One Hand has Thicker Fingers than the Other

[pianosfun]

Hello guys,

I replaced my original question with this text because I am deactivating my account. It originally was directed towards the difference in size between my two hands' fingers. And yes, God will definitely bring good out of this. Mainly, I'm glad to know Jesus Christ. My life is much better now than it was then, because I'm looking to him rather than my circumstances.

Thanks for concern and for all the helpful insight. I will remember it, pianosfun.

[pianosfun]

. . .

[hfmadopter]

There probably is no such thing as a boy from Arkansa who hasn't  shot some kind of gun first off. I doubt they all have swollen knuckles.  Why do you think your fingers are damaged from shooting guns / don't you think it's possible that your knuckles were going to do this anyway ?

Warm water soaking for the most part so far takes care of my stiff and capilary damaged supposedly industrial damaged hands at going on age 63 ( so the doctors tell me). You might want to see a doctor and get advice from him/her. Doing so will insure that you really know what is going on with your hands and how to best deal with that.

[pianosfun]

. . .

[pianosfun]

. . .

[pianosfun]

. . .

[pianosfun]

. . .
 

[j_menz]

I don't think that I'll be able to continue playing the instument at the level I had anticipated

Rubbish. What's a little difference in knuckle size going to do.

My advice, use your left hand for, ahem, recreational activities for a while. Or stop.

Oh, and don't use this forum as a substitute.

[outin]

I'm going to use this word once, but I used to be phenominally tallented.

Talented meaning your knucles were matching in size?
Sorry, but you sound ridiculous. If you were good before all you need is get back to it and start working. Your hands will adjust again if you let them. And most of the playing happens with the brain anyway...

[hfmadopter]

I don't think that I'll be able to continue playing the instrument at the level I had anticipated (Of course I can still play). I have wept over this, since it has hit me suddenly. But I feel that I lost a part of myself. At least I can still play, though. God can bring good out of this.

My teacher, so long ago now had these twisted fingers from severe arthritis, her hands were small. She could play Bach in circles around me, Hayden too, piano and organ. She played fast passages and broke her large chords almost seamlessly. Those hands had to bother her, never a complaint from this nearly 70 YO woman.

I was in the piano store a few months ago when I was looking to buy a digital piano. This guy walks in, rather short stout guy with stumpy thick rather dirty looking fingers. Dirty as in the type that doesn't really wash off after years of hard work. I took it that he just got off work as maybe a railroad worker or mechanic ( there is a railroad yard right out in back of this place and had the proper cloths on to be that type of worker). He picked a couple of different console style digital pianos to play on and had at it. Two hands full of notes all over the keyboard playing some kind of rag ( rag is not my thing but it sure was his ). He played maybe for ten minutes on the second piano he picked to play , got up and walked out.

So what you can is feel sorry for yourself because one hand looks different than the other hand or you can start practising. I suggest the second approach, it will do much more for your self esteem, if not in every way ( likely) then at least as it relates to the piano.

[pianosfun]

. . .

[pianosfun]

. . .

[pianosfun]

. . .

[hfmadopter]

Oh, I've got it guys!! Play with flat fingers at times with the right hand. And let me add Mozart Sonata k333 in Bb Major to my recent repertoire.  Please forgive my young inexperience. I think that this post should really get closed soon, though...

That's fine but do understand that up until now 9 postings out of 13 all together were yours !

[pianosfun]

. . .

[hfmadopter]

[quote author=pianosfun link=topic=50342.msg552536#msg552536 date=1365861878

                
That is true.  (Sorry, I had meant to modify one post, not create a new reply). Just ignore me,  haha.
[/quote]

That's ok, how are you getting along on the piano ?

[pianosfun]

Hello, piano playing is going pretty well. I'm practicing the Chopin Polonaise op40 no1 in A Major, the same old Mozart Sonata k333 in Bb Major, and I'm learning the Debussy piece l'isle joyeuse. There really isn't too much of a difference in the ability of my right hand's fingers to play, except its ability to play trills. My fingers get pretty stiff and sometimes the knuckles even block each other during any type of trill excersise in general.

In all seriousness, I must apologize for my sudden reaction to such condition of my piano playing, especially through this forum. I tend to hyperfocus on things. (Though my complaints might have been justified, the manner in which I presented them and dwelt on them for days is definitely not.)

Piano practice for me is pretty pragmatic at the moment. I just watch my fingers do the work basically.

[hfmadopter]

There really isn't too much of a difference in the ability of my right hand's fingers to play, except its ability to play trills. My fingers get pretty stiff and sometimes the knuckles even block each other during any type of trill excersise in general.

Piano practice for me is pretty pragmatic at the moment. I just watch my fingers do the work basically.

No need, nothing was so far out of the way to require apologies though if you feel better to do so then it's accepted.

If you don't mind me asking, what type of piano are you playing on and does the action have escapement ? Grand pianos and many mid to upper range digitals have this type of action. I ask because that can seriously change how you execute trills, negating the need for your fingers knuckles to even pass one another by playing deeper into the keys. At any rate even if not, there may be another approach to trills for you. I'm glad you brought this us, there are several people besides me here who can help you with this problem !

[pianosfun]

I practice on an upright piano, but it's a special type of Baldwin that has slightly longer strings than a typical upright. I don't know for certain if my piano has an escapement type of action, but I can see that something rests on the string and is raised slightly before the actually piano hammer strikes the string.

I pretty much play the keys of the keyboard entirely down to the keybed for every note of music that I come across. The fingers must go all the way down each time.

[hfmadopter]

It sounds as though you are super tensing up the muscles to your fingers, maybe hands and wrists as well. That would cause what you describe at any rate.

A piano with escapement action will have a definate bump that you can feel when depressing any key very slowly. Most uprights don't have escapement movement. However, the bump will be near the bottom of the stroke of the key. Here is the trick to this, if you depress the key to just above that bump you should be able to rapidly repeat that key and have the note sound on each depression of the key stroke and not return the key to it's resting height till done. So you already are half pressing the key before you even start the trill. Then the movement of your fingers is very short, you can actually make a crawling or scratching motion  on the keys in question with your fingers and produce a super rapid trill. Your hand should be very relaxed. THe motion is almost as if you are imitating a walking man with your fingers on a desk top. In fact some people actually do walk in towards the fall board slightly when doing this.

That said, a lot of Baldwin pianos have rather short key travel and pretty nice action. So this may work anyway by using the finger technique with full travel in that case. Try it, let us know how you make out !

[pianosfun]

Haha, well, it turns out that my piano doesn't have the escapement action on it. My piano teacher's grand piano doesn't have that type of action either. It's true that I was tensing up the muscles in my fingers somewhat, though. It's more difficult to play with these larger knuckles, but it's still fun to play. (And not to say always listen to music). After all, who am I to be complaining if I can still listen to music?