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 What it is
It's deceiving to call this a "Five Finger Exercise," because it doesn't really do anything like typical Five Finger Exercises that work your fingers to develop strength or speed or something like that. The goal of this is to teach you to play with total hand and arm relaxation, minimum tension and effort, and maximum connection with the keyboard. If you have ever had tendonitis, or struggled to play challenging keyboard repertoire freely and without tension in your arm, this exercise will revolutionize your approach to playing the piano.
Where I got it from
I was struggling with my playing, with low confidence and poor physical control of the piano. I was totally inspired when I first heard Joel Weiskopf's playing -- it sounded truly effortless and free. I thought that he, more than anyone, ought to know how to fix my problems. I decided to call him up for a lesson.
Joel observed that I was working too hard, and mostly needed to stop blocking myself with all the inner tension I was carrying. He said that he had this cool exercise that would help me out a lot. He had been taught it by Kenny Werner. Kenny is another great pianist who I have admired a lot, and was already well acquainted with his book, "Effortless Mastery." In that book Kenny mentions that he learned this exercise from a Brazilian pianist, Joao Assis Brasil, who learned it from an unnamed teacher in Vienna. Unfortunately, Kenny never really describes the exercise in his book.
How to do it - an overview
I suppose that to say there is any particular way that you have to do this exercise defeats the intent and purpose of it. Let me just say that this is how Joel showed me.
There are basically two parts to this exercise. In the first part you start with your hands hanging limp at your side. Then you imagine that you have a helium balloon tied to one of your wrists, and the balloon is lifting your hand into the air. The balloon holds your hand into the air for a few minutes, then it gently comes back down until your hand is again by your side. Of course this is repeated with the other hand.
After having your hand held up above your head for a couple of minutes, you become very conscious of the weight of your hand and arm. (If you were to go to the extreme and hold it there a very long time, it would become painful, and eventually damaging to your hand and arm because of the loss of blood circulation to that area. Don't do that.)
In the second part, you once again imagine a balloon tied to your wrist is lifting your hand, but this time it only lifts the hand to the keyboard, and allows your fingers to lightly touch the surface of the keys. Then you imagine the balloon releases the weight of the hand, and so it falls to the keyboard. One of your fingers catches the falling weight of your hand, and a note is played. Then the balloon once again lifts your hand, and then drops it for another finger to catch the fall on another note.
The point here is that playing a note on the keyboard does not really require any pushing. Really, the weight of the hand and arm is more than enough to make a key sound, if that weight is totally free to fall. This is the core of the problem many keyboard players have. They are holding up the weight of their hands and arms, and then pushing at the keys without ever releasing the weight they are holding up. This dramatically increases the amount of effort it takes to play a note, which is multiplied by the number of notes that need to be played, until a practice session or performance becomes an enormous workout, with muscles straining against each other.
If all this extra effort can be done away with, and the hand and arm are simply dropped onto different keys, then playing the keyboard becomes effortless by comparison (though some scientist somewhere would certainly have to argue that a little effort is being made just to keep yourself from collapsing in a heap on the floor -- but trust me, it's very little effort).
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How to do it - the details
After reading the previous section, a curious student will come up with all sorts of questions, and omit a few important parts, so I'll go through it from beginning to end with all the details. A couple of important points to begin with: 1) calm, deep breathing is an important element throughout, and connects directly with the release of tension; 2) slow, subtle movement is valuable for releasing tension and avoiding a lock-up of muscles. Both of these things are important to getting the best results from this exercise.
At the end of this page, I'll include a link to an audio file that I use to pace myself through this exercise. It's very simple, and does not include all the direction and advice I've been given, so I'd encourage you to read to the end before you try the exercise with the audio file.
Part 1 - Hands in the air
I'm pretty much always sitting at the keyboard for this exercise, but I suppose the first part could be done anywhere, sitting or standing. It's tough to do this part with people watching, because the first thing that happens is they think you're an idiot and start laughing at you. Try and get some privacy before you do this (unless the people with you are sympathetic to what you're doing).
