Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2007-01-24 14:57
Here's a great exercise I learned from the lutenist Lucas Harris.
Hold your arms out, bent at the elbows so your forearms are vertical.
Flap your fingers closed and open from the knuckles (i.e., where they join your hand), making "the sound of one hand clapping." 40 to 50 repetitions will warm up your muscles and get your joints operating smoothly.
Your finger movements should be as small and light as possible. Experiment to find out how light your finger pressure can be without a leak. You'll be surprised at how little this is. It can help to imagine that you're moving only your fingernails, rather than your whole finger.
And from the wonderful baroque oboist Gonzalo Ruiz:
Reverse your muscle effort. That is, use your muscles only to LIFT your fingers, and let them go down only by relaxation, falling by gravity. You'll of course need some effort to depress the keys, but make it as small as possible.
This takes a while to learn. Do it first with very, very slow scales, visualizing each finger movement before you make it, effort up, effortless down.
Ken Shaw
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