I have a beginning student who usually plays with up to the first knuckle. Reminding her not to do this and demonstrating the proper hand position only seems to last for a few minutes. Any ideas of exercises that could help out? Thanks.

-- anne stanton (writeannesoon@cs.com), July 01, 2002

Answers

Try asking the student to "point" each finger into the keys. This trick has helped my students. Also, with a young student who was having trouble remembering this, I told him that his mom has my permission to tickle him every time he forgot to point his fingers into the keys. The student and mom liked this very much, and it helped a lot.

-- susan kight (homemusicstudio@hotmail.com), August 05, 2002.

Have your student press his/her thumb into the back of the finger right behind the bottom knuckle to keep it curved. While holding their hand in this position have them practice striking a key on the piano repeatedly. Do this with the 2nd 3rd and 4th finger on each hand. I have some of my students do this everyday with their exercises before they even begin practincing the music I have assigned.

-- Mikki Stuart (miks815@hotmail.com), January 28, 2005.