I have lots of them to do with a piano..but are they any I can do whilst doing nothing sitting here at my desk?!

yes, tapping your fingers on the desk will help or even pressing really hard on the desk top to strengthen your 5 finger!!

I've been told I have to strengthen my fingers too... I still can't play trills and stuff with my 4/5th fingers, which is pretty bad....

Nor can I. So difficult!

With your hand in a relaxed, piano playing positing, hold down all fingers on the desk, then with each finger separately lift and tap several times. All the other fingers must still be resting on the surface of the desk. Once that is easily done, try doing it with adjacent fingers (one after the other), still holding the other fingers down. Then, when that is easy, try fingers 1 and 3, 2 and 4, 3 and 5 (not all together, you understand), one pair at a time. This exercise is really useful and I still do it quite regularly.

I can lift my 2nd finger up quite easily...but my 4th finger is hard! It doesn't move!

I wouldn't worry, I can't even do them with my 2nd and 3rd fingers.


Tapping 3 and 5th together several times without lifting the other fingers is really difficult, especially without looking!

Keep practising

In fact, I think it's impossible! But nannyjay's exercise seems very useful... my fourth finger seems to have a mind of its own at the moment.

It's not impossible.I know people who can do it!

Not impossible but blimey does it take concentration

It does, I have to do exercises like that on the piano.

I've never done finger strengthening exercises but I might try them... apparently closing your fingers in a tight fist and then throwing them out really fast helps too... but right now I'm working on improving G7 sight reading why is it so hard?

i remember doing grade 7 sightreading...too many sharps and flats for my liking

I can do it. But it doesnot make me a better player or anything.

Maybe because as you've said in your thread, you are not playing harder music and you are not even having lessons.

It will help - the more strength and control you can get in any fingers, and particularly those which tend to be weaker, the more control and independce you will have in those fingers whilst playing music, which will help to make you a better player. It won't make you automatically a better player than someone who can't (yet) do it, but it will make you a better player than you would be if you did not have that control.

I am slowly getting it actually. I can do about three per second now but they keep going out of sync.