Warming up and other preparations

[NetherMagic]

Okay my problem is kind of weird, more of a problem related to my own personal habits and maybe my DNA setup or wutever hehe   but newayz, here's the prob:

Everytime I wanna play/practice one of my actual piano pieces that require movement like Moonlight and Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu, I have to run warm water thru my hands for a long time and then maybe practice technique for like about 20mins before my fingers can move where I tell them.  If I don't do this warm-up process, my fingers are just like cement, they can't move!   At first I didn't really worry about this, but then a while ago I was just at this piano performance and I was wondering how those finalists can play those pieces like Listz's Mephisto Waltz so fast and they probably didn't even warm-up in backstage!  

So is there like anyway you can train your hands so that they can play at least smoothly not like cement anytime you want them to without warm up?  It would be rather embarrassing if my friends asked me to play a piece and then I tell them that I havta warm up a while b4 I can play...

And I also wanna ask, how long do you guys warm up and what do you guys play to warm up during normal practice procedures and also before recitals?  And if you have any more tips I would appreciate it very much, thank you!  

[willcowskitz]

Hmmm warm water huh?  

When I sit at the piano I usually start with my left hand, I take an octave and hit two notes between the ends, then try to play it as softly and mellow as possible, then bring in my right hand and do the same thing. First slowly and harmoniously, then after a while I start jumping my hands over each other and doing the same 4-notes-thing and changing the two middle notes' position in different places so my fingers get more flexible in every way. Also I move my wrist up and down for example up when pressing the keys from low to high in order, and down when playing it from high to low. I go from the far end of the piano to the other and bring my hands further and closer on turns. Moving shoulders releases tension too, and gives 'air to breathe' for the hands. I start to slowly add force to my fingers so that they're finally like iron rods that can press the keys with just a little force from the hands. Also, try Liszt's hand relaxation procedure: first squeeze your fists as tight as you can and hold there for a while, then release the fist and spread the fingers as wide as you can and tense them there a while, then just drop your hands down suddenly relaxing them. Repeat if needed. The idea is to let blood flow as well as possible.

Hope this helped in any way.

[rach17]

Something that really helps me is to stretch my hands before I play.  I generally have to play a little technique in the morning before my fingers are really limber, but stretching really speeds it up.  I have also had tendonidis in both hands that the stretching pretty much cured.  Try searching the net for site that detail different stretches.  As for warming up cold hands, I have a small perrifan (sp?) wax tub that I dip my hands in three times then let sit for a couple of minutes.  It's very helpful and doesn't dry out hands like water.

[NetherMagic]

oh thx for the squeezing hand stretch thing, i'll use that next day b4 i practice

and also I have one additional question, it might/might not be related to stretch

On Moonlight 3rd movement, the 10th and 12th bar, how on the right hand you use your 5th finger to play the Gsharp and the 4th finger to play the Fsharp, most of the time I tend to just screw up on that whole part because there's not enough clarity between my 4th and 5th finger, it might be because I can't raise my 4th finger that high, and my fingers are a bit short... does anyone have any ways of exercising and advice to help me fix that part up?  that'd be great, thx

[willcowskitz]

I'm not sure if I know which part you mean, but:
Try to find another solution for the fingering. The fingerings on scores aren't always suited for different hands. For example, when you get to D#, try switching your fifth finger to 4th or 3rd and then use thumb and the second finger to tap the keys. Try using the second finger for all keys from C# to F# (4th or 5th at G# during this) and when you go down from C#, use your thumb. Would G# on 4th and F# on 2nd feel comfortable? This turned out to work well with me. Try to "detach" yourself from the keys by switching the finger that presses G# continuously. This way you'll not create a single routine for certain part, but allow your fingers to "think" on their own, which can turn out to be valuable in many other places as well.

As Liszt said: "First learn it on every possible fingering and then pick the best."

Its a wonderful piece, I hope you'll get it down!

[davy10tunes]

NetherMagic,

I find that the 4th finger is too weak to be used at the parts you mention, try 3-5 instead.

David

[ted]

When I was younger I used to have this "warming up" problem, which was a nuisance, but now I seem to be able to start right away. I don't really know what I'm doing that's different apart from thinking much less about technique. I used to be very aware of my physical movements while playing and what my fingers were doing but now I concentrate on nothing but the sound; perhaps this contains a clue.