Trills

I have been working very intensely on trills here recently(and I hope correctly). My only problem is with the 4th finger of my left hand. When I try to trill with 3 4 or 4 5, the 4th finger knuckle stands vertically up above the other knuckles about a 1/4 of and inch. When my 4th finger begins to press a key down, the bone in between the knuckle and the wrist is the first thing that moves until my until hand looks somewhat like the hand at the top of the main page of this website. Anyway this appears like a lot of extra movement but I cannot seem to stop it. The only other thing is that when I a use finger from my right hand to keep the knuckle from rising I have a lot more volume control with the 4th finger. So the question is: Is this an unnecessary movement and is there a way to stop it. P. S. Would someone explain what medical names describe what joints of the hand/arm. I get confused.

Just got the DVD. Everything seems to going well except for one thing: In the section titled OUT THE BACK DOOR, how would I know if I am overusing long and short flexors and not using the lumbricals and interosseous enough. When I do that exercise it seems like all lot of the power is coming from the flexors. Your advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks for a couple of very topical questions. Out the back door: this is a VERY important question: if you do "out the back door" without enough strength in your hand, you risk hurting yourself, and I say as much at the VERY BEGINNING of my film (remember the spooky music over the written cautionary note at the opening???). THere is always SOME lumbrical/interosseous in an "out the back door," it just doesn't seem that way because the actual plucking movement is so vigorous and preeminent. Basically, if you feel powerful and confident in doing an "out the back door," you are probably doing OK. If it feel uncomfortable, back off, mate! Slow down and approach it with more circumspection... As for your fourth finger. I like very much your desctription of that knuckle rising up. This means that your skeleton is free and floating in your hand and is not bound up with a lot of superfluous muscular effort. You should be able to use this to your advantage. I myself LOVE it when my fourth knuckle rises up as you describe. You seem, however, to be experiencing it as a problem. To my mind, this is an opportunity for you to experience and use skeletality! It's an opportunity staring you in the face, but it is so bizarre that you don't know what to do with it. I would suggest USING that sense of the bones doing their weird thing within your hand. When that knuckle pops up, it is actually creating a stable, viable skeletal structure from which you can move. Perhaps if you begin to INTEGRATE this feeling by standing similarly on your 5th and 3rd and comparing the feelings. OR stand on 3rd and gently play your 4th, watching its knuckle come up until it is on a level with the 3rd. Or stand on 5th and gently play your 4th, watching its knuckle come up until it is on a level with the 5th... you see, there are all sorts of ways to play with this, to investigate it and use it to your advantage - good luck and let us know of further developments... AFF