How can I work on my Finger Flexibility and Speed? (Piano?

Question

I would like to work on my flexibility and speed, especially with my pinky..i "pops" and i would like it to move much more smooth, how can I work on this?

Answer 1

There's a book called "The Virtuoso Pianist" by C.L. Hanon - pulished by Schirmer, ISBN 0-7935-2544-6, which has sixty exercises that are designed to train the left hand to be as skillful as the right, and train all five fingers equally for agility, independence, and strenth. They even increase wrist suppleness. The exercises, for those who have studied at least a year, are at all levels of difficulty, are not boring, and can be easily learned and used to develop speed.They are arranged so that the fingers that are exercised in one are rested in the next, so that the fingers do not become fatigued, but become extremely flexible and able to execute anything written for the piano.

Answer 2

Everyone is absolutely right. You don't practice trilling per se, it comes naturally after you have developed proper strength of hand. I suggest you do Hannon or something. I also like Phillipe. You don't need an exercise at all to practice trilling. No etudes are necessary. Just sit at the piano and practice trilling with all your fingers. Pay close attention to your fingers. If you play an etude you are going to get rather distracted from learning how to trill properly. There's a hilarious etude in Kreutzer's violin etudes for trilling. It just forces you to go through endless trills on all the finger combinations. It's really the same thing on piano. Just start trilling and see how good you are... might even want to record it and see how your trilling is doing. Just concentrate on using the least amount of effort to do the trilling. No matter what instrument you are playing (Violin, piano, etc.) trilling should be done with the least amount of movement possible. Try to stay in the keys, or as close to the string of the violin, as you possibly can. Try to make it as effortless as you possibly can, because most students think that trilling is insanely hard and trill terribly. These students, whether on violin or piano, tend to lift their fingers way too far away from the keys or the strings and are therefore working 10x as hard as they need to. Now, if you get to some music and find the trill is making you tired or is hard to do.... Slow down! Play the trills as exactly timed 32nd notes (or whatever duration they need be) at a very slow tempo and keep speeding up your playing until it sounds like a real trill. If you practice in this way, you will find that your fingers automatically are doing what they are supposed to do during a trill. XoxoX above said "why the hell would you be trilling w/your 4th and 5th finer???!!!" - um, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, movement 3, Rondo Theme. That's where. Duh?

Answer 3

Hanon-Schaum have a very good book of finger exercises, still in print as of last fall, at most music stores where students are encouraged. Good luck, it's great to see someone wanting to practice!

Answer 4

i just get up of bed all the mornings an start to flex my fingers (oh and a lot of videogames)

Answer 5

practice

lol ive been playing for about 8? years.