Old-style 'finger technique' worth trying?

[goose]

I just found an article on developing 'finger technique' in Music Teacher magazine.

The author, Robert Nixon, starts by criticising much contemporary technical advice for being concerned more with the shoulders or arms than with the fingers, and for being superficially scientific. It's a fair point, I suppose. And he does acknowledge that his approach is really just taken from the 19th century.

But I have my doubts about what he writes. It seems to be a variation on Dohnanyi finger independence exercises. He talks extensively about gaining strength in the finger muscles. He also says the exercises are so boring you can read while you do them. (I've come to believe that no practice session need be boring. Life's too short. The more you concentrate, the more interesting it becomes. And, besides, I'd rather read a magazine over breakfast.)

So why can't I just ignore the article? Well, a little piece of me thinks that maybe there's something in it. Maybe 20 min per day is worth trying for a week.

The reason I'm posting (and not just trying it) is because the exercise seems to contradict so many principles I agree with (in the exercise, he says, the fingers should play the notes but the 'wrist must remain perfectly still').

Here's the article:
https://www.musicteachermag.com/pianotechnique.htm

Can anyone see any point in trying this exercise as part of an otherwise balanced practice diet?

Best,
Goose

p.s. this is not intended as an invitation to flame Mr Nixon for being hopelessly outmoded. For all I know, he is an excellent player and teacher.

[xvimbi]

Discussions about this article have been popping up every now and then on this forum, with considerable bashing. The bottom line generally was that this article should be banned.

Having said this, it is good to evaluate everything that is not immediately identifiable as nonsense. So, by all means, try different approaches, make careful observations and, if you are willing to do so, report back about your experiences. In this article, however, there are several exercises that are simply unhealthy, particularly forcefully moving one finger up and down, while keeping all other fingers depressed and wrist and arm perfectly still, for ten minutes, is just plain insane. IMHO, this person should be banned from teaching.

[goose]

Thanks, Xvimbi. Sorry if I didn't search before I posted. I thought I'd seen most of the stuff here on technique.

Anyway, I did indeed give the exercise a go at the end of this afternoon's session. And (no surprise now I'm sure) I won't be doing it again.

After a few seconds, I could feel the stiffness creeping into my forearms. I persevered for a minute or two, but it was quite obvious this is going to do no more than aggravate my forearms. I had to finish with some light Bach inventions just to get some positive feelings back in my hands!

I think, as Bernhard has said before, the problem with teachers like these is that 'it worked for them'. Or so they think. There are probably numerous subconscious processes he picked up over the years which enabled a decent technique. But because this is what his teacher taught him, he feels obliged to say it's the 'simple and certain way'.

Well, at least that's one time-consuming exercise I know I don't have to bother with any more 

[ted]

I haven't read that particular article and don't know much about technique really. I can say, however, that I am very pleased I developed my own finger movements over the years - largely with the help of my practice clavier. On the other hand, the holistic approach is nothing more than common sense. I would be the first to agree that anything which forces and strains the playing mechanism is destructive and silly.

However, I think it is possible to develop finger technique per se without all that old-fashioned nonsense. I have probably done the right things by accident, since I had no technical tuition at all.  When I use the clavier (only for a few minutes a day at the most anyway) I do not keep some things still while forcing others to move. I allow sympathetic movements to occur. The process has never been a struggle and such practice feels good physically.

But yes, I think the original poster might have something in that some players I've seen lately seem to take this "whole body" thing to extremes and their fingers seem very flaccid and weak. There is also, if you create music, the issue of whether your technique fits your musical end. I happen to mostly dislike legato - I like clear, discrete tones because they lend themselves more to rhythmic impulse. The sort of things I play really do sound better with a discrete finger technique.

There are other complicated improvisational reasons, to do with internal voices and rhythms, why I like doing a lot with my fingers alone; but these need not concern the present discussion.

As with many questions in music and everything else, it is not so much which extreme to choose, but how to arrive at an optimal mid-point to suit your own musical purpose and psyche.

[ramseytheii]

I skimmed the article and saw many things I think are basically good.
Finger independence is really the root of all problems in piano playing, and ultimately the largest test of any artist.
That being said (for the sake of brevity without justification),  the idea of building finger muscle is a fallacy.  Look at a video of any pianist who has been practicing all their lives; unless they were born with thick, muscular fingers, that doesn't generally change.  The muscles develop in the hand. 
In other words the fingers are not isolated from the rest of the body.  The article says that the elbows, shoulders etc. should be deemphasized  because of their physical distance from the keyboard.  That's not really a well thought-out point. True, the elbows and shoulers cannot be trained in the same way as the fingers and hand; they should be mainly flexible and responsive; but they are indispensable.  One can practice finger independence all one wants, but without the greater use of the body one is helpless in the face of Chopin etudes, even such "fingery" seeming ones as op.10 no.2, or op.25 no.11. 

I highly recommend these difficult exercises for improving finger independence.  But remember the fingers are not islands, not even from each other, and even the hand is divided into parts.  Busoni saw the hand in terms of three parts, the inner (Thumb- middle finger), the middle (index-ring fingers), and the outer (middle-pinky finger).   Perceiving the hand in this way has a surprisingly soothing effect on otherwise awkward stretches, for example in some chords from the above mentioned op.10 no.2 of Chopin.  Also in those wide-style Rachmaninoff or Scriabin arpeggios, which seem to many severely awkward at first but are ultimately pianistic.


Walter Ramsey

[lostinidlewonder]

So it is written in that link Goose posted:

"The purpose of this article is to outline a time-efficient, simple, and certain way of developing a quality finger technique."