Before you start, if you're at the keyboard, make sure you are positioned well so you can transition easily into the second part with your hands on the keys. Check that shirt sleeves will not restrict your arm's movement into the air. You might want to change into something loose, or short sleeved. It would be smart to turn off your phone or turn on an answering machine to avoid interruptions.
With your arms at your side, take a few deep breaths and scan your body for any tension: your forehead, tongue, jaw, neck, shoulders, and so on down your body. Tell yourself to forget any troubles or worries. You can get back to real life after the exercise is over.
Take another nice deep breath, and imagine one of your hands (it doesn't matter which one) is being carried up by a helium balloon tied to your wrist. Obviously, if the hand is limp, it will hang down loosely from the wrist. Make it so. The balloon is a moderate size one, so the trip up is not jolting or rushed, but it doesn't take a long time either -- just a few seconds. Imagine there's a gentle breeze, and the balloon bobs subtly and sways a little back and forth. Again this is subtle. Nothing too dramatic.
After a couple of minutes with your hand in the air, imagine the balloon is allowing your hand to move back down to your side. Again, nothing too fast or slow, just a moderate speed. It can be distracting to worry about time if you're new to doing this and you're not following my audio script or don't have someone to direct you through it. You can just tune into the sensations in your arm, and when they start to become unpleasant, then it's time for hands to come down. Or you could position a clock strategically and glance at it once in a while. I made my audio file to guide myself at my preferred pace, so I would always know how long it would take to get through the entire exercise. Of course, if that pace is not right for you, you can make your own.
Once your hand is at your side, some gentle movement is natural to adjust to the new position. Rest for a few moments, breathing calmly and deeply, and then do the other hand.
Part 2 - Hands at the keyboard
Once again, imagine a balloon is tied to your wrist, and is lifting your hand to the keyboard. I put my left pinky on C two octaves below middle C, and my right pinky on C two octaves above middle C -- not at the same time, obviously. (Actually it is definitely possible to do both hands at the same time, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a seasoned master of this exercise.)
Let your hand float with your fingers just gently touching the surface of the white keys for a few seconds. Breathe in, and as you do, allow your pinky to rise slightly. Then as you begin to exhale, imagine the balloon string is released from your wrist, and your hand falls downward.
Your pinky catches the key and the note plays. (All this detail about the breathing, the balloon releasing, and your hand falling is omitted from the audio file for simplicity's sake -- the instruction is simply: Let it play.)
If something goes wrong, like the note not sounding, or another note playing besides the one you intended to play, don't worry about it. Just stay nice and relaxed, and go on.
After letting the weight of your arm hold down the key for a few seconds (and a deep breath or two or three), imagine the balloon reconnects with your wrist and lifts your hand out of the key and into place with your fingers just lightly touching the surface of the white keys once again. Rest in this position a few seconds, then repeat the exercise with the next finger. When all the fingers have had their turn, let the hand fall gently to your side, then do the exercise with the other hand.
The Results
When Joel gave me this exercise, he encouraged me to do it once or twice a day for a week, WITH NO OTHER PLAYING. I managed to do that, and was really stunned with the result. When I did come to play again, it was so effortless and free, and it had a new beautiful sound. It felt and sounded so much better that a new confidence came to me that I probably never have felt at any other time in my life.
After I felt I had a firm mastery of the exercise, I extended the concept to include more active playing. At first I would drop my hand on one note, then transfer to a second note before releasing. Later I played more extended sequences of notes, like a five finger pattern, and eventually whole scales. At all times I applied the concept of the hand simply dropping into the keys, rather than pushing at the keyboard. This could similarly be applied to actual piano repertoire or improvisation. Just don't forget the glorious feeling of a truly relaxed hand just floating, then falling into the keys.
Joel told me that he adapted this exercise so that he could do it at a gig or around other people and not get laughed off to the insane asylum. He never elaborated, but I think that you can eventually omit Part 1 when you're in public places, as that's the craziest part. Of course, you would want to still be doing it in private as much as possible.
Best of luck as you explore this in your own playing
Here's a link to my
Audio Script (11:04, 7.61MB)
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