How can I loosen up my fingers for the piano?

Question

I do scales and play some fast pieces I know really well before I do the actual playing, but there are some passages that I can never play comfortably. My hands stiffen unconsciously when I play something is repetitive in a short period of time, or something really fast. This keeps me from playing the piece smoothly, and sometimes I have to stop because of the pain. It might have something to do with finger dexterity, but I'm not really sure. My piano teacher doesn't know what I should do about it.

Any suggestions about what I might be doing wrong and how I can fix it?

Answer 1

Your problem is "fast". You cannot play things fast to loosen up your fingers. Fast only makes them tired! Try this, run at full speed and see how far you get, then go run the next day at a moderate speed and see how far you get!

You have to condition your fingers. You have to practice slowly everyday to develop strength, independence, and endurance. The reason you can't play even is because you don't know the notes well enough. You need to control your fingers before you can play fast. Speed is a result of control. One does not practice for speed, but you practice for control. When you play the notes with control, then you play the notes to the bottom of the piano allowing the sound to be even and consistent. You can never attain this by practicing fast because your only concern is to play quickly. Your first goal is to play the notes slowly and evenly and speed will come.

You need a new teacher if they are note telling you this. You probably also have some posture issues. You're probably not sitting the right distance from the piano or at the right level. Your hands are most likely not relaxed. This is what is causing your pain. As well, your fingers just aren't strong enough to play quickly. You have to develop those muscles. Scales and fast pieces is not the solution! Your teacher should know this but it seems like he/she doesn't. Practice Hanon and Schimtt exercises very slowly to develop muscle strength.

Answer 2

It's probably just your muscles tensing up so you need to relax your muscles.

Your teacher knows more than I do, and is probably looking for this, but it coud be some technique You are probably aware of this but most of the power in playing is the initial attack and then at the end of your finger stroke. You can play louder, faster, and more in control when you don't exert much pressure at other times, just sharp, precised, relaxed. Also, using your wrist, sitting at the right hight, your finger and hand position. Are you using the right fingerings? When everything is right and your fingers are in shape you can practice for hours. But lock up like you say, and you have to quit after five minutes. Keep going and you could actually injure yourself -- maybe that's what it is, you should take several days off to recover and then start back slowly.

Maybe it's a warm-up thing. You could play more scales and other exercises, play pieces slowly, as a way of warming up more. Just don't tire yourself out from the warm-up. Is your house cold and do you practice in the early morning? Maybe you should wear gloves before playing.

Some more ways to relax -- run hands in warm water, give you hands a massage. Gently squeeze bean bags, squish balls, putty, and big high-bounce balls when you're not playing.

If everything else fails you might look to some physical causes like arthritis, or not getting the right diet.

Answer 3

If you think your problem might be dexterity, there is a series of musical exercises that you can do to increase dexterity. Look for a book of Hannon exercises or Hannon method. They are five note exercises of increasing difficulty. Depending on the edition you get, they'll be written in eighth note patterns or sixteenth note patterns. Some exercises move chromatically, some move diatonically, all start at the lower end of the piano and work up to the higher notes. The object is to play these daily, starting out slowly and building up speed. They're especially good exercise for the weaker fourth fingers, but they might help you to loosen up. I've got to warn you, they are incredibly boring exercises, but I used them with two different piano teachers and they've been incredibly useful.

Answer 4

Like many of the other answers have mentioned, scales, arpeggios, Hanon, Czerny and Dohnányi are the best exercises for warming up and building finger strength and dexterity, but they won't do you any good if you don't have the right technique. Less is always more when playing the piano. The faster you want to play, the less effort you need to put into your playing. Think of it like running. You can't run quickly using the same effort you would put into loudly stomping your feet. The faster you want to run, the lighter your movement needs to become. The same holds true with playing the piano.

When you sit to play, sit forward on the bench with your left foot slightly behind the right foot. Feel as though you could easily lift yourself off the bench and run away at a moment's notice; sort of how runners stand at the starting block but sitting on a chair. Close the fall board on your piano, place your hands on the fall board around middle-C and practice just slightly bouncing up and down without ever actually lifting off from the bench. If your arms are relaxed, they should bounce up and down like flapping wings.

If your arms are not bouncing, you first need to learn to relax your arms. Step away from the piano and simply swing your arms forward and back. Take two counts to go up and one to swing back down. Get into a grove and feel that freedom of movement. Once your feel good and loose, walk back to the piano with a closed fall board, sit like I described before and practice lifting your arms up in front of you to about eye level and simply let your whole hand flop onto the fall board. It should make a good loud thump. Don’t push the movement at all, just let the weight of your arm and gravity do its thing.

Once you feel pretty good with that movement, get someone to help out by lifting your arm up off the fall board, holding it up in the air and letting go without telling you when. Your job is to be so relaxed that it flops down without a moment's hesitation. Now this is really hard to master if you have years of bad habits to break. When you've gotten that mastered then you're really ready to learn how to work your fingers.

You ultimately want to get to a point where your arms are totally relaxed, swinging between your fingertips and your shoulder like a hammock. Until you master this level of relaxation, you'll never be able to play quickly or quietly and you'll also end up with some very sore muscles.

Look for a piano teacher who teaches this stuff. They’re few and far between but well worth the search. There are a lot of great teachers out there who teach music but few who successfully teach the mechanics of playing. Good luck.

Answer 5

It sounds like you are reacting to stress. You might try shaking your hands vigourously before you play a piece that contains these passages. It might help if you played those passages very slowly, with awareness of what your fingers are doing. You might be able to correct the problem if you can feel the onset. You might also use a calming breath - breathe in to a count of, say, 4, and out to a count of 6.

I hope you find the answer. The world needs good pianists.

Answer 6

There are three exercises you can use which may help: First, take your four fingers of one hand with your other and bend it slowly back straight along your wrist. Don't pull hard, but feel the stretch and hold it for a slow count of ten. Do the same thing with your thumb, which has a separate tendon.
Second, hold your hands straight out in front of you and try to raise your fingers (including your thumb) as high as they will go. Again, hold this for a slow count of ten. This one is worth doing several times.
Last, hold your hand straight out again, almost playing position, and clench them as tight as you can. Again, hold this for a slow count of ten.

Answer 7

my old piano teacher would run her hands under lukewarm tap water up to the wrists for about 2 minutes in order increase circulation and loosen up the muscles before practice or performance. sometimes i just like to rub one out on the john before i play.

Answer 8

play a "c" scale every time you play... the notes are C,E,F,G,A D,F,G,A,B and it keeps going because you skip a key between your one and two finger on your right hand and you 5th and fourth finger on the left. when you reach the top, reverse... it stretches your fingers and warms them up. I also recommend buying the complete Hannon The virtuoso pianist in 60 exersizes edited by allan small. it is and excellent exersize book that will warm your fingers up in a jiffy! ha hope i helped! have a great day, and dont stop playing!

Answer 9

The Good Old Hanon should do the trick - There's also a Hanon for Children

Answer 10

try using those chinese balls that you roll around in your hands that helps the flow of circulation in your fingers. Or, you may be lacking potassium. Try eating food with potassium like bananas.