Five Finger Exercise

Five Finger Exercise

A five-finger exercise is a musical composition designed primarily to exercise all five fingers of the hand. A typical example is Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises.

Chopin wrote a number of études (studies) that are widely regarded as musical compositions to train musical ability and dexterity of the fingers, especially Étude opus 10. Another example of an exercise to develop musical skills may be Für Elise, it has been suggested that it was written as an exercise to practice skills on the piano. It has since been rewritten for many other instruments.

The technique has also been part of scientific study. Another example being The art of piano playing: a scientific approach by George A. Kochevitsky, who explains some of the fundamentals in teaching the piano. In his chapter on Progressive ideas in nineteenth-century teaching he explains some of Chopin's idea's (see above), there is a mention of five-finger exercises.

Read more about Five Finger Exercise:  As Figurative Speech

Famous quotes containing the words finger and/or exercise:

    That only needs a finger touch from God
    To spring it like a deadfall and the fault
    In nature would wipe out all human fault.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    ... when I exclaim against novels, I mean when contrasted with those works which exercise the understanding and regulate the imagination.—For any kind of reading I think better than leaving a blank still a blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers ...
    Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)