Fallen knuckles, first phalange - how do correct?

[green]

Have a 10 year old who plays Chopin, and has come to me with fallen knuckles/raised wrist and some fingers the first phalange also breaks. I have used the 'Cathedral' analogy to keep the knuckles raised, and a wrist parallel to the forearm, but the first phalange seems to be more an age related issue and that ossification of the bone structure is still developing. How do you deal with these things?

[nyiregyhazi]

Have a 10 year old who plays Chopin, and has come to me with fallen knuckles/raised wrist and some fingers the first phalange also breaks. I have used the 'Cathedral' analogy to keep the knuckles raised, and a wrist parallel to the forearm, but the first phalange seems to be more an age related issue and that ossification of the bone structure is still developing. How do you deal with these things?

This might sound weird, but start nail down, flat against the key surface. Slowly lengthen back and the finger can pass through every possible range of position without buckling (if the arm doesn't press down). The thumb is also a big factor. I use various exercises based on pointing the thumb straight down at full length and tapping against the piano beneath the finger. When the thumb points up, you have big problems. When I point it down, the raised wrists fix themselves.

[green]

Thanks for that post, will try that. I was thinking that I suspect his fallen knuckes to be the result of playing chopin waltzes by ear, always having to be in an open position with the hands and making large stretches, fast leaps around the keyboard - a recipe for fallen knuckes?

[nyiregyhazi]

Thanks for that post, will try that. I was thinking that I suspect his fallen knuckes to be the result of playing chopin waltzes by ear, always having to be in an open position with the hands and making large stretches, fast leaps around the keyboard - a recipe for fallen knuckes?

Sure is. You may find the difference rather interesting between my mephisto of a few years back and my recent films of a Liszt Rhapsody and Petrarch sonnet.

https://andrewthayer.co.uk/index.php?p=1_5_Videos

I used to have a really severe problem, but it's greatly improved- if by no means been truly fixed.

If the hand has to go into big stretch, practising the thumb exercise of bringing it across and down and tapping underneath the other fingers (which stay with the notes depressed) is invaluable. The weak fingers easily spend way too much time with depressed knuckles, to make big stretches. When you release the thumb note and use it to realign the fingers, they get much better knowledge of where they SHOULD have been positioned, even if they went into a terrible position at first. If it wasn't for this exercise, I'd still be doing the same appalling 5th finger droops in octaves and would have got nowhere with the rhapsody. My high wrist is really not good still, but the fingers at least move well enough to avoid the severe knuckle droop seen in the mephisto.

[mcdiddy1]

First lesson or so I often have students place their hands on a hard surface or so and have students practice aligning the bones of their fingers and find the strongest possible alignment. I avoid students think of tightening muscles to form it. I then check their alignment by having them push on my finger joints to feel how strong mine are and feel the strength of the bones being in the right place. When you do it right it is very hard to push in without force and it is amusing to see younger students try to push my finger with their whole arm and not be able to do it. Then we switch and push on their joints and we identify which ones are weakest. Often the student discovers even the pinky can be strong when aligned properly. The weak fourth finger is a finger I usually have my students play a bit more curved than the other fingers because of the restriction it naturally has physically. Honestly after we go through this process I rarely have to mention it again. Every now then I remind them if I see it but its not a big issues if it is address quickly before habits form.