Movement and Finger Dexterity Practice

[Hamolinadir]

Introduction

The growing trend towards movement generalization is of very wide scope and promises much for human development, both individually and in mass.  For all of its depth and breadth, however, I have not found a body of texts or practices linking the specific practices and disciplines that have come to be most associated with human movement in general (gymnastics, martial arts, stretching, and so on) with playful and artistic endeavors requiring deft and nimble use of the hands and fingers, such as the playing of musical instruments, performing card tricks, fashioning balloon animals, etc.†  Yet playing the guitar, for example, should theoretically be as isolable as a martial arts form: complex movements can be reduced to their constituent elements whether the instrument is the hand or the entire body.  Relating finger control and expressiveness with whole body control and expressiveness may be useful to performers such as stage magicians, actors and clowns, as well as to people like me who are for some reason interested in such things and enjoy experimentation.    

 

 

Finger Dexterity Practices

The internet shows that finger dexterity is of particular importance to musicians (especially guitarists and pianists), surgeons and performers of card tricks.  Tutorials aiming to teach greater finger dexterity tend to reflect those interests.  A brief look at youtube suggests a virtual instructor for us in the realm of finger dexterity – Greg Irwin.  He does cool stuff with his fingers and he created a 30 min tutorial to attempt to follow along with:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt4aQQJDJPg

 

 

Background and Preliminary Results

I am right handed.  The activity that I do the most which requires a measure of finger dexterity is typing, which I am good at.  I cannot play any musical instruments and I also have little to no experience with card tricks, knot tying (except of course for shoelaces), or surgery.  

 

I found it surprisingly difficult to maintain finger independence when attempting to fold multiple fingers at the same time.  Similar to early attempts at the exercise of circling the pointer finger of one hand forwards while circling the pointer finger of the opposite hand backwards, or even rubbing the head while patting the belly, the hands and fingers seem to want to be in sync, and the more so the less attention is maintained.  Folding multiple fingers simultaneously also seems to require a degree of finger strength since the fingers not being folded will tend to press together.  When attempting folds and cross throughs, which require holding the hands in positions that are unusual for everyday life, I somewhat distressingly discovered that my left hand behaved and felt as if it were stupid (barely conscious).

 

Trying to keep my middle and ring fingers together with my pointer finger and pinkie finger of my left hand spread out elicited a similar sensation to stretching a muscle which had only long ago done so.  Shifting back and forth between that hand position with the ‘Spock’ hand position proved even more difficult.  (Keeping the thumb pressed against the hand during these positions and movements also increases their difficulty.) 

 

Although I set no definite time periods to do so, continued practice for a few days  demonstrated to me that a relaxed and gentle bearing makes positioning and moving the fingers in previously unfamiliar patterns much easier.  In contrast to the initial frustrations of wondering what the hell was wrong with my left hand, or if my fingers had become incapable of performing the exercises, this ease is oftentimes pleasurable.  My impression is that, as with the emotional responses to stretching more ably that Kit has written about, learning to better control the fingers (especially of the non-dominant hand) unlocks a bit of the remembering self.  

 

 

†While some aspects of visual and plastic arts require a degree of finger dexterity, for instance working in miniature, drawing and sculpting generally have more to do with seeing than manual dexterity.

 

[Chris A]

Interesting topic thaks for sharing. I play guitar and occasionaly try finger isolation exercises when I'm stuck with nothing to do. I haven't watched the whole vid yet but I imagine will be nothing as complex as that.

 

For guitar its obviously very important to have individual control over each finger so they do what you tell them to do. I think most great guitarists just stick to exercises on the guitar...Tommy Emmanuel great example and he has talked about how his hands have physicaly changed shape to suit the guitar. Each technique is a new fine motor skill/pattern for the brain to learn and it requires drilling. Strength is also involved but that comes naturally from drilling the technique. The emphasis is on slow refined movement and only increase tempo once you can play it perfectly multiple times. Some of the deeper practice advice emphasise super slow motion and to take note of and release tension in the rest of the body.

 

The finger training products I think are mostly akin to the "6 pack ab" machines. Though this general movement capacity of the fingers would have some useful crossover. These look pretty good and challenging! I might try some out. I haven't read much into this avenue of dexterity training and the benefits for musicans. Playing guitar is a bit different in that your fretting hand has the neck to brace against which provides an external force to work with. I guess you could call it closed chain? The right or picking hand would probably see more benefit as its more open chain, free flowing

[Chris A]

Are you training this for anything other than curiosity or the pleasure of this training of itself? If not would be cool to implement into anothr practice, as youve said like learning an instrument or art and gauge the carry over directly.

