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Welcome to my practice room, where I share my latest tips, tricks, and videos, drawn from decades on the world’s stages.
Welcome to my practice room, where I share my latest tips, tricks, and videos, drawn from decades on the world’s stages.
I was always proud of my fourth finger as a teenager. I’d use it all the time for high notes, finishing arpeggios, big shifts, you name it. So it dismayed me to discover, when I was in my early twenties practicing for a Chicago Symphony audition, that my 4 had gone from fit to fat!
I don’t know when it happened. Maybe it was the stress of my first job in Saint Paul. Maybe it was the pint of ice cream I was eating every day at that point (living alone in a bachelor apartment with Ben & Jerry’s money, you know). But there were passages I suddenly couldn’t play evenly because my 4 was flattening out.
Now before you read on, make sure you’ve downloaded my Pinky Power cheat sheet so that you can follow along. Just let me know where to send it:
So it can happen to anyone! Or maybe you’d say that your 4 has never been your friend. It doesn’t really matter. Because I’ve made a video that shows you how to start at scratch and build your fourth finger back up. In the end, all you really want is for it to behave like your other three. You may even start to feel lucky with your 4! Here’s how to do it, and I’d really appreciate your comments below to let me know how these exercises work for you:
