Achieving a Beautiful Piano Hand Shape
Are you tired of telling your students or kids, “Curve your fingers!” as they play the piano?
Children tend to stiffen and tense their fingers, hands, arms (…everything!) when told to curve their fingers. Even as a teen, I struggled to release tension in my fingers and hands as I continuously sought to curve my fingers. Surely, there has to be a better way to cultivate a natural hand shape when playing the piano?
I was inspired by Abigail Proffitt, who shared that she does not continuously say, “Curve your fingers!” to her students, but used pop-its instead to achieve a beautiful natural piano hand shape that was free of tension. The pop-it is indeed an amazing tool to leverage on - it is fun and exciting - students love it!
Check out this video to find out how Student N managed to play a running passage much more evenly and with greater control after the posture of her hand and fingers were corrected with the use of a pop-it!
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