Finger Strength and Agility

[Minute Waltz]

Greetings, all

I am looking to find methods to improve my finger agility and strength (hence the topic), particularly my left hand. I am naturally right handed, although I am now nearly ambidextrous, thanks in part to the piano. I still find my left hand weaker and of less control than my right. If anyone has any suggestions as to how I might improve my hand technique, it would be greatly appreciated.

[xvimbi]

My advice is to play through a lot of exercises, etudes and studies. Here are the ones I can whole-heartedly recommend. They have been designed for developing agility and coordination in the fingers, among a lot of other things:

Bach: Clavierbuechlein fuer Friedrich Wilhelm Bach
Bach: Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Bach: Well-tempered Calvier I and II
Bach: Two-part inventions and sinfonias

[bernhard]

Add to xvimbi’s most worthwhile list, Scarlatti sonatas.

Have a look here for a few suggestions:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2339.msg20064.html#msg20064

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Alde]

Hanon exercises are wonderfull.

[TheRach]

Hanon exercises are wonderfull.

But must be done hands seperately.

[hodi]

bach's compositions really develope technique, especially his fugues which requires good coordination.. i suggest you try some fugues from WTC 1 & 2

[nick]

Practicing any music that has lots of fast left hand passages.

Nick

[Minute Waltz]

Thank you for the suggestions.
I have begun Hanon exercises as of yesterday.
Also, I have begun this exercise, for anyone else who is looking to increase finger agility and independence:
https://www.musicteachermag.com/archives/pianotechnique.htm

[xvimbi]

Thank you for the suggestions.
I have begun Hanon exercises as of yesterday.

If you don't have a knowledeagble teacher who can expertly guide you through Hanon and similar exercise collections, DO NOT DO ANY OF THEM!

The danger of getting hurt is too great, particularly if you follow the instructions that Hanon gives himself. These exercises are very repetitive; if you don't have the correct technique, you'll get injured.

[jazzyprof]

Thank you for the suggestions.
I have begun Hanon exercises as of yesterday.
Also, I have begun this exercise, for anyone else who is looking to increase finger agility and independence:
https://www.musicteachermag.com/archives/pianotechnique.htm

Minute Waltz:  I took a look at the exercise you have begun working on and it sounds like a sure fire way to acquire tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and a host of other injuries.  I quote here some of the features of that exercise:

“Now, keeping the hands positioned over our G# diminished seventh chord, our attention moves to the fourth finger. Again, keep each finger firmly pushed down, except for the fourth. As before the fourth finger now repeats its note (F in the right hand and B in the left hand), evenly, as forcefully as possible, and at moderate tempo. Repeat for anywhere between one to ten minutes, depending upon the level of fatigue you experience and the extent of your pianistic ambitions! If you intend to perform the Rachmaninoff's Concerto No.3 at some point your future career, practise for longer!”

“The muscles which operate the fingers are strengthened, especially those of the fourth and fifth fingers. The more equal the strength profile of the fingers, the more even the playing.
The tissues that connect the fingers, and reduce their mobility, are rendered more flexible.
The fingers are taught to produce great tone without engaging any arm or wrist movement.”

It amazes me that someone would recommend pressing down with all your fingers except the fourth, while you forcefully strike with the fourth finger for ten minutes or more!  This is a disaster waiting to happen.  Please search this forum for posts on such things as "Hanon" and "finger strength" and you may think twice about these exercises.

[xvimbi]

Also, I have begun this exercise, for anyone else who is looking to increase finger agility and independence:
https://www.musicteachermag.com/archives/pianotechnique.htm

I would like to chime in with jazzyprof: I consider this exercise extremely dangerous. I am surprised that something like this is posted on a piano teachers web site. This is utterly irresponsible.

[will]

I would like to chime in with jazzyprof: I consider this exercise extremely dangerous. I am surprised that something like this is posted on a piano teachers web site. This is utterly irresponsible.

I agree.  Also, not only is this article on a web site but also available  in print! I was amazed that this article was allowed to be published when I read it a while ago. Dangerous indeed.

[tocca]

I can only agree with the previous posters. Be very careful with this type of exercises, or better yet... avoid completely!

