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Does anyone use the flat finger technique for piano? I never heard of this until recently. I'm planning to work on it to see how it goes.

Of course each piece/passage can call for different hand and fingers approach, but I naturally/mostly play with my fingers quite flat. Not because I think it's a recommended technique, but simply because I always played like that since 40 years and I think it gives me better control on the keys and sound. Each pianist can prefer something else as nobody have same hand/fingers size, length, etc.

My teacher told me a lot of Chopin pieces call for flat fingers. I think I posted a question about it recently actually.

For me, flat fingers give more tension but they are needed at some places.

INBoston, flat fingers was the only way I was able to play a Chopin Etude years ago. If fingers were curved there was no way, unless fingers were 5 or 6 inches long!!!

Check this out. If fingers are flat, the 4th finger has more independence, but not so when curved. When curved there is much more tension in trying to raise the 4th finger.

You're right, it does feel easier. I don't know if I'm ever going to use flat fingers, my teacher hasn't talked about it and I don't know how it can be useful. I simply don't raise my 4th finger independently anymore, I use rotation now.

Funnily enough, I accidentally flattened my fingers during my lesson yesterday and my teacher called me out on it. And, yes, my fourth finger (on a sharp) was the culprit. The solution? Move my hand forward a bit.

I would be careful with this, because over time I believe you can get into physical trouble playing with over-straightened fingers. It's one of the pitfalls they warn against in Taubman technique. However, the fingers can appear relatively flat without being over-straightened. You want to keep at least a little of the natural curve.

There are different ways to play with "flat fingers", some work better than others. But for me it's a necessity, many things would be unplayable with curved fingers due to hand shape and size. Flat fingers are also more secure on black keys when one has small and boney fingertips

people need to understand that keyboard technique has evolved quite a lot since Bach days. simple curved style is ok for most of Bach and up to some Beethoven, but then composers began reaching for ever distant keys and the playing needs wider chords and "flat", stretching fingers spanning more than an octave often...

Like most things in piano, there's a place for flat fingers, but (it's my understanding), the default should be gently curved fingers, like you'd have if you relaxed your hands at your sides.

Flat fingers require effort. Try it--relax your hands and then stretch your fingers out flat.

I don't think it is much of a problem how much effort you use to play the individual chords or notes, but rather that you let go of the tension and return to a relaxed position as soon as possible.

One can get into trouble by the opposite as well, trying to keep the fingers curved by force. I think piano playing is more about finding a good balance for one's hands than about one preferred technique.

My teacher recommends using flatter fingers for legato cantabile passages. His explanation has nothing to do with tension, relaxation, rotation and the other things already mentionned in this discussion. He explains that fingers are simply more sensitive on the pads than on the tips and that helps control the sound better. To me that makes sense. When you feel something with your fingers you usually try to feel with the finger pads rather than with the tips.

I tried the flat fingers today. I got so caught up in reading the music that I found that I went back to what I was normally playing like, curved. Fun to work with a little, sort of out of the box fun.

But the sense of touch is completely unnecessary to playing the piano. I have some nerve damage, and have lost all feeling in RH 2, and most of it in RH 1 and 3. It makes no difference in how I play, because the loop is closed by the sound, not the feeling.

I was told that the finger should be "flatter" with just the natural curve to relieve tension and increase speed. It works.

You should relax all of your fingers and knead them out from knuckle like a cat!!!! That is the sensation you want, as that is literally stretching the bridge or your hand and you will be able to feel every single finger muscle by doing this. PLAY the note with a curved finger, but don't attack it with one. This is how Debussy viewed technique and it completely saved my life

Itsfreakingmeout, is there any literature on Debussy's view on technique? Would love to read it. Thanks.

http://www.djupdal.org/karstein/debussy/method/m09.shtml

ENJOY!!

"Claude Debussy's ideas on piano playing and how to play his own works...using a formed hand position and outstretched fingers that stayed close to the keys and kneaded them."

I've never played a Debussy piece in my life, but you don't have to in order to utilize this technique. It's statement about the general overall feeling that the player wants...not how the player should play HIS pieces.