Can we strengthen our fingers?

[rovis77]

Hi, I find my 4th and 5th fingers weak, I am playing Chopin etude op 10 1 and my fingers Im having trouble with the arpeggios that use the 4th and 5th finger. What can I do to solve this?. How can we strengthen our fingers if the do not have muscles?

[thalbergmad]

388 posts and 1,042,006 words later, the thread ends and the poor chap who started it will be none the wiser.

Thal

[dima_76557]

388 posts and 1,042,006 words later, the thread ends and the poor chap who started it will be none the wiser.

Thal

I'll break that tradition: One clip showing Richter doing a Neuhaus exercise. That is the "strength" we need on the piano to play some of the virtuoso literature (the demonstration starts at 0:42):

P.S.: This won't help very much to solve the problems in op 10 no 1 because there, you need brains more than finger strength. For the OP, I would advise to try leading with the thumb (=always keeping the thumb as close as possible to the next playing finger) and make required horizontal and in/out adjustments with both arm and wrist. The "weakness" in 4 and 5 should be eliminated at once by doing that. "Stretching", "strengthening 4 and 5", etc. is simply the wrong strategy.

[nyiregyhazi]

Hi, I find my 4th and 5th fingers weak, I am playing Chopin etude op 10 1 and my fingers Im having trouble with the arpeggios that use the 4th and 5th finger. What can I do to solve this?. How can we strengthen our fingers if the do not have muscles?

Because they are still controlled by muscles. No mystery there. When people say fingers don't have muscles it's just a pedantic statement that serves as a red herring.

To feel strength, try playing a trill with 45 with your thumb raised as high in the air as possible. Also push on your knuckles and notice how easily they give way. Then pull the thumb back point it straight down, at length. The knuckles don't give way and more and there's less effort to play the trill. For the etude, the simplest way to make the fingers feel strong is to keep the thumb opened out and pointing slightly down, when the other fingers play.

[etogmajor]

I want to say that it's not so much finger strength as it is finger support. That is, keeping your fingers and hands shaped in a way that provides the most direct and easy path for your fingers to press keys in rapid succession. I find sometimes that messing around with the shape of my fingers and/or hand make certain passages more doable.

[indianajo]

The muscles that move the fingers are mostly in the forearm, but I don't hear of many students plowing through the schmitt exercises as I did when I was young.  They are on pianostreet, https://www.pianostreet.com/schmitt-sheet-music/preparatory-exercises-op-16.htm
My teacher bought mine in a book from G. Schirmer
4 5 strength is a typical weakness of the new student, or the old person that has lapsed (me).
At my age and skill level, I play 3 Scott Joplin rags every night when I have a piano available.  Since I don't have a piano at my summer trailer, I'm suffering fatigue this month (September) on the 4th and 5th finger muscles.  You lose 10% of your muscle mass after age 60 if you don't exercise, and it only takes a few weeks off to start the process.  The rags I play are Paragon, Magnetic, and Maple Leaf.  Lots of octave jumps in left hand, lots of octave chords in the right. 
Signing off to get my rags exercised before Roosevelts airs on PBS at 2000.