Happy Fingers

Some words from Maestro Tiziano Poli, inventor of H.F.:

"Happy Fingers allows one to achieve correct piano technique based on physiological principles, with just a few minutes of exercise per day.

Traditional technical exercises, intended as the development of strength or finger independence, no longer have any utility, as true finger independence can only be achieved through the use of muscular dissociation (which Happy Fingers allows one to develop)."

A useful link:

http://www.happyfingers.it/

Honestly, without having tried it, I find it difficult to express an opinion; clearly, it is fertile ground for controversy... it would also be nice to understand the prices","quality":{"meaning_preserved":true,"instructions_ignored":true,"confidence":1.0}}of course, it's a fertile ground for polemics... it would also be nice to understand the prices"} {

Ah, it would also be nice to understand why "Traditional technical exercises, understood as the development of strength or finger independence, no longer have any utility" ...

I am reporting:

Happy fingers the physiological and natural way for piano technique with DVD by Poli Tiziano:

http://www.unilibro....li_tiziano_.htm

You can get a good idea on the subject

Who knows why I was under the illusion that playing was mostly a matter of the head ...

I don't know if I want to get my fingers into it, for those interested:

http://www.happyfing...u/home_ita.html

At one point it says: "It is an instrument designed for all musicians who desire"

So they are talking about musicians and not just pianists... perhaps...

hi surely playing is a matter of mindset indeed I believe one shouldn't underestimate a device that perhaps can improve playing technique I mean from what I've read making us understand which muscles should be used and which ones shouldn't

ah però...

Standard Edition € 329 + VAT (€ 398.09)

DELUXE Edition € 399 + VAT (€ 478.80)

henry wrote:

hi surely playing is a matter of mindset indeed I believe one shouldn't underestimate a device that perhaps can improve playing technique I mean from what I've read making us understand which muscles should be used and which ones shouldn't

But if the tool only works at the finger level, it's not like there are many muscles that can be excluded ... ignorantly speaking... no?

Already really quite expensive, but has anyone at least tried it?

henry wrote:

Already quite expensive, but has anyone at least tried it?

...unfortunately no ... and for those who can afford it, nowadays. It was already a miracle to buy a rickety upright piano for a thousand euros ...

Well, I am not an expert, but I know that when playing, if certain arm muscles are activated along with the fingers, they greatly limit our agility... and happy fingers should help prevent this situation. The point is, does it really work?

Never heard of it

My sincere opinion, not on the device, which I do not know, but on the definition of the promo... "..independence is obtained through muscular dissociation...." is that I believe independence, or rather, interdependence, is instead the result of a skillful "muscular association". Already in my videos - Tutorials on piano technique, I illustrate how good muscular association can help the fingers, which are the offspring of subtle muscles. The stronger muscles that intervene to assist the fingers also help the entire shoulder-arm-forearm-wrist-finger apparatus to remain tension-free even in passages that require a great input of energy. Developing each muscle separately and not knowing how to "associate" and/or renouncing the "collaboration" of others, is, in my opinion, equivalent to limiting energy relative to each muscle group. Sometimes the fingers do "very little," but they support and firmly receive the muscular energy transmitted from another part of the apparatus (e.g., the shoulder). In an "advanced" stage of technique, visually, one perceives minimal effort from the pianist, who, in this case, has learned to properly subdivide and assign tasks to each muscle group. Everything becomes natural and spontaneous because it is built close to the natural and appropriate muscular "use." I was amazed, a few days ago while rewatching a wonderful video of how Rubinstein, under the direction of a young Previn, played the famous and dear-to-me second concerto by Saint-Saëns. Everything was natural and nothing defied the difficulty. Certainly, the great Arthur, as difficulties increased, appealed to that strong concentration that our member "Chopin" invokes, and this kept him safe from "slips" in sonic and executive balance. Of course, we are in an extremely advanced stage of piano technique, where playing has now become a "second nature." Well, I would like to speak of "nature," and I believe that everything that goes "against" this natural acquisition is counterproductive, contributing more to confusion than to clarity. The proof is that we have never heard any Great Master of the keyboard suggest artifices or devilry... although Schumann, in his youth, had built a small device to widen the distance between his fingers. However, he ended up spraining a 4th.

What do you think?....( And down, rivers of words!!!!!!!!!)

500€ I'd rather eat them, and if I really have to move my fingers, I'll do it on a piano keyboard with a beautiful Chopin étude before my eyes.

In my opinion, it could prove to be very useful....if one were planning to practice guillotining various Smurfs or other small creatures of the undergrowth... :-)

In this article Jura Margulis, illustrious Russian pianist as well as Steinway's artist, gives his opinion on happy fingers

http://www.pianisttopianist.com/?p=10

aaa wrote:

In this article Jura Margulis, illustrious Russian pianist as well as Steinway's artist, gives his opinion on happy fingers

http://www.pianisttopianist.com/?p=10

Maybe it doesn't work for everyone or one needs to be "genetically" predisposed

Forgive me if I have the audacity and perhaps the presumption to contest what is reported in Jura Margulis's article, but believing what is reported just because it comes from authoritative sources does not seem to me to differ much from the classic phrase: "It's true because they said so on TV!"; and indeed, the more authoritative the source, the more—when I smell something fishy or, as in this case, my memory brings back different versions—the more I find myself navigating between books, the internet, letters, and documents to uncover the authenticity of such claims.

