

I, and I doubt any of the other sceptics regarding this gadget, doubt that physical strength is useful. What I do doubt, however, is that a device like this is a better way of getting it than normal exercise. Why waste one's money on it when there are plenty of ways to develop/maintain that strength that are cheaper and generally better for you?

[nyiregyhazi]

I, and I doubt any of the other sceptics regarding this gadget, doubt that physical strength is useful. What I do doubt, however, is that a device like this is a better way of getting it than normal exercise. Why waste one's money on it when there are plenty of ways to develop/maintain that strength that are cheaper and generally better for you?

I'm skeptical about potential gimmickery, like yourself and wouldn't shell out cash without trying it.

However, there's every reason why it could be useful. I use a theraband flex bar for lengthening out a slightly cramped feeling down the fifth finger side of my right wrist. It creates length in a certain place of tightness (in passive response to the thing uncurling)  in a way that everyday activities cannot emulate. Similarly, the electrical device I mentioned both strengthens and creates freedom in muscles I had scarcely even perceived before use.

There are very few everyday activities that train the uncurling of the hand. Developing that action via slight resistance could be useful- if the glove does this.

[lelle]

Isometric muscle work is exactly what the fingers are doing when they keep a key depressed. Is that a bad thing? In a slow piece, the overwhelming majority of all actions in the hand are isometric ones that keep keys depressed. We can ban long notes outright, if the above is true.

When done with awareness and sensitivity, finding an isometric balance is one of the most important types of coordination. It's inescapable, so the only choice is to do it well or badly. Doing it well retains movability, whereas doing it badly hinders it.

True but the fingers support about 50 grams with an arch structure and are constantly letting go of keys, and there is no need to train strength to do that. A weighted glove would put unecessary strain on musculature that supports the forearm (and arm), ie biceps and musculature in the torso, no? My own perception is that in an ideal world (ie once we got the damn technique sorted out) the muscles will be doing dynamic work, and what little static work there is, is done with the muscles sufficiently toned, but not tensed.

[iansinclair]

It's really important to remember that piano playing is all about precision and speed, so far as technique goes, and has almost nothing to do with total strength.  It is how fast and how accurately you can move the fingers, not how strong they are.

Exercises to develope that aspect of one's hand ability are fine.  Like, say Czerny

There is an exception, but one which is probably not relevant to 99% of pianostreet members: for some years I played a large tracker organ (for the uninitiated, that is an organ in which the key, when depressed, operates a system of linkages and sliders which open the valves to the pipes -- no electricity or pneumatics or power steering there!), and when the manuals were coupled there was a fair amount of physical resistance, and it did take a fair amount of physical strength to play the thing -- far more than any piano I've ever seen.  Even there, though, the best exercise for it was to actually practice on it.  No tennis ball squeezing.  No isometric anything, in fact (which builds strength at the expense of speed).  Just... practice.