Improve Dexterity on the Piano
Have you ever wanted to increase your speed on the piano, or just the dexterity of your fingers in general? Here's a few pointers.
Steps
- Work on your Music Techniques. Your fingers should be spider like and and should glide across the piano. While this is much easier said than done, it greatly improves your speed and feel, when mastered.
- Improve your posture. Though as much for your own safety as anything else, an arched back helps lift your fingers from keys faster, helping you master difficult phrases.
- Play on a piano with heavy keys. Though a lighter keyboard is, naturally, easier to play; you naturally strengthen your fingers by playing pianos with more resistance to the touch -- therefore, get used to these! Also, it can be unsettling playing a heavy keyboard for the first time in a graded exam or suchlike (spoken from experience!), and therefore it is often best to become accustomed to them so that playing one doesn't throw you.
- Play common phrases often. For example, in many pieces, the thumb crosses over the index finger -- therefore, practice that often so that you can do it consistently and effortlessly.
- If you find any phrase hard, play it again and again and again. Although it can be discouraging if you cannot play a phrase despite a lot of practice, if you don't learn it it will probably come back to haunt you! Also, playing harder phrases makes playing easier ones even easier!
- Consistently play single phrases and slowly speed them up.
- Keep Practice Piano! Though it might be tiring to hear it, it is the best way to improve. Try to practice using all of your fingers when playing exercises; as very often people's fourth fingers are slower to move, and their fifths are lacking in strength as well. Even when on a bus/train or in a car, practice moving your fingers quickly - though as inconspicuously as possible to avoid funny looks!
- Exercise. Another way of building finger strength is by trying to make imprints of equal strength in a flexible material when bored and away from a piano. Don't let one finger be much more powerful than the rest, as this can disrupt the flow of a piece by the apparent accent of that note the finger utilizes.
- Utilize the metronome. The metronome often helps judge your rate of improvement.
Tips
- Be wary when practicing fast phrases. When practicing such phrases a lot, you will get into the mindset of always playing fast phrases, and this in turn could lead to a possible natural tendency to speed up slow phrases.
Related Articles
- Play the Piano
- Trill on Piano
- Learn a Piano Piece Quickly
- Arpeggiate on Piano
