a question for PIANO PLAYERS and/or TEACHERS

and i had this problem when i was a kid and playing a couple hours a day -- so i don't entirely think it's being out of practice (though i'm sure that's contributing)

will look out hanon, thx -- haha i will never be a "virtuoso" though, "just about ok in very undemanding circumstances" is what i'm aiming at maybe

you'll find hanon's exercises repetitive but as a whole you'll learn to keep tempo, balanced playing between both hands and individually, each exercise will emphasize a specific purpose, whether it be focusing on trills, tricky finger transitions, strengthening fingers (for fun put your hand flat on a table and see how far you can lift up your ring finger without moving any other fingers, tough huh?), etc

i have the dohnanyi exercise book which has lots of on-keyboard finger-strengthening stuff -- i kinda like it bcz the instructions are in hungarian and english -- i just started on it when i left school for college and basically didn't then have time to keep up piano (far to go to FIND an unoccupied piano; played double bass and guitar in orchestras and bands so concentreated on them keyb blah blah)

(probably not for me as i am two-fingered, but if i used proper real actual secretarial ten finger technique?)

here's a website that provides the book for free, clear your cookies to override the 2 downloads a day
http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/single_listing.cfm?composer_id=7

typing may benefit hand-eye coordination and sight reading but not necessarily strength because it does not replicate the resistance or emotion required when playing a piano key.

i learned to play piano before learning how to type and that made typing very easy...i wonder if learning it the other way around would encourage kids to stick with music and overcome that first hurdle of coordination and reading music

Check not your posture, but the way you actually play, the way you use your fingers. You're looking for a balance between not being the tensest thing on earth, bashing the keyboard with fingers arched and tensed into position... and being Mr(s) floppy with fingers falling off the keyboard.

I got RSI over the summer and have had to re-examine the way I play piano, type, play guitar, write and all that jazz so as NOT to damage my hands, wrists and arms anymore.

( Yellow < Blue < Red < Black)

or do some of the crazier "pinching" exercises, but if you just use all four fingers to squeeze either with fingertips or middle joints, or use two alternate fingers, 1 and 3 or 2 and 4, I don't think you will hurt yourself- I can do this all day long with the Yellow and the Blue. And yeah, I had some problems before too.

so the OTHER piano at my mum and dad's -- the lovely rosewood steinway which went into storage when we sold their house after dad's death in 2010 -- finally arrived at my sister's new house today

having been STOLEN by a VILLAIN while it was on storage, and snuck away and very nearly sold at auction (while a poor substitute switched for it in the storage place and delivered at my sister's house, to her and my baffled anger)

anyway the storage people -- after their initial mortified startlement -- were very good and have absorbed all the costs of searching for it, and worked all their contacts until it turned up, more or less as the auctioneer's hammer fell (exaggeration there for amusing effect, but we were lucky the villain did not sell it privately)

so this is yr update on the s family pianos

ps for old-time ilxors who remember my tales of dr vick my current teacher is dr vick's nephew, which is grebt bcz

a) he is lovely
b) he thinks i am a much better player than i think i am (he is wrong but very sweet)
c) he is just abt to go on a placement at CERN

congrats! how does one steal a piano? (assuming it's a grand?)

i just have a baby grand but it's at my dad's

it's such a pain lugging it around

we think he spotted it in storage and swapped the labels while no one was looking, so the designated moving men did all the lugging

(it's a boudoir grand i think: four inches longer than a baby, four shorter than a concert)

that's fantastic news mark, really great

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BDs369vCIAEOKYz.jpg

all the story is missing really is an appearance from this guy^^^

piano (not this^^^ one, mine) being tuned now in the front room: sound of same thru two closed door is soothing and takes me back to my childhood

Nine dampers remain, said the younger, and an equal number of hammers.
Not corresponding, I hope, said the elder.
In one case, said the younger.
The elder had nothing to say to this.
The strings are in flitters, said the younger.
The elder had nothing to say to this either.
The piano is doomed, in my opinion, said the younger.
The piano-tuner also, said the elder.
The pianist also, said the younger.

pleasant cultural update on this story: the piano that had the adventure is currently doing service as a practice instrument for contestants in the hastings international piano competition, which is nice for everyone

(i mean the contestants have been playing it in my sister's house for the last few days, final is fri-sat) (they are all literally a trillion times better than anyone in my family ever was)

ok so i am grabbing this space in all our lives to get back in shape maybe

i: check with downstairs neighbour he doesn't mind sound of piano now and then -- he is fine with and says he likes it
ii: dispense with scales etc so as not to encroach on that
iii: choose pieces i need to polish (out of ones i have already worked on, so not just hours sight-reading badly)
iv: but also think thru my project to work on improvisation

front and centre of three is first movement beethoven sonata op10 no1 ("a la comtesse brown") which is not particularly technically demanding but has a bunch of minor moments i can v easily fuck up. i am not a huge beethoven fan, but when i told my teacher this lol he set me this piece. he is less than half my age and much too indulgent of how rubbish i often am but good to talk to abt weird bullshit that goes on in many musicians' heads (which i always assumed was just me and was why i "wasn't actually musical". he says i am. i say hmmm to that.)

I know that movement really well (as a listener), one of my favorite early Beethoven movements

my son is trying to learn “dance monkey”

also by beethoven iirc