6. Tankard Finger Exercises
Tankard
Tankard’s book has fully written out exercises. It deals with just about all the problems a pupil is likely to encounter when playing piano. In the book you also get a chart suggesting how best to allocate your practice time.
Tankard’s exercises are more advanced and best for students grade 7 and higher. However, there’s an easier exercise I get my beginner students to practice. It’s based on Tankard so I call it the Tankard exercise.
The goal of this exercise is to develop our control over our individual fingers. It’s more difficult than it sounds. So please give it a try. Practice SLOWLY and hands separately.
Tankard video description: press down the five notes c-g all at the same time, in order. Now lift each note individually 5 times each, the slower the better. Make sure to keep all other fingers pressed firmly down. This will be extremely difficult for the fourth finger. Not to worry, with time, your 4th finger will become just as independent as the others.
This is an exercise you can do anywhere. Even ask a friend to say a number between one and five and you will lift that finger alone. Then do the same for them. It’s like a little game you can play on any flat surface!
Always practice SLOWLY hands separately!
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