[richard w]

I read this article with complete amazement. Far from there being any merit in the exercises suggested, it seems to me that it would be hard to see any benefit even if a very careful approach was adopted. Every aspect seems to be aimed at causing the maximum amount of harm, whilst being completely dismissive of the most merited aspects of piano technique. You really would be far better off learning a nice piece instead.

[Hmoll]

Also, I have begun this exercise, for anyone else who is looking to increase finger agility and independence:
https://www.musicteachermag.com/archives/pianotechnique.htm

Just say "no."

[ted]

Well, I'm going to go even further against the popular grain and suggest the practice clavier for finger technique. I have used mine for thirty-seven years on and off and despite dire warnings it has never been anything but a great help to me. I have been reading forums for two or three years now, and I often wonder why so many posters, obviously good players, seem plagued with injuries and difficulties from doing all the right things while I have done everything wrong for years, really played hard, and yet have had no physical problems at all. In fact, even at fifty-seven, my finger technique still seems to be improving.

Now I am certainly not suggesting the vast body of orthodox learning is wrong, that would be silly, and it might simply be that my unfashionable technique is just ideally suited to my own creative mechanism and my own music. However, while this latter hypothesis is no doubt true to some extent, I have nagging doubts. If I have been doing the wrong thing for so long, then why am I not a mass of gymnastic problems, pains and inadequate musical expression ?

I have never done those Hanon things though - no musical interest. I prefer the silent clavier with music playing in the background.

[Hmoll]

Well, I'm going to go even further against the popular grain and suggest the practice clavier for finger technique. I have used mine for thirty-seven years on and off and despite dire warnings it has never been anything but a great help to me. I have been reading forums for two or three years now, and I often wonder why so many posters, obviously good players, seem plagued with injuries and difficulties from doing all the right things while I have done everything wrong for years, really played hard, and yet have had no physical problems at all. In fact, even at fifty-seven, my finger technique still seems to be improving.

Now I am certainly not suggesting the vast body of orthodox learning is wrong, that would be silly, and it might simply be that my unfashionable technique is just ideally suited to my own creative mechanism and my own music. However, while this latter hypothesis is no doubt true to some extent, I have nagging doubts. If I have been doing the wrong thing for so long, then why am I not a mass of gymnastic problems, pains and inadequate musical expression ?

I have never done those Hanon things though - no musical interest. I prefer the silent clavier with music playing in the background.

Not everybody who smokes gets cancer, but that's hardly a rationale for a lucky smoker to say smoking is safe.
The people here who talk about their injuries for the most part did not get them from practicing the right way. You can practice Hanon, Czerny, and use a practice keyboard. Most of the time it's not "what," it's  "how."

The originator of this thread is obviously inexperienced, which is why people pointed out the dangers of the exercises in that article.

[Minute Waltz]

I apologize to the more impressionable members of this forum for my hasty, uninformed post, not to mention the members who seemingly took personal umbrage to the site which I made reference to.
I made the original post in hopes to discover exercises to improve the independence and evenness among the fingers individually and the hands as wholes. I found the exercise of the site musicteachermag.com and found it to be helpful within the first few sessions of practice. Perhaps it is deleterious to the health of the hands and fingers, but consider the following:     The exercise was found on a reputable music website, intended to improve the pianists technique. it is easily discovered that the website is that of a Teaching Magazine, and I daresay it has better repute than any individual in this forum.

I mean no offense to any person or group on this forum, but you must consider my position; I read an article on improving piano technique of a creditable magazine, and put the prescribed methods into practice. I am told by individuals on a forum of no particular esteem (that I know of, and apologies to any that do) that I must desist in the methods, or suffer the possible consequences of tendonitis, carpel tunnel syndrome, etc. I realize that these comments were made in good intention, yet I ask you, Whom am I to believe? Uncredited individuals, or a teaching magazine?

I intend to appeal to the better judgement of my private piano teacher, and will make no further comment, regarding either those who have impugned me personally or the exercise's effects. I have sinced stopped using the method until I am personally told of its salutary effects.

[jazzyprof]

I intend to appeal to the better judgement of my private piano teacher, and will make no further comment, regarding either those who have impugned me personally or the exercise's effects. I have sinced stopped using the method until I am personally told of its salutary effects.

