Differentiating Thumb And Forefinger In Chords

I spent my summer reading and applying the concepts in "The Craft of Piano Playing". In short, this book has been life-changing. It has finally provided solutions to issues I have been attempting to resolve for years. I first began to rework my technique as a young teenager when my forearm began locking on up me while learning the "Black Key" Chopin Etude. I switched teachers, upon her recommendation since she didn't know how to help me, and basically had to relearn how to play. We focused on arch support, and appropriate use of arm weight for tone control. I always understood why it made sense to do this, but I had issues with consistently executing. A couple years after beginning study with my new teacher, I sprained the abductor pollicis longus in my right arm. I felt the pain in the tendon on the radial side of my wrist. This especially hurt when playing octaves or large chords. I sought rehabilitation with a myofascial therapist who specialized in musician's injuries and she very quickly identified and alleviated the source of the pain (I only had a few sessions with her). With the help of some warm-up and stretching modifications, I was able to prevent the injury from recurring. This was roughly 15 years ago. While working through this book, though, I have noticed that I must have unknowingly made a few adaptations in my playing to compensate for the tenderness in my wrist. What I have discovered is that I have much less developed thumb strength in my RH, which I am working on with the help of the exercises in the book - and definitely plan on getting a copy Alan's newest book dealing with thumbs. I have also noticed a big thumb/forefinger dependency in my RH. I have worked with the exercises in "The Craft of Piano Playing" that pertain to thumb and forefinger independence and they are helping. But, I am struggling with one aspect in particular. I can get terrific sound with octaves in my RH, the arch is great, the grasping power is coming along, the tone is resonant, etc. But, as soon as I add a note with my forefinger, it all goes away and becomes the tense, harsh sound that I don't want. And to make it more frustrating, I am now AWARE of the muscles in my arm activating to compensate. While I am aware of these arm muscles activating, I can't figure out a way to deactivate them. I have been experimenting with playing an octave, holding it, and then adding the note with my forefinger. I will do this by relaxing my hand while holding onto the octave (as in Application 20.1), place my forefinger on the key I want to play, and then elevate my wrist as I build the arch back up with my forefinger added, so as not to strike the key but to maintain kinesthetic connection with the key as my forefinger activates its skeletal support. This works. But when I play thumb, forefinger and little finger together that tension comes back. I can also play the chord with tension and then actively make my arm and wrist loosen while maintaining structural support in my hand. But, I can't figure out a way to do this as I play the chord. As a result, tone suffers and sustained speed is not really an option, because I can't relax those large arm muscles quickly enough. Clearly there is a disconnect that I am not able to fix. Any suggestions on how to convince my brain that my arm doesn't need to compensate any more?

@ Can you "stand" on the structure of 2-5 within that chord without tension? (Leaving the thumb out, not lifting it in the air, but letting it hang down) Can you "stand" on the structure of 1-2 within that chord without tension? (Leaving the pinky out, not lifting it in the air, but letting it hang down, together with 3 and 4) Paul

In short, yes. For example, if I were playing a D Major chord, omitting the 5th, I can play D with thumb and F# with forefinger, without tension. I can also play F# with forefinger and the upper D with fifth finger without tension. The problem definitely occurs with the combination of thumb, forefinger, and fifth finger. As soon as I try all three together, I feel compensation in my arm and I lose that individual finger control. I think it may have more to do with the span of the gripping. If I were to engage those same fingers with a chord that did not require my thumb to be stretched away from my hand, I would have much less of an issue. I do not have small hands. I can reach a 10th, so the act of playing an octave is not difficult. Perhaps the use of grasping muscles while my hand is stretched open is the underlying issue?

