5th Finger Droop And Skeletality/knuckle Collapse

Just thought I'd share some recent discoveries, that I believe make objective sense of many issues regarding the problem with the weaker fingers and which have given me a rather simple approach to fixing a lot of long term problems. It's both confirmed various theories and given a simple way to get them directly into a practical feel. I'll be making a load of more precisely defined exercises from these issues with video illustrations for my blog, in the future, but thought I'd give a rundown of the idea here. It comes from this version of finger tapping. Beauchamp's version of tapping the upper segment of the finger is extremely interesting. It's very hard to get the tap right on the tip a la gould (and it can be very uncomfortable to squash against the keys if you don't get it right). Beauchamp's version is much easier and can be done from a more conventional position. I have a problem with my rh 5th (which stems from inadequate quality of contact prior to depression, causing the "negative movement" of knuckle droop and wasted effort). Tapping that upper segment exposes whether the starting quality of contact was good enough. If not, the droop is severe and the contact feels flimsy and vague. When I rest more clearly against the key surface prior to the tap, the energy flows straight into the key without loss. This has been changing how well the finger moves on its own already. For me, this is where the concept of subtle preliminary arm weight (I think Alan achieves the same with different language Eg. "feeling the resistance" but I find it simpler to think of it as a small, precisely measured starter point of resting weight, for the finger to stand against) is so important. My habit is not to connect well enough between the 5th and the key BEFORE starting to move it. If this is the case, the tap will not transmit energy well and the knuckle falls down when I do it. By resting a subtle weight down for the finger to push back against (firming it up against an undepressed key with a small but clear force from both ends) I can then use the other hand to transmit force with no collapse whatsoever. Immediately after, my 5th gets better at prepping itself and using finger movement to move the key with enormously improved efficiency (and no drop of the arm!- it's when I fail to rest into this preliminary contact that my arm starts wanting to fall down, whether I intend it or not). I think this explains why some speak of a "fixed" fulcrum. When prepared right, the knuckle simply cannot fall. But it's not fixed at all, but rather propped up against the subtle weight, ready to lengthen out with no risk of a droop. It happens to balance in space rather than fall, but it's not at all fixed. I think this is where there's a limit to feldenkrais' idea of skeletality as the path of movement that will naturally occur passively. In the tap, this does not naturally tend to make for a good movement , as a passive knuckle falls down when the finger is tapped.HOWEVER, if the finger is actively standing up against a small but clear weight from the arm, tapping it makes for no knuckle droop and the energy flows straight into a very clear and precise sound. This is why I'm still convinced about adapted armweight thinking that is restricted to a role that only allows proper "firming" of the finger against the key- but where this use of weight is to PREVENT the arm from falling through a buckling finger when the key moves, not conceived in a way that will encourage it. When I prep my finger between this tiny but necessary resting of arm weight and an active lengthening of the finger against the key surface, the idea of bones transmitting energy has a whole different meaning and quality. It's the situations where I have neglected to rest down enough to stand the 5th finger up against the key in preparation that I have no way to achieve the right quality of bones transmitting movement. In that respect, I'm more convinced than ever before that a very specific and subtle use of preparatory weight (that bears no relation at all to traditional arm weight ideals of dropping or using significantly large weight to replace one bit of the finger motion) is an integral element of proper finger use. Trying this on students is proving very interesting. I tried a bit of this on three students one at grade 1,one grade 7 and one very advanced one who is working at two chopin ballades. It took some tweaking to get to the position where the tap is transmitted well, but once done it proved very effective. I had to get the students to make an effort to do the preparatory stand rather actively (not at all passively!), but to allow the tap to flow passively through the finger, with no willful change from the readied state. Like myself, they had to pay particular attention to standing the fourth and fifth actively enough for the force to flow smoothly through. Interestingly, the most advanced student had the biggest problem of all finding the position that is well prepared enough for the 5th to work well! Likewise I rarely get it spot-on myself until after a few goes- but once there the difference in how I play is spectacular. I have a strange thing where the rest of my hand can be very well formed, but the "inversion" occurs in my 5th alone. This is doing a lot to remove that habit. Also, this confirmed quite conclusively that the collapse of the end joint is down to the wrong action- not down to weak joints. The grade 7 student still has a problem with the 2nd finger doubling back. However, when doing this it didn't collapse one bit and she was able to move the finger with the exact same quality immediately after. It was all about firming the finger against the key prior to movement (with the knuckle pushed up high against a small preliminary weight) and using the same touch of lengthening as was involved in the passive motion. Without pulling back from the mid and end joints, collapse vanished altogether. I've been finding that, if the firming is in direct response to resting down (not generic clenching of anything) you simply cannot overdo it (or the key moves by accident). I'm striving to get this prepared state from literally every finger- as I believe that literally every knuckle collapse I experience in my 5th is down to missing it.

Just one extra thought- this is a very good way of feeling the lengthening of a finger without even needing to willfully do it. It happens automatically in the passive version, which makes it much easier to involve it in the normal unassisted action of a finger. Also, I should add that I've been doing this to connect finger and key - not simply doing instantaneous taps that are gone in an instant. Both have different uses, but I particularly like keeping the finger down for a second or so with pressure from the other hand and then seeing if I can keep the key securely grounded with almost as little perception of effort, after the tapping hand stops putting any pressure on the finger.