 

Have you seen liquid/hand dance or gloving? They both require crazy hand and finger dexterity and would have very direct carry over while adding another layer to the training. Like Ido says 1. Isolate 2. Implement 3. Improvise

 

 

[Chris A]

Going through the video now and that crossover warm up exercise is the most impossible thing ever! I've always been bad at making those gang signs/hand gestures but this is next level haha.

[Hamolinadir]

Hi Chris A, Thanks for the feedback and information. 

 

That first video you linked struck my imagination not as much for the person’s skill as speculating about the possibilities of that medium.  I’m thinking along the lines of Terrence McKenna’s concept of humans communicating like octopuses – I wonder if it wouldn’t be possible to have an entire performance consist of drawing coherent symbols or pictures that would stay visible long enough to read them like a narrative due to the technology (and/or perceptual enhancement). 

 

The second guy is really good.  I was not aware that people were taking finger control in that direction.  The gestures themselves and the way he links them with the rhythm of the song are creative and skillful.  How did you come to find out about it?

 

Yeah the cross throughs are super hard.  I’m trying to learn to position and move my fingers better before I play around with those – breaking it up into easier steps.  Also trying to figure out what would be a good amount of time for me to practice – I think going through the Greg Irwin tutorial two or three times a week should be decent enough to progress without being a drain on my other activities.  Of course one of the advantages of practicing finger control is that one can do it while watching a movie, etc.

 

To answer your question, I don’t have much of a specific goal for practing finger control, although I do have a somewhat ridiculous notion of becoming a clown so that if/when I’m able to go to a clown school I think that it could come in handy J.   I also like the aesthetics of nimble fingers, maybe from reading Spiderman comics as kid.

 

More than that, though, I’d like to have fluid and supple movement throughout my entire body.  I heard a wise woman say to “Manifest your strengths and work on your weaknesses,” and it occurred to me that exercising one’s non-dominant hand is a way to work on a specific weakness.  I’m also interested in the psychological and emotional effects of doing so.  Another consideration is that Dave and Craig on this forum have studied foot mobility in relation to their larger practices, which I think is valuable; and as I didn’t see anyone writing about mobility of the hands I thought perhaps there was a gap to fill.

 

Do you yourself play guitar?  From what you know of the drills that guitarists practice it seems like you also play.  If so, is there any cross over for you to other physical practices that you engage in?  There’s the truism that if you want to be good at an activity then practice that activity – but I think it’s also interesting to try to figure out general principles operative in larger classes of activities. 

[Chris A]

Haha you are taking it in an interesting direction!

 

Yeah I have played on/off for about 11 years, though I'd say I'd im closer to about 5 years of actual playing/practicing. I can't think of any crossovers from guitar to other physical practices, apart from mayb typing and possibly some finger/forearm strength. I have decent finger control and individualisation while on guitar, but in general movement my fingers are terrible. Can do many basic hand signs for example. So I'd imagine this finger fitness stuff could be a great help ads my 'general movement capacity' of the fingers is pretty poor.

 

I have found movement crosses over well into music, playing guitar and creativity. Earlier this year I was playing around with some different ideas - thinking in terms of concepts or movements and just letting the hands motion guide the sound e.g. making a wave shape/pattern that ran up the fretboard that then 'rebounded' and washed back down the guitar turned out pretty cool haha. And other shapes or patterns like spirals, zig zags etc.

[vinca_minor]

Some of those patterns using an open tuning would be fun to play with as well.

[Chris A]

Some of those patterns using an open tuning would be fun to play with as well.

 

Yep! Was mostly in open C doing those. My knowledge of standard tuning is really poor so I'm working on that now, but some of the patterns carry over well.

[Hamolinadir]

"I have found movement crosses over well into music, playing guitar and creativity. Earlier this year I was playing around with some different ideas - thinking in terms of concepts or movements and just letting the hands motion guide the sound e.g. making a wave shape/pattern that ran up the fretboard that then 'rebounded' and washed back down the guitar turned out pretty cool haha. And other shapes or patterns like spirals, zig zags etc."

 

Awesome.  I bet that's stuff Jimi Hendrix thought about.

[AndeL]

This thread made me think of... the skelly jellies!

[Kit_L]

@ hamolinadir: 

 

 

 

although I do have a somewhat ridiculous notion of becoming a clown so that if/when I’m able to go to a clown school I think that it could come in handy J

 

Talk to Jim Pickles here; he combines clowning with contortion.