Many children enter kindergarten without knowing how to hold a pencil correctly or how to use a pair of scissors. A great deal of time in the first year of school is, therefore, spent developing fine motor skills.
If you have a young piano student, your demands on their fine motor skills are even greater than in a school setting. And while some children have more advanced finger dexterity, others struggle. Regardless, all young piano students benefit greatly from exercises designed to zero in on fine motor skill development.
Building finger strength and dexterity with young piano students can be a really enjoyable lesson activity! Exercises are easily incorporated into the start of a lesson and help transition students into a musical mindset.
Check out our Top 5 Piano Finger Warm-Ups below and have some fun developing your piano students’ fine motor control.
Why Warming Up Piano Student Fingers And Hands Is So Important
Before athletes train, they warm up their muscles to prevent injury and to fine-tune their control over their bodies. It is an expected part of training. But did you know that it’s equally vital to encourage your piano students to build warm-up routines?
The term, “warming up your fingers” is somewhat contradictory (fingers don’t actually have “movement muscles”). However, exercising the hands and fingers will contribute to dexterity and fine motor control while “warming up” the palm and forearm muscles. These muscles (17 in the palm and 18 in the forearm) are what pull on the finger tendons to make fingers move, and engaging them in warm-ups will help to prevent strain or fatigue.
You may be thinking that strain or injury is not that common in beginning piano students who are not playing fast or for long periods of time. However, teaching your young piano students to include warm-ups in their lessons and practice routines will create good habits for when their repertoire becomes more demanding. Piano students who have improved dexterity and fine motor control are also less likely to develop poor posture habits or hand shape. Finally, beginning students who spend time focusing on isolated finger movement will experience less frustration when combining note reading, rhythm, and keyboard awareness with the required finger movements.
Warming up piano hands goes beyond simply wiggling fingers and should be done away from the piano keys to enable your students to really focus on their hand movements. Your piano students should practice curling their palms, stabilizing their wrists, using their thumb and other fingers to grasp or pinch, making small finger movements where fingers either touch each other or move independently, and moving both hands or both sets of fingers at the same time (bilateral skills).
But, all of these goals need to be presented in a child-friendly way, which is why we’re sharing 5 fun piano finger and hand warm-ups that your students will enjoy doing at the start of every piano lesson or practice session.
1. Icky, Sticky Thumb
This warm-up works on the pinching/grasping motion as well as on small finger movements. To begin, tell your piano student to spread “imaginary glue” on her thumb. Your student’s job is to then rub off the “glue” using the pad of each of her other fingers. Have your student use a circular motion when rubbing her thumb. Say, “Icky, sticky thumb” while she rubs three circles in time with the rhythm of the words. Do this exercise with each finger on each hand. When your student is comfortable, have her attempt the exercise hands together for some bilateral work.
2. Stretchy Spider
This warm-up works the palm muscles while improving your student’s control over his independent fingers. To begin, have your student place his hands on a tabletop with his wrists resting on the surface and his fingers nicely curved. This handshape becomes the “spider”. Tell your student that the “spider” needs to stretch each of its legs. Have your student reach one finger at a time in an upward motion (starting with his thumb) while keeping his other fingertips touching the tabletop, and without allowing her knuckles to collapse. You can hold something above his hand for the “spider legs” to reach up to touch, giving him something to aim for (start low and gradually work higher while allowing for the limited mobility in the 4 fingers). Initially, expect the 3 and 4 fingers to move together and gradually encourage your student to attempt to move his 4 fingers independently.
Once your student has mastered this motion, you can give the “spider” specific exercises for its legs. Write out finger numbers in random order and have the spider’s legs lift accordingly. For example, 1-3-5-2-4 etc.
3. Yes or No?
Improve wrist stability by teaching your piano student to isolate her wrists. To begin, have your piano student make fists with her hands and hold her fists out in front. She will use her wrists and hands to answer a series of silly “Yes or No” questions by moving her fist up and down (to answer “yes”) or side to side (to answer “no”). Encourage your student to hold her forearms parallel to the floor and to only use wrist motion.
4. Silly Sit-Ups
This exercise warms up the palms of the hands and the forearms while encouraging bilateral coordination. Have your piano student lay the backs of her hands on a flat surface with her fingers extended. Using the rhythm of the words, “Sil-ly Sit-ups” have your student perform the following: 1) Fingers bend to close the hand, 2) Fingers straighten to open the hand, 3) Hands and forearms rotate so palms touch the flat surface, 4) Hands and forearms rotate so the backs of the hands are once again touching the flat surface. Repeat several times while gradually increasing the speed of the routine.
