Strengthening hands & fingers.

Andrew may have mentioned this is his videos, but I'm only up to the 8th installment.

My hands fingers are fairly strong, after playing the organ for months on end last year, I'm also quite capable of chords. But still, I would like to strengthen them a little more for playing the piano.

I have heard Andrew say to repeat the chords etc. and get your little fingers working and eventually it will come.

BUT, I was wondering, what could I do when I'm away from the piano? Would something like a stress ball possibly help?

THANKYOU!!!

I don't know if this helps but ever since I've started playing piano, I spread my hands out and push with my palm on one, on the fingers of another back and forth until I hear no cracking sound. I do this all day 8( wierd... but It might be helping.

Depending on how much you practice, I'd say the practice is more than enough workout for the hands, and they'll love some time of when they first get it. Resting is only a part of repairing the damage caused by playing, and filling up with new energy.

This is just my 2cents, but I know that cracking the joints in your fingers is actually a bad habit to get into. In the long run it is proven to increase your chances of getting arthritis when you get older. Stretching your fingers on the other hand (no pun intended) is good though.

I know that when u excercise muscles, what u are actually doing is breaking the muscle tissues down (destroying them, if u will) and what happens is while you rest they grow back stronger. Its how u build stamina and strength. To keep new muscle tissue from becoming stiff and limiting your dexterity and movement you stretch it out, just like an athlete would.

Kitwhirra wrote:This is just my 2cents, but I know that cracking the joints in your fingers is actually a bad habit to get into. In the long run it is proven to increase your chances of getting arthritis when you get older. Stretching your fingers on the other hand (no pun intended) is good though...

Yeah, very true!! Its NOT good to crack the fingers at all!!
I have periods where I do that, sort of without knowing, and I then have to get out of the habit!
But as you say, stretching is good! But stretching dosnt really do any good unless the muscles ect are worm!!
And one should never stretch in the middle of a workout since this is participating in tearing up muscle tissue ect which is bad!!

Worm up - 10min
Play/Practice - 30-60min
Stretch - 2-3min
Relax -

There's no real best way to improve finger strength, the most straight forward way to improve strength is to play the piano every day, that will build a lot of strength over time.

Another thing i've found that is just WONDERFUL for helping keep tendentious away and strengthening your arms muscles in general is using the boading balls or "chinese balls" that you rotate in your hands. I find these are SO useful as they focus on moving your fingers in many different ways I think they balance out your muscles and In the past 3 months that i've used them i've noticed a mega difference in my playing.

this is where i bought mine. http://www.baodingballs.com/