Liszt Exercise

I was reading Reginald Gerig's book on various piano techniques and came across a Liszt exercise that reminded me of an exercise in your chapter on natural shape (app. 38.3 pg.228) Liszt asked a student to place her hand on the keyboard and play repeated notes with one finger on the same key without moving the other fingers and as fast and even as possible. How does this exericise strengthen ones piano technique? What muscles are being developed/are involved? pp16

Most likely the interossei, along with the extensors. When I do it, I don't feel like I am really strengthening anything, but rather developing a sensitivity to how that movement works. If I don't strain to stop the other fingers moving, but simply leave them lying there, I cannot afford to make a big effort to move my finger but must find a minimal impulse that moves it lightly and precisely. If I use a bigger effort, the other fingers will start jumping around too. This is the perfect illustration of Michael Furstner's assertion that we must go against nature and teach the interossei to take over from the stronger lumbricals ( ). The finger is already curved, so the work of the interossei is not inhibited. The movement is very light, and doesn't involve the curling of the medial and distal joints, thus the work of the stronger lumbricals, that are attached to the deep flexors, is not invoked. If I try to "strengthen muscles" with a stronger movement, I will probably destroy the sense of precision and control, likely activating the stronger lumbricals again. Thus here I am simply training a reflex, through precise direction of attention and sensation. Nice question! AFF

What I see in so many videos of great and mature pianists: These hands have two visible qualities: - they appear "opened-up" horizontally in the area starting in the wristbones, into the knuckel-joints... this openness provides more reach - they appear very muscular.. especially the interossi and the thumb-muscle These 2 qualities are almost anti-thetical, because "letting it open up" and "contracting to do the work" are two different things. Also, imagining that the 2nd to 5th finger really start with the 'palm bones' (incidentally like the thumb) helpes me a lot! And last but not least, your "Editors comment" on Mr. Furstners article is excellent and puts things more in line with reality.

This brings up a crucial point: there IS a type of muscle contraction that ACTIVATES rather than constricts. That's why their hands can be both open and muscular - these are SMART muscles! They know how to both contract when needed and let go when needed. They learned how to do that at some point in their development, and it is one important reason they are great: they CAN! Nice post! AFF