That is probably correct. I would have to see it happen to diagnose more precisely. When people talk about the capacity to stretch, they think mostly only about the distance between 1 and 5, but the crucial stretch you need is between the fingers individually, especially 2-5 in this case, that's why I asked my question. I can easily do an octave between 2-5 with a beautiful unbreakable arch and no collapse in any of the joints, but I trained really hard with stretching exercises to be able to do that. I do have some ideas for you, but I suggest waiting for , OK? P.S.1: What happens if you close your hand into a light fist above the keyboard and let your hand simply spread open and drop into the chord like a parachute? (the form of the fingers is not important; even straight, lengthened fingers is good enough) P.S.2: What happens if you drop into the chord with a slight rotational movement towards the thumb? Paul

Dear Sheehanji, Welcome to the forum and I am impressed that you have so quickly zeroed in on an absolutely central problem that faces us pianists - bravo! If you can believe it, I still address this in some form or other in my own playing and am still coming up with new solutions - it seems there is no limit to improvement.... The key is to maintain moveability within the thumb-forefinger joint no matter what pianistic demands are being made on the hand. There are many exercises I can show you but they are too complicated to write down here. For starters, take an interval much smaller than an octave with 1-5. Stand up on it, collapse down into it, discover the maximum range of moveability in that arch. As if there was a big balloon in your palm expanding and deflating. Then do the same while waggling your second finger. You have to discover the set of reflexes that want to stiffen into a secure stable structure when you begin to engage your 2nd. Then use this exercise to create a new set of reflexes... I hope this helps, AFF

Interesting exercise. I was recently experimenting with something quite similar, where the thumb and fifth stand on an octave, without depressing it. There's just a subtle sense of the arm resting lightly against the resistance of the keys, with the thumb and fifth pushing the knuckles right back up. From here if I wave or flick all three middle fingers gently backwards and forwards, it really clarifies the basic action of the thumb and fifth and loosens everything else (that might have wanted to stiffen) at the same time. It can also be done on depressed keys, but I particularly like looking for that really precise balance where you interact with the key resistance without quite overcoming it. From here, I find that the fingers are so well prepared for movement that I can either perceive the movement from the hand or feel energy being channeled through the whole arm through the point of contact, without risk of collapse. Its extremely close to the optimal balance point for the sixth rhapsody - where the fingers never completely relax contact between repetitions but where they aren't burdened down with arm pressure. The arm just seems to float, but without restricting the ability of the fingers to maintain a constant sense of interaction with the keys. When I stay very close to that same level of activity in the fingers, it drastically increases both the speed and ease of connection in octaves.

I think I will employ you to help write the next book... this is great! AFF

I found some extra bits to that last night, too. It's also useful to curl those middle finger in right back to the palm sometimes, to explore the full range. However, the most interesting part was that I realised I seemed to be actively moving those fingers when playing repeated octaves. Although I'd never particularly thought about it before, if anything the intention was more to immobilise those fingers out of the way. However, it produces an interesting result to imagine them actively flicking up (rather than bracing against falling down into the keys). Aside from freeing up the hand, the reaction seems to actively give an extra snap to the movement of the key. I do a similar thing with just the thumb sometimes, where it rests on a key and then all four fingers flick up - generating a reaction that moves the thumb very clearly through the key. I'm not altogether sure if this reaction plays a massive literal role in the end product, but I'd swear that the feeling is of these subtle finger movements actively making a genuine contribution to the movement of the keys.

Andrew you are absolutely right, and you've hit on something extremely important - bravo! AFF PS I see you are gunning to get hired as a writer too!

Yeah, I've been aware of the need for movement during octaves for a long time but, by not really considering the non-playing fingers, I suppose the brain tends to default to fixation of those until you actively set about waggling them around. There was definitely something missing by not stopping to think about what the seemingly unused fingers might be doing. I think the lack of free separation between four and five in my right hand is a very big issue. There's much more room to reach out with the fourth in my left hand, while keeping the five pointing down. Starting to expand on this in my right hand seems to be freeing something up and generating more capacity for both support and movement within the fifth. It seems to be linked in to the tightness down the fifth finger side of my wrist too and the almighty crunching sounds that often occur in there.