Wild Pinky Fingers.

[techlogik]

My pinky on both hands likes to go up high/lifting before I come down to strike a key.  I guess it's good I can lift my pinkies up high, but it isn't necessary from what I can tell.

At this point, they always comes down fine and in time.  But, the sight of it going up in the air to come down doesn't seem normal?

Is there something I can do to help keep it down?  I tried playing flat fingers, but my fingers don't fit between the keys great sometimes, and my thumb won't reach the keys, so maybe I don't get the flat fingers thing, but it don't work that great for me.

Anyway, any ideas on how to work on this would be nice.

I've been lurking around reading here for awhile, alot of knowledge and good information.

Thanks

[Brian Healey]

When I first started playing, I had the same problem. My teacher said it looked like I was "picking up a dirty diaper." It's a problem of finger independance and relaxation. Your raised pinky is causing a hinderance, even though it seems like the easiest thing to do is let it fly. Practice very slow, relaxed scales and this five-finger-drop exercise:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5826.msg56756.html#msg56756


Before long, your pinky will be back in it's rightful place.

Peace,
Bri

[Brian Healey]

Oh, just thought of something else.

When you practice scales, try curling your pinky under your hand, releasing it only when it is needed to play a note. This will help get your hand used to the idea of having your pinky down while you play. Be careful, though, don't get into the habit of permenantly playing that way, because a tightly curled finger is as bad as a wildly extended one. It's just a way of isolating your pinky, so that it can relax while other fingers are being used.

Peace,
Bri

[rlefebvr]

I had the same problem when I started playing. Don't go nuts over it.
It will correct itself eventually.

What I did to help was this exercise

Place all fingers on white keys, say CDEFG.
Now lift your thumb and play the note, but make sure your other fingers do not move off the keys.
repeat this for all other fingers.

Do this no more then once or twice a day. Speed is non essential and in fact you will fine yourself crawling.

After one or two months, you will see your pinky much closer to the proper position and you will not even be thinking about it.

Worked wonders for me.