I was hanging out in the newsgroup rec.music.makers.piano (you can sample this via Google Groups at rec.music.makers.piano). It has a relatively high signal-to-noise ratio but there's a lot of discussion of digital pianos, which don't interest me much.

Someone there asked the question "Are there any suggestions as to how to practice/improve fingering technique, dexterity, etc., when no piano is available - as in a car or motel or out in the woods or whatever."

Someone else responded citing the book "The Technique of Piano Playing" by Jozsef Gat. It's out of print and the cheapest second-hand copy I could find was £110 so I just wondered if anyone either had the book and could post some of these exercises, or just had any ideas on this matter.

Edward

I'm not a pianist (well..........part-time I am but not if I can help it) but I'm a flute player. Whilst I was at music college we used to be given finger strengthening exercises to do when not actually practicing to help swifter fingers.

When I'm sitting at my desk, or stuck ina traffic I do this........................simply rest one of my hands on something, in a piano playing hand shape (though I do let my wrist rest as well, but keep curved fingers. Whilst keeping other fingers down, do 20 'taps' with one finger........ie lifting it up and down. Then on to the next finger and the next etc. It's great if it's on a solid surface, as you can hear the taps........this way you can try and make sure your 4th adn 5th fingers make as much noise as the stronger ones.

Hope this makes sense!!!