Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Truthfully who doesn't bend their phalanges?

My teacher noticed that sometimes I bend my finger phalanges slightly but I don't know why I do it since I do play with curved hands.

Is it too much pressure?

I'm curious to know who doesn't bend their distal or intermediate phalange when playing and how we can keep them from bending even when we're playing with curved hands.

thanks

Grip the keys.

OG - I guess I must have missed this lesson in my self-instructional pedagogical indoctrination, but why is a "bending phalange" considered a "problem" at all?

Just when I thought I had rid my mind of all extraneous and seemingly inconsequential pianistic considerations and could finally relax and enjoy simply playing and making music, now something else to worry about .

This is something akin to a .400 hitter in baseball suddenly starting to worry and fret about how and where his hands are placed on the bat! :p

Regards, JF

Oxford gal, the master of "shortissimo" answers (KBK) is right again.

When You grip the keys, You are using the large and powerful muscle at the base of the fingers and the finger stays naturally arched (bone alignment).

If You bend the phalanges, You are using the tendon in the arm to move the fingers. It is weaker, gives less control and may lead to tendonitis if overused.

But I guess we all do it once in a while.

Cheers

OK, at the risk of appearing ignorant (a familiar feeling by the way), what the heck is a phalange and how do I know if it's bent?

Your phalanges are the bones of your fingers. Some people will allow the joint between the fingernail "phalange" and the next bone to collapse so that the fingernail part of the finger falls inward under pressure.

Sorry ddh but gripping happens using the flexors -- both short (attached to middle phalange) and long (attached to nail phalange). If your nail joint breaks in then you're failing to utilize the long flexors. It's usually a coordination problem. Here's a thread I started in January: http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/2/16913.html#000000

Is there professional therapy (or at least a support group) available for this so-called "problem" - this "fatal flaw" - not for bending phalanges that is, but for worrying about them :rolleyes:

In the incredibly complex biomechanical-psycological process of piano study/performance isn't there already more than enough to worry about?

What next - how suntanning effects the weight of your hands and their subsequent action on the keys?

Regards, JF

P.S. the only straight, stiff phalanges I've seen lately was from a motorist suffering from advanced road rage.

Thanks for the feedback all.

Actually JF, that particular bending of the phalanges is mentioned and pictured in plenty of method books. I've seen it I just never thought I did it and I just saw it pictured in one of my books this weekend as I was thumbing through.

I'll look this evening and post a picture to get the idea.

I wouldn't lose sleep over it though, I know I'm not but it's good to know ways to stop doing it if it improves playing or comfort for those who want to try.

I teach a friend of mine and with her long skinny fingers she tended to do that at first. I have no evidence, but to me it looked like it it would cause much pain later if left...

This ocarina player has the bendiest phalanges in the direction that we do not want to have on piano, but allows him to play his instrument. I couldn't make my fingers do that if I tried. It does show a good example of what's being talked about I think. Ocarina player

Not to make light of the OP's question at all, but John Frank you have made my day! Your responses were just what I needed to get a great big grin going...right before work. Alas, all I worry about right now is hitting progressive octave stretches without slowing the piece down to a crawl.

The only time I bend them, which I know of, is when I am playing with flat fingers. I know it probably isn’t proper technique, but there are times when I find myself doing this unconsciously as a result of the emotion of the piece. But then it is not just the first joint, but my entire finger arching as I slide it onto and off the key.

I know this is a common problem amongst beginning guitar players before their finger/fret board hand builds adequate strength.

One of the goals in piano playing is to have a sense that the sound sparkles from the finger pads. Breaking in the joint takes 1/60th of a second (Ortmann) - so you just get a phut. Using flat fingers for some of the 19th century repertoire is perfectly OK.

I am being utterly sincere if I say this is the best and most enlightening explanation I have seen all year. "sparkles from the fingerpads" also does the trick for me.

Me too I agree. I want my music to sound like it sparkles from my fingerpads.

What do you mean by this?

I think it means kind of like a "plunk" or "thud" as opposed to a sparkle.

I don't know if that's what it means but that's what I got out of it.

Some people play the piano and it sounds as if their fingers just glide and ripple on the keyboard.

Others sound plunkety plunk like a phut or a horse walking on cobblestones. teee heee

I'm laughing right now because a phut sounds too much like....... well nevermind. ha ha

OK, that's kinda what I thought, then I thought maybe there was more, I guess I think too much sometimes.