Rachel 4 year old

As an amature piano player but a professional mum my advise would be to find a happy medium.
Perhaps have her practice her Hanson or scales or easier pieces using curved fingers but still let her learn new pieces any way she wants. Sort of in the same idea as polishing a piece. When they are learning we allow any finger, any hand any speed but as they get better we select the right fingers, hands and tempo. You just add one more bit to polish, rounded fingers. My kids play with much rounder hands than Rachel does so I am quite sure she is capable of it. Her age is no longer a barrier to good technique. But perhaps her enthusiasm for fixing it might be I don't envy your task if she isn't keen to do it. I would rather skip it than dull her enthusiasm for at least one more year. By then she will be old enough to reason with her about it ( hopefully)

ttteh,

We've had to fix bad form in violin so I appreciate the problem. It's taken many many hours to do this also. But I have a toddler....it's different.

Ironically, it was the violin teacher who cured Benny of his straight fingers on the piano. Benny likes to hold his fingers straight and stiff like there are lazers coming out ready to destroy the closest black key. The teacher had him rest his fingers on her index finger and make a circle with the thumb and first two fingers of his hand. Then she would lift up on her finger to separate his fingers from his thumb. She told him that her finger was like and egg, or a bunny and we don't want to squash them. His fingers should always be relaxed and soft she should be able to easily lift them when she moves her finger against his. So now, when Benny practices the piano I ask him if his fingers would squish the bunny or crack the egg and it reminds him to relax and bend his fingers.

I don't know if that will help you but it helped us. I wouldn't make a huge deal of it, but I would work on it. It will save her much grief later on.

I like the idea of the egg, I can see that working for Rachel too.

Dear Pei Lin,

I am sorry for being late with my replies lately!
I read your post and eager to write a short article about the myth about 'curved fingers'
I will add it in my priority list.
We are going to meet on Skype this weekend and I will talk to you about it.

Meanwhile, I want you to do your little home work on the subject. Please, find on You Tube videos of the most renowned pianists. Especially Glen Gould and watch their fingers closely.

I don't see anything wrong with Rachel fingers and technique. Her muscles are absolutely relaxed and there is no tension in her neck/shoulders area. It means that she is developing properly. Unusual part of the picture - is her age. But here, in this community we are not surprised

ttteh wrote: Hello,

We have been on vacation for about a month without the piano. Rachel started playing again for two weeks. We started of with sight reading with Christmas album on (one sharp). Most of the time she will forget to play the fa sharp but with practice I am sure she will remember. At the same time we played Chords Album E minor. I let her listen to the song once and then hide the left hand. She will have to play her left hand by memory.

During my vacation, I also get to talk to some piano teachers about the program that I am using. They were impressed with Rachel's playing after watching her video. They told me that I have to pay attention to her curve finger and not let her play with flat finger. If the child develop a habit to play with flat finger then it would be difficult to change her habit. Will the child automatically know how to curve their fingers after a lot of playing or parent will need to keep remind them about curving finger? What do parents and teachers on the forum think about her finger?

Sometimes, I am afraid that she might loose interest if I kept reminding her to play with curve fingers. She is also playing Dance with the reed pipes (Nutcracker). Previously, I just let her play anyway she likes but I started to ask her to play with her fingers curve.

Any comments are welcome.

Pei Lin

Yeah I think listening to Hellene is a great idea
If you are stressing about it then Rachel will pick up on that. Watching her videos her fingers are actually improving naturally. Her earlier videos show very different fingering to her more recent ones. Piano teachers always think they know best about that sort of piano stuff just like school teachers think they know best about education...I guess just like teachers, piano teachers can be wrong
BTW I would have been surprised if she couldn't read regular music notation. I am actually surprised you only tried it on her now!