Having a strong set of fingers will help improve your overall ability to play the piano – especially when you encounter difficult songs or passages.
In our last article, we talked about improving finger speed for piano.
So in this article on how to improve finger strength for piano, we’ll go over some things you can do to increase your fingers’ ability to play.
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We’ll go over some exercises you can do and more.
Let’s get into strengthening your fingers…
Use a Weighted Keyboard
The first thing you should consider when thinking about finger strength is the type of piano you’re using.
If you’re on an upright or grand piano, then you’re likely using the right type of keys – fully weighted one.
However, if you’re on a digital piano there’s a chance it uses keys that are lighter, and therefore easier to play/press.
It’s always best to practice on a piano that has fully weighted keys so that you have to almost force your fingers down to hit the key properly.
That will definitely increase their strength quickly.
But it doesn’t mean you should throw away your keyboard and buy a new one – that’s not very affordable. Work with what you’ve got and follow the rest of the tips below.
But if you’re in the market for a new piano, choose one that has fully weighted keys.
Working Out Hand Muscles
There’s a couple of things you can do to specifically work out your finger and hand muscles to increase their strength.
The first way is to just practice hitting keys on a piano with each finger using varied amounts of pressure/force. It may seem boring, but the more you practice hitting weighted keys with your weaker fingers (especially the pinky and ring finger) the stronger they’ll get.
Another thing you can do is use workout hand grips. These are little devices that you squeeze to work our your hand and wrist. They can also help you improve finger strength.
Finally, it can also be helpful to take a semi-tight rubber band and wrap it around your fingers on one hand. Then slowly spread out your fingers to stretch the rubber band, before slowly letting go. Do this a few times for several sets and it’ll help improve your overall hand and finger strength.
Be careful when working out these muscles and fingers. You don’t want to overdo it and cause injury, because then you won’t be able to play piano at all.
Work Out the Rest
Something that may surprise a lot of people is the fact that most of the finger “strength” you use doesn’t actually come from your fingers.
Instead it’s usually the rest of the “apparatus” that provides the needed strength – your shoulder, forearm and wrist for example.
So knowing that, the best way to get more strength through your fingers is to work out your arm muscles.
There are several things you can do to make sure your entire arm is functioning optimally, but it makes sense to just do a bit of a full body workout.
You don’t need to do anything crazy, just some basic body weight stuff that will help strengthen the muscles in your arms, wrists, forearms, biceps, shoulders and, of course, fingers – push ups immediately come to mind.
This isn’t a health site, so we won’t get into it too deeply here, but consider doing some overall strength conditioning – no matter your age – to help strengthen your fingers.
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Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, your ability to play piano properly will come from the amount of practice time you put in.
Up next, you might want to learn more about how to play piano arpeggios.
You can’t just follow the advice in this article to increase finger strength and expect it to be your savior.
Although having strong fingers is a small part of your ability to play, most of that strength will come from actual piano practice.
So don’t focus too much on how to improve finger strength for piano, and instead focus on overall consistency and longevity of your practice.
If you really want to level up your piano playing, there’s nothing better than learning your favorite songs. So I highly recommend you try out FlowKey – the best online piano song library around.
Thanks for reading this article – hope this was helpful!
