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Archie the Thumb

I've named my left thumb Archie because he arches when I play piano.


Do you see that? Do you see how Archie isn't looking rested and relaxed? That, friends, is what a tense thumb looks like.


Oh, yes. That is not a happy thumb.

Why am I arching my left thumb? I don't do this on my right hand. Just the left. In this case, I was playing the fifth Hanon exercise. Archie is perfectly relaxed on the way up the keyboard, but he arches right up on the way down.

On the way up, the thumb leads off and my weak 4 finger doesn't have to work very hard:

Not so on the way down. On the way down, the 4 finger has a bigger role. And the 4 finger is weak.

This weakness throws off the balance of my whole left hand. And what does Archie do?

He arches. He's overcompensating. My whole hand is overcompensating, I think, by becoming tense and stiff. Gotta get that 4 finger to do its job! But this isn't good.

My left hand needs to be relaxed. Archie needs to chill. And my 4 finger (what shall I name him?) (and why are my fingers male?) needs to learn to carry its own weight.

The solution? I asked my teacher about this because I'm having some trouble with evenness in the Bach when I speed it up to 80. And I know it's all related to my weak 4 finger.

She said to practice in syncopations, or rhythms.

Rhythms. Of course. I practice in rhythms all time time, but it's usually to instill muscle memory when I'm learning a new piece, not to get my weak 4 finger to behave.

See, I didn't have a weak 4 finger before. They were all strong, and they would all do what I wanted. But 10 years away from the piano? It has consequences.

So I'll be focusing on rhythms in both Hanon and Bach, and Schubert for that matter. I want evenness. I want strength. I want Archie not to arch. I want Archie to be happy.

And I want Norman to get strong.

Oh geez. I just named my left 4 finger (the ring finger) Norman.

It's time for bed.
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