I am finally keeping the fingers down while playing--6 months ago I thought I was hopeles, I had so much tension in my upper body and hands, I had fingers sticking out and up all over the place! My teacher said my next problem I need to work on is not playing out at the ends of the keys, to play right up close to the black keys. I found if I try playing slowly, with my eyes closed, my fingers naturally want to feel the ends of the black keys to know where I'm at. Do you have other suggestions? Would it be appropriate to even play a little between the black keys or would that slow me down too much (especially while doing scales)..

-- Mandy (babenpansyrose@aol.com), February 22, 2003

Answers

The solution is as follows. To begin with, ball your hand in a tight fist. After gripping, strech the fingers as far as possible. RELAX the fingers on the keys. They should form a DOME, with the two thumbnails facing each other. The fingers should be bended at 45 degrees.

-- Donnie Robinson (Dystord2@lycos.com), May 07, 2003.