5. Thirsty Fingers
This exercise works both the flexor and extensor muscles. Have your student lay his hands palms up on a flat surface. Have him imagine that his fingers have become sunbathers… and they’re hot! The thumb has a nice cool drink of water for each finger. One by one each finger lifts up to meet the thumb who is “delivering their refreshments”. The thumb and individual fingers meet over your student’s open palms and touch briefly, finger pad to finger pad, before returning to a flat hand position. The other “sunbathers” are allowed to lift up slightly if necessary. Piano students love it when they get to make sound effects each time their fingers touch the thumb (“Glug glug glug… Ahhh!” as though one was enjoying a nice cold drink).
Now, It’s Time To Return To The Piano!
Once your students have warmed up their hands and fingers away from the keys, it’s time to continue the process at the piano. Technical exercises (warm-ups that take place on the piano) should be a regular part of lessons and home practice sessions.
Traditional technical exercise books do two things very well: they improve finger strength and coordination.
But they ignore note reading. And this is a HUGE, missed opportunity.
When a student sits down to play from a traditional, technical exercise book, more often than not, they are simply playing from memory. They glance at the structure of the exercises and then their fingers take off.
We think a technical exercise book can do more than that.
And that’s what makes our series, Andrea And Trevor Dow’s Technical Exercises For Note Reading Success stand out from all the rest.
The technical exercises in our books have been carefully composed to not only focus on finger strength and coordination but also to improve note reading…
Which, as we all know, is the biggest piano student problem, hands down!
Check out Andrea and Trevor Dow’s Technical Exercises for Note Reading Success here.
Dana says
These are excellent, Andrea! Thanks so much for sharing. It is often difficult to come up with a variety of ways to put the fun in finger exercises.
Karen Snow says
The exercises sound so fun and that makes the kids want to do them. I’m having a hand position boot camp right now and I’m adding these exercises to the list – They are great
Cameron Weckerley says
Very good stuff as usual and perfect for what I need to do today.
Thanks again!
Betty Patnude says
I’m sure these ideas taught in the formative “First 10 Lessons” will be very helpful to any age piano student not just the little and young fingers group and they are indeed easy to explain and do.
As I worked through each exercise following the directions, my hand started to complain and I had to stop and massage my hand. So my comment is to suggest that teachers also do these exercises so they can determine which exercises to do, the order of the exercises and how many to do at any particular time. I think the student needs to be aware to not work through discomfort of pain. The progression of these exercises and the recommended amount seems important to establish. We don’t want our students to overdo these kinds of stretching and shaping exercises. Although Andrea worked in 3 repetitions, a child, with eagerness, could easily over do it at one sitting, or too often during a day.
I think we should always know what the student is feeling physically whenever we teach technique or give exercise assignments.
Katie says
I’ll be using these today! Thanks!
Jamila says
Great innovative ideas for youngsters !
Jenny Ballinger says
Very helpful. I also get my younger students to sing ‘Open, Shut them’ with me while they do the actions.
Anna Wilson says
Thank you so much Andrea for posting these fun exercises.
They look great. I look forward to using them with my little pupils!
Many thanks again
Lesia Schulha says
Over 20 years ago, I came up with “Finger Circles Fun” to create awareness and strengthen the area around the first joint. Have the student make perfect circles with the tips of 1&2, making a circle and SQUEEEEZE for a count of 5 not allowing the circle to collapse (no hen pecks or duck bills please!) and then repeat with 1&3, 1&4 and 1&5. Also make sure the wrist doesn’t stiffen up (no mummies please). At Halloween time, this exercise can turn into a mask where the child can use both hands to create a mask with big eyes on their face.They love looking in the mirror when they do this!
joleen steel says
Wonderful, sharing on my FB page: Make Piano Teaching Fun!
Patty says
I think these strength and dexterity building ideas are going to help me with the preschool children in my classroom. Thank you so much for these great ideas.
Bob says
I would also strongly encourage building strength in the non-dominant hand, such as doodling, signature, eating, etc. I did this for myself as a child. When in my 40’s, I had an injury to my dominate hand resulting in permanent pain and tremor, and I am a surgeon. The ability to use the other hand was a God-send. I think it also greatly added to my ability to play scales. My physical therapist was amazed at how quickly I adapted to the change!
Leigh says
Do you do these exercises with your students as young as 3?
Andrea says
Hi Leigh – yes… gently. 🙂 With young hands you want to do them slowly and with fewer repetitions than you would with older children.
MARILYN SHEWAN says
I have always known that “warm ups” were important, but now I know why! I will certainly be using this with my students!
Andrea says
Excellent! Glad you found it helpful 🙂
Linnea MA Good says
Would love a wee video of these exercises!
Linda H. says
These are good…and feel good! Even for me! My arthritis tells me they work!
Thanks again!