3rd Finger Tension

My RH 3rd finger has a tension problem which inhibits my ability to lift it when the 4th is held down. When I try to lift, it feels like rubber bands are tied to it pulling it back down. Has anyone heard of this before or have any advice that might help? I stopped playing music over a year ago, bought several books and videos including The Craft of Piano Playing and have done nothing but exercises and resting. Gradually it has gotten better but progress towards normal functioning has been frustratingly slow. I suspect that it's some weird disfunction or focal dystonia rather than an injury or weakness but I'm not sure. What sections of The Craft of Piano Playing might help? Thanks, Tim

Whew, you guys keep coming up with better questions! You're forcing me to really think! It is not really tension but an anomaly derived from the innate structure of the hand. Your 3rd & 4th share a tendon - normally we interpret this as limiting the function of the 4th but the reverse can be true as we see here. 1) I would do an exercise where you stand on your 4th, in a really pronounced but easy arch shape, and when you try to raise your 3rd, let your forearm rise and come forward slightly as well. The forearm "helps" the 3rd rise. This is a variation on what you see in my film in the section on overholding, chapter 2. Also remember to let your shoulder relax and drop slightly. 2) I would also do the exercises from chapter one of my film. These are all designed to evoke skeletality, to help the bones take over the work of the muscles. Also from chapter two on legato. 3) I would also look at the book page 216-17. Then I can't remember where I wrote about it, but somewhere else in the book I talk about reducing overall effort to increase efficacy. Basically, if your need 50 grams of effort, but because of an anomaly of construction one of your fingers can only exert 40 grams, you have a problem. But if you can become more such that the requisite force is transmitted to the key with only 30 grams of muscular effort, the skeletal alignments doing the rest, then the problem is solved. 4) Finally, some Feldenkrais lessons may help you acquire a new overall body feeling that could well lead to some improvement in this local problem. A difficult problem to address over the Internet - I hope this helps! AFF

Thanks for your response Alan. I picked up Awareness Heals by Steven Shafarman right after I typed that and I think it will help. My guess is I've put so much effort into lifting my finger that it seized up and then became such a habit than I can't undo it. Tim

Sounds likely. Good luck and let me know how it works out... AFF