Dangerous Piano Hand Exercises

YouTube is a prime example of people giving exercises for the hands on piano to speed up performance or improve technique.

SOME OF THESE ARE DANGEROUS

There is no content discussing normal versus abnormal exercises, or cautions and safety. If you were at the gym, a good trainer would show natural movements i.e. what the body can do versus what is not natural. Unnatural movements have their place in the right training environments for specific purposes within a program.

You don’t jump off a brick wall to concrete below thinking that is okay just because someone else is doing it.

Here is one of the most dangerous hand exercises:

Up and Down rapid full wrist movement for octaves, including use of force to hit the keys at what is an unnatural angle of movement hitting down towards the keys like a rocket. You do not need these exercises as speed will develop while using recognised and published exercises from your piano teacher and the classical piano pieces.

Slow hand movements in many exercises help develop the correct technique as speed improves in things like scales, octaves, and arpeggios.

As you grow older, your hands will have limitations. For instance, while I do not agree with the performance techniques of one particular concert pianist and teacher, he has a great reputation and is very helpful, but his playing is obviously very slow in his older age of life. One does not have to focus on speed necessarily. One highly recognised concert pianist has no idea how to play the Brahms intermezzo Opus 118 Number 2 in A. It is an appalling interpretation and a student could do better. This piece is one of the most beautiful ever written but is not fast. It is not meant to be at a dead dog’s pace either.

If someone is a world renowned concert pianist, there may be some helpful exercises but here is an approach I’d suggest for consideration…

Do not accept instructions for exercises outside the norm and those published in print,  from anyone less than a qualified concert pianist or highly qualified teacher. Do not accept exercises from teachers who are aiming for an online audience who may be at a lower level of concert performance level, or from people who provide no content on actual safety and how this works, (a disclaimer is a red flag as that in itself has no content). Never accept teaching from anyone who simply hops on YouTube to say what they think – e.g. how would a happy excited teenager know about the array of exercises and how to approach them.

Your music can develop naturally without exercises that are UNNATURAL to the hand. As you develop you will see variations on techniques from different people, and which techniques are well known, rather than some special knowledge of a particular technique. For example, we know the hand uses rotation in a certain way, rather than horizontal left-right movement.

If you feel there is a problem in an exercise, pull it back. Learn to pull back rather than continuing to force the hand to play the technique.

Here is a strong warning – if you tear a tendon it does not heal. The tendon has to learn to gain strength around the torn area. Such damage can cause loss of hundreds of dollars and loss of months on the keyboard.

Safety principles apply to other instruments such as the drums.