Strengthening Fourth and Fifth Finger

Playing in octaves helps

There are ad hoc studies designed specifically for this purpose

I am reporting the following Chopin studies that are very useful for the 4th and 5th fingers.

From Op. 10, numbers: 2 (Passages 3rd - 4th and 5th finger) - 9 (for the left hand, large stretch between 4th and 5th) - 10 (the sixths, the pinky must sing). There would also be some studies from Op. 25, such as the one on octaves, but for now I would say you have plenty of meat to throw on the fire. These are not simple studies... Aside from the fact that there is no such thing as a simple Chopin study.

Ehm ehm...TheSimon.

Something simpler to get to Chopin (...maybe) with fewer problems?

Chopin wrote:

There are ad hoc studies designed specifically for that purpose

For example?

I found it very beneficial, almost immediate, playing with wide finger stretches. To be clear, take a C-E-G arpeggio and use the 5-4-3 fingers with the left hand, and have fun with variants like C-E-C-E-G-E-G-E etc etc

Margherita1 wrote:

Something simpler to get to Chopin (...maybe) with fewer problems?

Above all, getting there alive

Margherita1 wrote:

Ehm ehm...TheSimon.

Something simpler to get to Chopin (...maybe) with fewer problems?

It depends on your current level of preparation. For example, Czerny's studies are very useful for developing the agility of all fingers (I prefer to speak of agility rather than "strengthening," which seems like a somewhat misleading word to me).

Take Czerny's op. 299 and then op. 740, and you will find many very useful studies. Of course, they are not artistic masterpieces, but they are often pleasant most of the time.

Hello Maestro, with this last post you have given me a doubt: agreed on talking about agility, but for example my problem is, at the same speed, giving the fourth finger the same weight and the same incisiveness as the other fingers.

In my opinion, one should say reinforce; jazz musicians don't like octaves DrJellysifh... maybe it would help them improve their technique a bit

Without taking anything away from you... eh! I have never heard you play ...

uahuahuahuah! you rascal!

listen to Michel Camilo

But it's true, doubling at the octave on the left hand is not very common in the jazz world

in Pop it is the practice, in Jazz one only needs to think of Stride or Ragtime...

DrJellyfish wrote:

in Pop it is the practice, in Jazz one only needs to think of Stride or Ragtime...

... I can't wait to read Geppino's comment....

you're not all that good either...

... and then Geppino, in my opinion, doesn't think so differently...

DrJellyfish wrote:

... and then Geppino, in my opinion, doesn't think all that differently...

You know, I don't know... let's see if Mastro JazzPino makes himself heard

DrJellyfish wrote:

you're not all that good either...

... but no.... what are you saying ...

The further I go in my studies, the more I realize how much strength, or whatever other name one wants to give it when speaking of finger movement, is truly superfluous and a pure chimera.

All "technical" exercises with their associated "studies" have the sole purpose of training the brain to perform the correct movement with the least effort possible.

The piano student believes they are strengthening their fingers by practicing and repeating the exercise multiple times, but when they succeed, it will only and exclusively mean that their brain has found the right solution, the most economical and correct one; therefore, the only forces coming into play are coordination, positional adjustment, and the involvement of the entire arm and torso.

In fact, every time a technical difficulty is overcome, one realizes how little effort is required to perform that movement, whether it is done with the third-fourth or fifth finger.

During the study phase, watching one's own hands while practicing is fundamental to playing correctly, because through careful observation, we can notice which and how many wrong movements we make during any given exercise.

I quote Scaloppa's post!