Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Priceless comment from 5yr old student

I took 5yr old Nicola to her lesson yesterday and found her regular teacher was off-sick so she had a stand-in tecaher instead (a bit annoying - but what cna you do?)

Afterwards I asked Nicola what she thought:
Me: "Did you like having Lisa as a teacher, or do you prefer Ben?"

Nicola: "I like Ben"

Me: "Why?"

Nicola: "When Lisa played the 3 pieces for me to chose a lot of the time she had flat fingers!" <--- said complete with disapproving scowl


Thought you might appreciate that gem!

The smaller your hands, often women (especially asians), they tend to play a bit flater. Your 5-yr-old is already learning typical prejudices and stereotypes. It is important to remind children not to take the one thing they know and generalize to how good or bad someone is. It's a dangerous thing we do our whole lives and it starts young.

If a teacher plays really well, children do not usually make such comments. They are too impressed by the things the see and hear that they can't yet imagine doing.

In general, I think this is true.

But what if 'Ben' harped on that particular idea. Children tend to latch onto things that authority figures make important by repetition.

In any case, it is amusing, and 4evrBeginR seems to be in fight mode a little prematurely.

Well, I've lost track of whether or not Ben is the usual teacher or the "sub".

But I talk from the very beginning about how the hand shapes itself to different needs, and I demonstrate everything from very curved fingers to very straight, showing that there are times when one or the other is the only thing that works. Then I stress the importance of not listening to morons who present themselves as experts. And I do this in front of their parents, at least one.

Call it a "preemptive strike".

Hey, watch it, buddy, I resemble that remark!

Ya know, I just assumed 'Ben' was the regular teacher, but now I'm not so sure.

I never quite figured that out either.

lol - never figured this would turn into a contraversial discussion!

For the record - Ben is the regular teacher.. and hasnt commented much on her hand position at all. It is something I've mentioned a couple of times when she's struggled with moving her thumb under during scales...

I do remember many years ago having good hand position drilled into me - and think it served me well (I did have teacher in my more advanced levels comment that I had a good solid technique without too many bad habits to 'iron out' - so something must've been right!)


ouch.... thems fighting words! - Any teacher trys that with me will find themselves losing a student. I want a teacher who'll work with me (and I'm happy to accept their method and ideas once explained) NOT someone who dismisses me completely.

Really? I was just reflecting on what I would tell my children.

Are you the kind of person who argues with someone who knows a great deal and patiently tries to work with you, as a parent, while explaining why such and such an idea may or may not be valid in such and such a situation?

I'd wager you are not such a person.

As I've said here several times, I love parents being involved, and with small children, I teach them along with their child. Many times I hear, "Oh, that's not the way I was taught," but usually that is followed by, "But what you are doing seems much more logical."

The fact is that there is no right "hand position", singular. There are correct *positions*, meaning that the precise shape of the hand and positioning of the fingers is something that is ever changing. If you play a chord on black notes with large stretches between notes, your fingers will be flat. They have to be. How else can you stretch your thumb and 5th finger all the way?

Now play an Eb chord, root position, basic triad. Most likely your third finger will be reasonably curved.

Check your fingers carefully playing a C scale, several octaves, then see what changes when you play a B scale, several octaves. Or play a chromatic scale but using four fingers, not three. Everything keeps changing.

Now, imagine what we face when Aunt Sue tells little Johnny to hold his hands like he's holding a ball and THEN says that anything else is wrong.

Isn't it true that tone is better if you use more of the fleshy part of the finger? If fingers are really curved, you get a kind of hammering effect. Also, it's just about impossible to play fast on black keys if your fingers are curved too much, and that "claw" shape can create tension.

My first teacher was really big into curved fingers, and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't play the Bach prelude in C-sharp major.

That's really interesting. Bach played with a curled hand shape but this key hardly existed then, and maybe that's why?