Fourth Finger

[Nightscape]

Are there any excercises out there specifically meant to train you fourth fingers?

I know that there are pieces for the left hand alone, but I wasn't sure about this.

[m]

Are there any excercises out there specifically meant to train you fourth fingers?

I know that there are pieces for the left hand alone, but I wasn't sure about this.

Be very carefull! We all know story about R. Schumann's 4th finger and where he ended his life
There are all kind of theories about developing its independance and strenght. I am for one who believes that the most important thing is to have not physical, but menthal control over it--4th always works in conjunction with 3rd and 5th, and its the best never try to go against of nature.

I would start with slow 3rd-4th trills in triplets, with accents on every first bit of the triplet. Then modify it like C-c#-c-C#-c-c#-C-d-c-D-c-d-C-eb-c-Eb-etc. and come back to D, and then next transpose the same from C#. I put capitals on accents. Do exactly the same with 4th-5th.
Then (probably somebody would hate me for that) Chopin 2nd etude very slowly, without chords, only upper chromatic melody, with the fingering indicated. If you feel uncompfortable with that just play chromatic scale with etude's fingering. Do exactly the same with your LH. In all these excersises pay extremely careful attention to eveness of sound, smoothness of rhythm, and feeling of absolute comfort in your hands.

[xvimbi]

Are there any excercises out there specifically meant to train you fourth fingers?

I know that there are pieces for the left hand alone, but I wasn't sure about this.

What do you mean by "train"?

The simplest exercise I know is just lifting the finger: Keep your hand relaxed on a table top, lift your fourth finger up and hold it for a couple of seconds. While you are doing this, you must "tell" all the other muscles to relax, so do not engage any muscles other than those required to lift the fourth finger. This is the most difficult and also most important part. "Strengthening" the fourth finger in particular, but in principle any finger, is primarily an exercise in relaxing everything around it that is not involved. Go only as far as comfortably possible. Do not try to lift the finger up higher if you feel the slightest tension in the hand or forearm.

[pianiststrongbad]

The chopin etudes are suppose to help this.  Especially Op. 10 no. 2.  I tried hanon for years.... i don't think any good comes of it as far as finger strength goes.  I would also suggest the trill exercise as mentioned above.  Or maybe even the Chopin Etude op. 25 no. 6 (thirds).  Hope this helps.

[BoliverAllmon]

do chromatic scales with the 3,4,5 fingers instead of 1,2,3. I guarantee it won't be that fast at first, but it will get better as you go.

boliver

[m]

do chromatic scales with the 3,4,5 fingers instead of 1,2,3. I guarantee it won't be that fast at first, but it will get better as you go.

boliver

Isn't it exactly what I've said?

[Nightscape]

Thanks for the replies.... I'll try those things.

[BoliverAllmon]

i just thought you talked about 3-4 trills. sorry if i repeated.

boliver

[field scarecrow]

Hi everyone, i'm new here and also quite new to piano, I only started learning recently and this is my first post on this forum, so nice to meet you all!

About the fourth finger, when I play piano I noticed that my fourth finger (both left and right hands) sometimes bends inwards as to outwards, should I correct this and make it bend outwards like the rest? or is this not a bad thing?

Thanks.

[xvimbi]

About the fourth finger, when I play piano I noticed that my fourth finger (both left and right hands) sometimes bends inwards as to outwards, should I correct this and make it bend outwards like the rest? or is this not a bad thing?

Can you explain what you mean by "inwards" and "outwards"?

[field scarecrow]

About the fourth finger, when I play piano I noticed that my fourth finger (both left and right hands) sometimes bends inwards as to outwards, should I correct this and make it bend outwards like the rest? or is this not a bad thing?

Can you explain what you mean by "inwards" and "outwards"?

I mean the end of the finger moving in and outwards when pushing a key from the joint.  I hope that makes sense, or perhaps fingers shouldn't do that and I have a problem 
I've seen other peoples fingers do the same though.

[xvimbi]

I mean the end of the finger moving in and outwards when pushing a key from the joint.  I hope that makes sense, or perhaps fingers shouldn't do that and I have a problem 
I've seen other peoples fingers do the same though.

Sorry, to ask again: Inwards and outwards with respect to what? Pushing a key from the joint? Huh? What joint? There are a few. Are you talking about collapsed joints, i.e. is finger is bent upwards at the last joint when looked at from the side, palm facing down? If that's what you mean, yes, it's bad, both from a pianistic point of view (less control) and from a physiological point of view (joints should not be over-extended). If not, please clarify.

[julie391]

i have seen gavrilov play with his pinkies in this kind of position, it doesnt seem to hinder him - but it looked a little painful to me

[field scarecrow]

I mean the end of the finger moving in and outwards when pushing a key from the joint.  I hope that makes sense, or perhaps fingers shouldn't do that and I have a problem 
I've seen other peoples fingers do the same though.

Are you talking about collapsed joints, i.e. is finger is bent upwards at the last joint when looked at from the side, palm facing down? If that's what you mean, yes, it's bad, both from a pianistic point of view (less control) and from a physiological point of view (joints should not be over-extended). If not, please clarify.

Yeah I think you got it pretty much there, sorry i'm not very good at explaining things and thanks for your help, i'll start practising making sure it doesn't do that anymore!

edit: just finished today's practise session, this is going to take a long time to correct, I can only play correctly at a slow speed otherwise I can't stop the finger from bending inwards. Better now than later I suppose!