Please do not take umbrage at our comments.  No one, to my knowledge, attacked you personally.  People here, including me, expressed concern about the possible deleterious effects of the exercises in question.  Since you are not the author of those exercises there is really no need to take personal offense.  No one has impugned you personally as far I can tell.  Your effort to inform people of available exercises is appreciated.  However, people are free to express their opinions about any exercises.  In this case, the tenor of the responses was more like "buyer beware". 

[Hmoll]

I intend to appeal to the better judgement of my private piano teacher, and will make no further comment, regarding either those who have impugned me personally or the exercise's effects. I have sinced stopped using the method until I am personally told of its salutary effects.

Which is what you should have done in the first place.
No one here is attacking or impunging you. You posted some exercises of questionable value, that could do more harm than good.
Guess what? When you get something for free on the Internet, you get exactly what you paid for - including lots that's posted here.

[anda]

Thank you for the suggestions.
I have begun Hanon exercises as of yesterday.
Also, I have begun this exercise, for anyone else who is looking to increase finger agility and independence:
https://www.musicteachermag.com/archives/pianotechnique.htm

about the exercise - i read the article - i find it very dangerous indeed. but here's a variant i used for a long time as warm-up exercise (and my hand is very small, and i am also physically inclined towards getting tendinitis):

the chord would be c-es-fis-a-c - BUT NEVER PLAYED WITH ALL FINGERS!

1. start by playing 1+4 (c + es-fis-a-c chord). most important: do not let your hand stay in this stretched position, but play the first note while keeping the hand in normal relaxed position. stay for a second like this, then, keeping your finger #1 on c, throw the other 4 fingers to attack the chord in ff, and immediately come back to the original position. stay like this for a moment, relaxing the hand (i cannot emphasize enough on how important it is to keep the hand relaxed all through the exercise except for the 1 second of actually throwing). repeat for 2-3 times (no more). in the same manner go chromatically up (cis-e-g-b-cis, d-f-as-h-d, and so on) for one octave, and then go back down just the same -still 1+4, which now will be finger #5 + all the rest.

2. go to 2+3 (c-es + fis-a-c) in the same manner; then to 3+2 and 4+1.

if done correctly (hands relaxed, all arm weight supported by the finger(s) laying and never by the ones thrown, the hand spread instantly in stretched position and also instantly coming back to normal relaxed position), this exercise should help you with streghtening your fingers.

as for agility... practice anything involving agility

best luck

[musicsdarkangel]

I echo the Bach WTC suggestions.....particularly the C sharp major Prelude and Fugue.  I had to learn it in 2 months for auditions with a Beethoven Sonata, Chopin Etude, etc..  and it gave me the biggest workout.

[SteinwayTony]

For "finger strength and ability" as you desire, I too recommend the Hanon Virtuoso Pianist.

For finger independence see if you can't hunt down the Dohnanyi studies; they're brilliant (though maybe not brilliant-sounding).

[pianomaestro88]

For finger independence see if you can't hunt down the Dohnanyi studies; they're brilliant (though maybe not brilliant-sounding).

Ah, Dohnanyi. These were recommended to me by a teacher who studied with Dohnanyi. She was very eager to recommend them. However, I do not believe that they are anymore helpful (and perhaps just as plausibly harmful) than the excercise recommended by the Piano Magazine that was posted previously. In one of the Dohnanyi exercises one is required to hold down a C, D, and F (1, 2, and 4) while alternately 'pounding' the E and G with third and fourth fingers. This does not seem too brilliant to me.

I believe that the best way to gain is through the study of actual music. It is within music that the real technical problems are presented and therefore it is within the music that one should study technique. Therefore I agree with those who recommend Bach's various studies.

Hanon is oftentimes used improperly. It should be able to be played in all key signatures, first of all, and this is often overlookeed. Second, like others have said, when done under no guidance it could be damaging. I studied with someone from the Moscow Conservatory and he highly recommended a "hammering" technique with the Hanon, that each finger come upon the keys as a "hammer". I am still investigating the validity of this claim.

Something that I believe has not been mentioned are scales. Scales can be of the utmost help. However seemingly elementary, scales may be practiced in a variety of ways. Of course, it is wisest first to master all scales in four octaves at a quick tempo. Second, rhythms are helpful. Also, thirds, tenths, and sixths and double thirds, sixths, and octaves (for instance: double thirds are C and E in the right hand and C and E in the left hand). Czerny endorsed the scales as a great technique builder. I concur with Czerny. It is my belief that all other technique exercises are futile if one has not first mastered (that means quick tempo, too) his or her scales.

