Progress Report Re: Passing 4th Over Thumb

Hi Alan, A couple of months ago you were kind enough to advise me about my difficulty passing the 4th finger over the thumb in descending scales and arpeggios in the right hand. You advised LOTS of very slow and exagerated practice to strengthen the thumb. Well, I'm happy to report that it's working! It was tough at first but is getting to be second nature. I'm still not up to my goal but it is much better so I'm sure that next year at this time I should be well on the way to actually playing accurately and musically. Along the way I've been devising little exercises that structurally unite the 4th with the thumb. Fun for me but a bit boring to the outside world! One such is a continuous repetition of C, E-flat, C, B-flat, G, B-flat using only thumb and 4 (also thumb and 2, thumb and 3, and, most difficult of all, thumb and 5). Funny that this problem always felt like a weakness in the 4th finger, but you're absolutely correct that it's really an issue with the thumb ducking its responsibility as the hand's support system. THANK YOU!

Another thing that's really helped is opening up and loosening the right shoulder, which I dislocated about 10 years ago. After that injury, it took several weeks just to be able to write correctly again and it never really healed properly. But "opening it up" (that's the sensation anyway) frees the 4th finger to slide over the thumb with less effort. I feel that the shoulder and shoulder blade are less constricted and I'm starting to work long atrophied muscles in the upper back. I'll never be a pro but at least I can enjoy my own playing again. Thanks again, Alan!

So glad to hear it's working. Those exercises sound excellent. Another variant might be to stand on the thumb note and while riding forward and back on it (the forearm moving forward and slightly up towards the back board then back and down), repeat your 4th finger note (or 3rd, 2nd or 5th) several times per 1 movement in each direction. Keep it up and keep letting us know what's going on... Thank YOU for your kind post! AFF