Finger Independence is Impossible

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[patrickwells]

It is about time that someone gave a good plausible explanation into this mystery (to me) of finger independence. Thank you sir. I appreciate your efforts.

[barbarasmith]

Appreciate your non-mythological approach to piano playing.

[kpunkt.klaviermusik]

Every piano student should watch this!
Could prevent so much frustration and finger/hand injuries!

[michaelharvey]

Great video and really well explained! You know, a lot of people with great technique have discovered this after slaving away at finger independence for years. A lot of people with second rate technique have studied this way from the beginning. Practicing finger independence disciplines the hand to find it easier to play when letting go of finger independence after a certain amount of practice. The issue is when a person believes that finger independence is the only technique that they should be practicing and then practicing this way until they sustain an injury or realise that they cannot play as well as the great pianists no matter how many hours they practice each day. Even if you minimise movement in other fingers, nothing compares to the training of independence which disciplines the other fingers to move only as much as necessary when it comes to letting go of the idea of finger independence after a limited amount of practice. If you train finger independence for 2 hours a day this is foolish but if you train finger independence for 5-10 mins a day then this can contribute to less unnecessary movements in the hand AS LONG AS THE PIANIST UNDERSTANDS THAT TOTAL FINGER INDEPENDENCE IS NOT ONLY IMPOSSIBLE BUT THAT ITS ENDEAVOUR IS DETRIMENTAL IN PERFORMANCE.

[kiara]

Thank you!!! Amazing work, as per usual

[matthewchang]

Great video on breaking myths about finger independence! ❤❤❤

[roxitube]

Thank you.... As a beginner I need to be informed... ❤

[DavidMiller-bpet]

Another extremely helpful tutorial. You're hitting bullseyes. Michael below is right on the money, in agreement with you.

More than ever now, so much of my learning is watching/processing great players, international artists and very fine local performing artists. Good stuff. At speed might be very different from slow tempi. These are the kind of specifics that people really need, clearing up confusion and the mushy mentality that goes with it, add hand tension and bad stuff can result. There are individual differences in great players depending on several factors, hand physiognomy, personality, body distribution, etc. But they all play off a basic technique that is as you describe. It is the only way they can get to the levels at which they play. You have demo-ed a number of supremely great artists, I can another dozen or so great players, they all show this to be in common. There is so much bad teaching out there, which retards players' progress and often results in injury if the player is unaware of what they're doing. I'm past this confusion but practiced badly, like this, for many years before an injury forced me to either quit or remediate my technique.

This is a solid extra base, long, hit delivered by the mild and well mannered CW. Your credibility rises like cream to the top. It is about credibility. Thank you.

[henrykuppens]

Very helpful video when one starts studying piano.

[-bit]

you provide insightful and in depth helpful content

[MilAS]

I really enjoy these videos. Do whatever you want but this one and the one how you didn’t like hanon were great and it’s really how I’ve discovered your channel. I saw on YouTube lots of teachers recommending hanon finger independence exercises- you know keep all your fingers down and lift one at a time-stuff like that. Bunch of people preaching that finger independence is key and how you should implement it in your practice. Then after this I would analyze some pianists- for example Hayato Sumino a big inspiration of mine, and I saw that he would lift his fingers up and that left me wondering like- wait, does Hayato Sumino just have bad technique? Guess I have better technique than Hayato Sumino because I can move my fingers independently 😎. Thankfully I’m really a sucker for having good technique. If I didn’t stumble across this video I’d probably still have that same mindset that finger indep is the way to go. Of course a little finger independence is probably good but I see some of these teachers preach it like it’s a necessity. Now let me go revise my 10 minutes a day of finger independence exercises. It’s ridiculous. Imagine being a self taught beginner reading hanon books and you sit there and drill finger independence just to realize that the majority of that time was wasted. Really I’m glad I found this. I was looking at these finger independence exercises and I noticed that yea, my pinky came up just a little bit when I played, even though I had basically no tension, I was told that finger independence is the key and I would drill in the shitty exercises 10 mins a day just so that my pinky would stay down, after hearing about finger independence I thought that every time a finger would lift up ever so slightly when I played, it was just a result of poor technique. It would probably serve as a benefit to some self taught pianists like myself (especially those that are beginners or intermediate) to make more videos like this going over things in hanon-or what some online teachers teach that take away from the naturality of how your fingers should be used.