The first excercise is to hold a chord of G# B D F G# in BH and hold down the notes but keep repeating the 5ths. He doesn't mention at all how you are supposed to repeat these notes, he just says repeat it. This offers 0 guidance to someone who wants to start out. one would have to add description as to how the 5th fingers should fall. It would be hepful to add that you should fall with the entire left side of the Lh (palm down) when the LH 5th strikes its notes, similarly the RH 5th must fall with the entire RH side of the hand (palm down).

However i think this excerises offers little, but it is proclaimed it will help in 3 ways

-to strengthen the fifth finger in both its downward (sounding) and upward (articulation) aspects.

- to render its action (the 5ths) independent of the other fingers, and independent of movement of the arm or wrist; and,

- to develop orientation, sensitivity and control in the fifth finger.


The first one yes it does, but so does 100 other excersises.

The second one is blasphemous. The action of the 5ths independent of the movement of the wrist is just stupid because that then restricts the 5th finger to move just by itself which is a maximum of discomfort. The finger must drop with the entire side of the hand, not just use its own weight, this is the control of efficient playing, not finger playing which will simply kill your hands in the end.

The third one is pushing it and just being over confident in the value of the excersise expressed. Orientation is not there since we are not moving anywhere and maintain a stagnant position, sensitivity isnt there because there is no music to attach a sensitive expression to, and again control is highlighting orientation, which isnt there because we are simply controlling a stagnant position which offers not a great deal.


the rest of the article encourages that we do the same process of repeating the notes on every single finger. Again the same comments apply to each finger as with the 5th.

I would have to say the article is a waste of space, simply because what was written could be written in about 2 sentences, i.e:

"Hold this 5note chord in both hands, now simply repeat each finger in each hand until you are exhausted. Trust me, this will make your playing good enough for Rachmaninov."

make your own decision if this is good advice or not!

[xvimbi]

I would have to say the article is a waste of space, simply because what was written could be written in about 2 sentences, i.e:

"Hold this 5note chord in both hands, now simply repeat each finger in each hand until you are exhausted. Trust me, this will make your playing good enough for Rachmaninov."

make your own decision if this is good advice or not!

Don't be so gentle! You only elaborated on the fifth finger. This exercise actually does kind of work for the fifth finger. Kind of! But it will never work for the third or the fourth finger, for they are not independent for anatomical reasons. They share tendons, and thus one cannot achieve independence for fingers three and four. Period. No matter how many exercises have been developed over the centuries.

The second big misconception is the one of moving something while connected parts are forced into a contracted state. Although these movements are sometimes necessary in piano playing, they must be avoided as much as possible. That is because co-contraction is the number one cause for injuries in pianists. Search the forum for 'co-contraction'.

I skimmed the article and saw many things I think are basically good.
Finger independence is really the root of all problems in piano playing, and ultimately the largest test of any artist.
That being said (for the sake of brevity without justification),  the idea of building finger muscle is a fallacy.  Look at a video of any pianist who has been practicing all their lives; unless they were born with thick, muscular fingers, that doesn't generally change.  The muscles develop in the hand. 

I am not sure what you are saying, but I'd like to point out some more misconceptions. You are talking about 'muscular fingers.' However, there are no muscles in the fingers! One cannot obtain or strengthen finger muscles. Second, the only meaningful muscles in the hand are for the thumb and the pinky. Fingers 2, 3, and 4 don't have powerful muscles in the hand. All other muscles in the hand play only a minor role in finger movements. The muscles that move the fingers up and down are in the forearm.

Finger independence is really the root of all problems in piano playing, and ultimately the largest test of any artist.

Yes, but this is in the sense that each finger can be accurately and precisely controlled, independent from the other fingers. However, this does not mean that independence must be achieved by finger movements only. The entire body must be used to bring the right amount of force to those fingers that are playing at a given moment. Only when people start to think that they must achieve this by moving the fingers only (and/or doing silly exercises to that effect), that they will get into trouble.

[pianowelsh]

There is usually a reason why old things become old

[lostinidlewonder]

I like what Chopin said about those that try to control the fingers individually.

[“No one notices inequality in the power of the notes of a scale when it is played very fast... The aim is not to play everything with an equal sound, but to acquire a beautiful quality of touch and a perfect shading of sound. For a long time players have acted against nature in seeking to give equal power to each finger. On the contrary, each finger should have an appropriate part assigned it ... There are, many different qualities of sound, just as there are several fingers. The point is to utilize the differences; and this, in other words, is the art of fingering.”]

In fingering, he doesnt only mean what finger to use in the scale, but more importantly how the fingers should feel to produce the desired sound. In this resides two factors: refinement of the ear and control/relaxation of the body. You have to know what sounds right as well as how what effect it has on the fingers.

Bridging this connection between what you hear from within and how you physically bring that into your playing is a critical element. This then asks, what do you hear from within, how would you conduct the piece to be played? The sheet music doesn't tell you everything, a lot of the time we are left to our own imagination.

["A well-formed technique, it seems to me, is one that can control and vary a beautiful sound quality.”]

This is really the fundamental point of which all Chopin's pianistic technique rests on. The singing voice, the 'breath' of the music, the tempo/volume natural change. One must be aware of which note acts as this voice and which notes support it in the music.

[pianonut]

that was very well said.  we need someone to put this into writing, and make exercises that make sense!

also, it would save a lot of unnecessary injuries for pianists who practice exercises too much, too heavily, and with too much finger action.  for me, it's like pedalling a bicycle.  when you become adept, you don't focus on pushing the pedals down, but rather a light pull up. it becomes a light action instead of 'down.'