It is quite understandable for an avid piano player to have cramped fingers after a day long session of playing the piano. Individuals who are just learning how to play the piano instrument also feel their fingers fatiguing after practice sessions. The best way to avoid this is stretch the hands and placing the fingers in positions where they stay supple and do not cramp up even after hours of playing the Piano.
This article gives a brief overview on some of the exercises that can help a piano player to keep the fingers supple and normal so that he or she can play piano for longer periods of time without any pain, cramping, or discomfort in the fingers.
4 Finger Exercises for Piano Players
Some of the exercises that a piano player can do to keep the fingers away from any sort of discomfort are:
#1. Finger Stretches: This need to be done before you even start playing the piano instrument so that the muscles of the fingers are adequately warmed up before the actual playing starts. This exercise also makes the fingers supple such that they move across the keys of the piano swiftly. For this you need to close the fingers and make a tight fist for a couple of seconds and then release the fingers. Piano players should do this finger stretching exercise several times.
You can also bend each finger individually as this will cause the fingers to be more independent while playing the piano. You can also rub your hands together before starting to play the piano to make them warm and ready for a long session of playing the piano.
#2. Slow Scales: Scales are an essential part of piano playing. An expert in scales will obviously be a better piano player than others who are not much knowledgeable about scales in the piano. In order to make the fingers supple so as to play the piano for longer periods of time in each session you need to start by playing slow five note scales. Then as and when the fingers warm up and become supple you can speed up and use both hands for faster scales and then start the piano session.
#3. Finger Independence: This is yet another important aspect of being able to play the piano without any hassles of cramped fingers and fingers not moving swiftly enough through the keys. It is extremely important for the fingers to move independently while playing long pieces in the piano. For this to occur, you need to begin by playing slow scales with the right hand not using the left hand at all. Then do this for the opposite hand. Complete several scales like this. It will make the fingers more independent of each other and allow the fingers to move more nimbly through the keys to allow you to play out a session with minimal effort.
#4. Finger Lifts: This is yet another important exercise for piano players. This exercise allows the fingers to be strong enough to rise to a level where when it presses on the key the sound that comes is very rich and high in volume. To do this finger exercise, lay your hands on the keys of the piano and lift each finger rapidly before placing them back on the keys. At first only the ring finger can get up high enough to press the keys when placed on it but by continuing to do this exercise, slowly the other fingers also become nimble and swift and start playing sounds for you from the Piano.