[piano88]

Many have written exercises for the piano and many methods work well: Hanon, Czerny and Beringer are commonplace. But in my opinion, none beat the Brahms 51, especially for strength and agility.
More and more though, you find teachers moving away from the exercises and more towards pieces that improve the technique - The etudes of Chopin, Scriabin and Rachmaninov, The Bach 48 etc.
And NOTHING can beat scales if you want a better technique!
AD

[Minute Waltz]

I apologize for bringing up this topic again, but does anyone have a link to the Dohnanyi studies? I have Hanon, and some Czerny, but no Dohnanyi. If anyone has a link, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[Herve]

Left hand "Finger strength and Agility", eh? 

It's an almost infinite subject, so let's "boil it all down" somewhat with a simple example.

Would the Hanon proponents please instruct Minute Waltz how to study for (and play at tempo) measure 37 - starting f c f g in the left hand -   of the Chopin Etude Op. 10, no. 12 ("Revolutionary")?  Start off with "fingering" and then we'll go from there.

[TheRach]

I highly recommend you read the book by Chuan C. Chang. A great book with much insight that has helped me greatly.
https://members.aol.com/cc88m/PianoBook.html

There is one section in which he explains the problems with Hanon and related exercises.
I will quote a small selection.

"The simplified, schematic structure of these exercises takes all the music out of them so that students can (and too frequently do) end up practicing like robots, totally devoid of artistry. It does not require a musical genius to compile a Hanon type series of exercises. The joy of piano comes from the one-on-one conversations with the greatest geniuses that ever lived, when you play their compositions. It makes no sense to practice something devoid of music; remember, technique and music can never be separated. I do recommend one-hand scales, arpeggios and chromatic runs, followed by some two-hand play. Scales and arpeggios should provide more than enough "routine exercises" for everybody. For too many years, Hanon has taught the wrong message that technique and music can be learned separately. Bach excels in this respect; his music exercises both the hands and the mind. The Hanon exercises are actually a small subset of Bach's 2 part Inventions. In fact, Hanon probably excerpted most his material from Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue, modified so that each unit is self cycling. The remainder was probably also taken from Bach's works, especially the Inventions and Sinfonias. "

"One of the greatest harm that Hanon inflicts is that it robs you of the time needed to make music playing compositions that you have already learned and practicing the art of performance, or even just learning new pieces. The student often ends up with insufficient time to develop their repertoire. Hanon can be harmful to technique and performance!

"A) He recommends "lifting the fingers high", an obvious no-no for fast playing, since that will be the biggest source of stress. I have never seen a famous pianist in concert lift the fingers high to play a fast run; in fact, I have never seen anyone do that! This advice by Hanon has misled an enormous number of students into thinking that piano should be played by lifting the finger and plonking it down onto the key. It is one of the most non-musical and technically incorrect ways to play. It is true that the extensor muscles are often neglected, but there are exercises for treating this problem directly.
(B) He recommends continuous practicing of both hands, as if piano technique is some kind of weight lifting exercise. Students must never practice with fatigued hands. This is why the HS method of this book works so well - it allows you to practice hard 100% of the time without fatigue, because one hand rests while the other works. Stamina is gained, not by practicing with fatigue and stress, but by proper conditioning. Besides, what most of us need most is mental stamina, not finger stamina. Furthermore, stamina is a minor issue; what we really need are technique and relaxation.
(C) He recommends playing every day, regardless of skill level, all your life. But once you acquire a skill, you don't need to reacquire it over and over; you only need to work on technique that you don't already have. Thus once you can play all 60 pieces well, there is no need to play them anymore -- what will we gain? Does he think that our hands will mysteriously deteriorate once we stop playing Hanon in spite of all the other lesson pieces?
(D) He is apparently aware of only the thumb under method, whereas the thumb over method is more important.
(E) In most of the exercises, he recommends fixed wrists which is only partially correct. His recommendation reveals a lack of understanding of what “quiet hands” means.
(F) There is no way to practice a majority of the important hand motions, although there are a few wrist exercises for repetitions"