Hi, ! Just for laymen, I'd like to show a reliable version of what the initial version of finger tapping is about. It is the Canadian pianist, composer and music edicator Ruth Watson Henderson, demonstrating this technique of practising. As you may know, she also studied with Alberto Guerrero at the The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Although it is usually called "Glenn Gould" finger tapping, it is worth noting that ALL of Guerrero's students went through this drill. This makes it sound a little less eccentric as a method and perhaps more attractive to try for people who have refrained from experimenting with it until now and for the wrong reasons. Here's the clip: Enjoy! P.S.: I do agree that Beaumont's version also has its merits, but for fingertip activity and contact with the instrument, I prefer the initial method. No video material of Beaumont's version available, unfortunately... Paul

It's interesting to see that film, but I'd have to say that I didn't personally get anything special out of doing it in a flat fingered position on the tip (when I tried this a few years back). It passes on the movement too easily- with the active transmission going merely through the very part that you contact. When you have to get the energy to first pass seamlessly through a series of bones, you get much more feedback about how well the finger has been readied for action. I think it reveals significantly more about your pianistic mechanism- both before and after depression of the key (if you look to keep the key depressed with no new conscious effort, rather than allow it to spring straight away). My feeling is that it's easier to get it wrong if doing the tip but harder to find the adjustments that make every tap useful. I find the pure movement experience far more vivid and interesting with beauchamp's version and it's doing wonders for an instant "feel" for positions that I understand, but cannot always will to happen.

Andrew, I suspect you may have missed the entire point of Guerrero's finger tapping exercise. It is not to find the anomalies in your finger's position and improve them: the point is to feels itself and based on that sensation, the CNS makes all sorts of tiny adjustments that your conscious mind simply cannot make.

Hi, I can see that guerrero's trains something else, but I didn't honestly learn much from his version. I felt that I got the same natural shape by flicking the fingers in mid air, with the other hand, but nothing significantly changed from doing it on the piano. I'm finding that I get much more from using beauchamp's version, to test whether my fourth and fifth are as they should be. When I trust my instincts, usually they are not. I'm finding it's the lack of readiness that I'm missing out on when using those fingers, rather than their actual movement abilities. When the knuckles are high, these two fingers simply don't have the instinct to get where they should be, in order to pass on movement effectively (which relates both to the pressure they make and whether certain parts of the arm are free enough), until I use the exercise to remind me of the small preliminary pressure that allows them to move with efficient transmission.

Given what you've said, I still maintain that you've missed the point. The sensory-motor picture of the bones highly connected yet in total neutral is very informative and useful... I don't think you've discovered this yet... AFF

It's quite possible that I've missed something, but I've never noticed anything terribly notable in the results after doing it, that I can't achieve by simply flicking my fingers whilst away from the keys, to develop their natural effortless shape. When I do beauchamp's version, there is a significant instantaneous difference to how I play immediately after and to the look of how my hand performs. Even when the arch side of the hand looks good, my fifth finger knuckle constantly wants to droop and the finger wants to lift, robbing it of readiness. When I use this exercise, it starts finding the position from which it's already interacting with the resistance of the key before moving it. From here, producing tone feels easy and virtually effortless- and there's no danger of the arm falling down with the finger. I think this fault is currently one of my biggest problems, but this is making phenomenal differences.

Just to add to that, it doesn't matter so much with flatter fingers. However, what I've learned from beauchamp's exercise is that with high knuckles like rubinstein 4 and 5 are very different to 2 and 3. The stronger fingers can be totally passive and transmit energy fine. 4 and 5 simply cannot perform a similar job from a truly passive position- as the ability of those knuckles to follow the finger down ruins the energy transfer. You have to firm up in interaction with the key, or the knuckle always falls down when you tap. 2nd and 3rd fingers simply cannot do that, so they don't need the same prepping. It's not that I only want to play in the extreme arch position, but I've discovered that I haven't yet acquired the right instincts to put myself in a position where 4 and 5 can work effectively from that setup, of their own accord. These two fingers need to be very active about prepping themselves, or they perform poorly and my arm presses to compensate. When 5 is prepped, all the visible movement goes straight into tone, without waste.

I've done a fair amount of tapping and prefere the Goldversion. For me it's more like Alan says to recapture a feeling when I know I'm way out of it.A few minutes of tapping often restore the relaxed feeling you need.Beauchamp I find complicated. I do really appreciate Beauchamp otherwise. Don't forget Rubinsteins fifth was as long as his forth.You can't necessarily replicate his position. I think the Kemal octavedrill described in All Thumbs really got me on a nice track with my fifth.Changed the sound completely and now I use my fifth whenever I can-this "pencil"-fifth can create a fantastic sound.That exercise also reveals the strength you need to do it. Horowitz talks a lot about his fifth in this wellknown interview about technique long time ago.How everything is guided by this finger.I think I start to understand what he meant.