4th and 5th finger exercises?

Hey, I've noticed that my 4th and 5th fingers in the left hand are extremely weak!!
for example, even though it should be quite simple to play the small passage of Re Mi Re Do with the left hand fingers 4 3 4 5 I find it rather hard.

are any good exercises for developing these two figners?

thank you very much mates.

Naturally, the 4th and 5th fingers are weak. There are techniques like the 60 Hanon exercises for working on finger strengthening and flexibility for all of the fingers. If you're at a conservatory or taking private lessons, your teacher will go through the exercises and help you improve.

A great example from one of the Hanon exercises would be this:

Jordan is right, hanon is the way to go, here's a link where you can download the exersizes

hanon link

So I've been thinking, is hanon the way to go? You do the same pattern up and down, like a robot....
You could place your fingers at 1(C), 2(D), 3(E), 4(F), and jump your 5 up and down G and B...

There are better exercises out there to build your strenght, some of these are:



and

hahahah!!! (i'm laughing pretty hard here) NICE post with the rock climbing! that's so true! but yea hanon is definetely one of the best TRADITIONAL ways, but you could always try rock climbing or that crazy finger machine!

Honestly, Hanon is a good way but it really depends on how you practice the exercises. If you practice it without a teacher who knows what you should be doing, you can easily damage your fingers and create poor technique, which is a very bad.

Be careful with it. I'd advise you to do it with a teacher.

Jordan wrote:Honestly, Hanon is a good way but it really depends on how you practice the exercises. If you practice it without a teacher who knows what you should be doing, you can easily damage your fingers and create poor technique, which is a very bad.

Be careful with it. I'd advise you to do it with a teacher.

I agree with his answer, becareful

I shall be careful. I usually wear my helmet and bullet proof vest before practising

anyways, are there any particular Hanon drills that are really good?

JediMaster wrote:I shall be careful. I usually wear my helmet and bullet proof vest before practising

anyways, are there any particular Hanon drills that are really good?

hahahaha! a bulletproof vest hey? May I ask why you do that?

Anyway, as for hanon exersizes they're all quite good otherwise they wouldn't be in the book:)

The ones that are really good for you depend on what level you're at and what you need to be working on. If you've never used hanon before, I'd learn one exersize a day until you can play the first 10 exersizes without stopping in between. practise those for awhile maybe 2-3 weeks, then learn the next 5, followed by the next 5 after that, then alternate doing exersize 1-10 one day and the next day 11-20 do this for awhile

Also, try not to play them for hours and hours, because when you're doing a repetitive exercise over and over again, it's not that effective as it will be when you're doing it for 10 minutes. Try to break down your practicing into little sessions instead of practicing for 3-4 hours straight. Andrew does this and so do I, it's very important!

Wow thanks a lot

Question: Let's say I don't have a teacher and have never really played piano. What combination of exercises should I be doing to develop finger strength and familiarity with keys? Scales or Hanon, or something else in there too? I'm kind of afraid of starting something that might be dangerous and hinder any progress I make...advice please?

Sorry, follow-up question to that: what can I do for hand independence too?