My contention is: NO! It is not so. No one can provide a reason why Schumann's right ring finger was struck by paralysis. Even in his doctor's notes, there is nothing that refers to the cause that triggered the paralysis. Therefore, I am not contesting the fact that Schumann's paralysis was determined by one cause rather than another; I simply contest the fact that in Margulis's statement there are a lot of inaccuracies, not only historical but also medical in nature. Therefore, I gladly turn the statement

It’s a myth, a great story, but not true.

around to the equally great, mythological story based on Sams' Essay. We are not given the knowledge of it.

Coming to historical reasons, it is difficult to establish with certainty the precise day or even the month (it would be even today) in which Schumann contracted Syphilis. The paralysis of the right ring finger is placed roughly around 1831 (Schumann was 21 years old) and during this period he had dedicated himself to a type of technique based on the use of machinery like the one seen in the photo in Margulis's article to manage to counter the concert proficiency of his "rival" colleagues. In those same years, he contracted syphilis. It is therefore difficult to trace the cause of the paralysis... Due to the grueling piano technique? Due to syphilis? (Remembering that an effect of syphilis is indeed paralysis). Or perhaps, due to mercury poisoning which we know today to be extremely harmful and poisonous to the organism but which at the time was the only prescribed cure against syphilis?

I should point out that even nowadays it would be difficult to arrive at a precise and perfectly explanatory diagnosis of the determining causes of hand paralysis, let alone in the 1800s!!

Other inaccuracies in the article are reported in this portion of text:

Here is my version of the story based on the Eric Sams' essay: Schumann suffered from many afflictions – in Sams’ words: continuous general malaise, tinnitus, vertigo, insomnia, headache, depression, premonitions of insanity, numbness, cramp, difficulty in writing, speech disturbance, memory failure, a stroke, pains in bones and joints, florid psychosis, giddiness, general paralysis of the insane, and deterioration to death – to which one might add: manic depressive schizophrenia, a suicide attempt, and a hand problem, which I am sure didn’t seem like such a big deal considering this list.

In these lines, Margulis reports these symptoms (I will explain shortly why I used this precise term) as disorders that Schumann suffered from as if he had always suffered from them, and thus as standalone diseases. Fortunately, modern medicine comes to our aid...

aggressiveness; anti-social behavior; lack of awareness most of the time; back pain; bedwetting; blindness; easy blushing in the face; body aches; bone pain; brain damage; cancer phobia; cardiac dysrhythmia; heart sensations; cardioneurosis; feeling of bursting; choleric behavior; awareness disorders; death in the cradle; tendency to cry; depression; imbalance; lack of interest; disc damage; diplopia; drug abuse; dyspnea; vegetative dystonia; eating disorders; lack of energy; epileptic cramps; frequent exhaustion; facial paralysis; facial tics; chronic fatigue; fear of people; fear of the new; fear of suffocating; feeling like being behind frosted glass; hallucinations; writing with a trembling hand; headache; hearing disorders; acute hair loss; hiccups; skin rashes; hypertension; hyperactivity; hypersexuality; hyperventilation tetany; hyperesthesia; hysteria; impotence; indecision; feelings of inferiority; irritability; sciatica; joint pain; lack of direction; lower back pain; megalomania; memory disorders; memory loss; meniscus pain; migraine; weakness; muscular/cramps; muscle tics; multiple sclerosis (MS); neurasthenia; neurosis; nervousness; numbness; obsession with the environment; olfactory disorders; pain;

sharp pains; paranoia; paralysis; polyneuropathy; unclear pronunciation; tendency toward aggression; slowed reactions; salivation in"}

sleep; schizophrenia; changes in sexual excitability; tendency to scream; shyness; sleep disorders; lack of sleep; feeling of being beside oneself; smoking; easily excitable; stomach pains; stuttering; suicidal tendencies; sweating problems; tendonitis; internal tension; thought, temporal and spatial disorders; tics; teeth grinding; torticollis; tremors; trigeminal neuralgia; inability to find inner rest; dizziness; vision disorders; sense of weakness;

These disorders are the effects given by mercury poisoning. You can observe that the alleged illnesses of S. cited by Margulis are actually all contained within the symptoms of mercury poisoning (I have highlighted them in bold), which also includes paralysis, but we cannot know if the cause of his paralysis was this poisoning since Schumann had contracted the disease of syphilis relatively recently and thus had recently started mercury-based treatments. Let us also remember that Schumann lived with this disease for the remaining 25 years of his existence (which ended in 1856). Thinking about the continuous changes of opinion that led a Chopin to the highest union in Schumann's review of the Variations op.2 on the theme of Don Giovanni, qualifying him as a Genius, and then suddenly everything collapsed, hitting the Sonata Op. 35 in B-flat minor with cannon shots, these considerations could lead us to also light up the boxes: aggressiveness, choleric behavior, schizophrenia. Leaving aside this brief sarcastic parenthesis and returning to the previous considerations... How can we therefore assert with certainty, even if experiencing it today would be difficult, that the paralysis of the hand of a person dead more than 150 years ago was determined by one of the three possible causes mentioned above? There are only theories regarding this.

interesting but will this device really be magical? if it cost much less I would try it however....