The Spider and the Piano
Hand position is so very important when playing the piano. When I was a little girl, my piano teacher corrected me on my hand position at every lesson telling me to curl my fingers and cup my hand at the keyboard. Sometimes when I did not cooperate, I would get a slap across my knuckles with a ruler. This did nothing to bring my cooperation, only tears of humiliation. As I teacher I did not want to do this to my students, so I studied the principals behind hand position and its importance to playing the piano. The fingers have to be curved to allow for the thumb to be an active participant in creating the music and it is of utmost value when it comes to moving the hand up and down on the keyboard. Flat fingers on the piano bring with them loud and stiff music, it is impossible to play otherwise.
However, before I developed the Animal Note method of starting my young students, I had little luck helping my students develop a good hand position at the piano; the students were too busy trying to figure out the next note to think about anything else. Since I started using the Animal Note method, I have been able to help my students develop a good hand position before bad habits became deeply implanted.
I have my young children lay their hand flat on the piano bench and wiggle each finger, then get up on their finger tips to do the wiggling. It is easy for them to see how much more flexible their fingers are, and they can also see that the thumb is now among the group of wiggling fingers.
Two weeks ago I was working with one of my five year old boys on his hand position. He looked at me with a big smile and said, “I get it, you want my fingers to be spiders.” We laughed together, but his comment is a terrific idea. All spiders walk on the tips of their legs, not the long flat part. Now we have “spider toes” playing the Animal Notes of ever song. By using the Animal Note clues and the flash cards, students can make a solid transition to standard music notation. With good hand position, the student will play beautiful music, thanks to the “spider” who likes to make music.
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