Piano Technique for All Levels: Rotation, Finger Action, and Foundational Exercises

Technique is a pillar of piano playing. It must not be neglected. Leon Fleisher, a transformative performer and pedagogue who passed away in recent years, stated it best:

“Piano technique is merely the ability to do what you want. Any technique is the ability to achieve what you want.” 

I bet that you have students who want to play flashy pieces and others who want to play lyrical. Technique is needed for both! 

In my experience, many students have disliked the technique simply because it is difficult. In response to that, I firmly believe that if anything feels too difficult, it is likely one of three things: 

• The problem has not been broken down simply enough 

• The student is not developmentally ready, yet (so yes, it is too difficult) 

• There is a mindset barrier in the way

Good technique should never be treated as a luxury or reserved simply for the “prodigy” students. 

It is not helpful or encouraging to tell a student, “You aren’t a prodigy, so you’ll just have to struggle without the very skills that would make it easier.” 

Another common one I hear is: “They aren’t a serious student, so I’m not going to have them do scales.”

It’s like a math teacher saying, “You don’t need to know 5+5=10. That’s okay, let’s do some calculus problems.” 

Or a swimming instructor saying, “You don’t know how to float? That’s okay, let’s have you swim 500 yards.”

My Own Journey

Growing up, my teachers only mentioned finger action, meaning the notes you play are unassisted by the wrist or arms; everything is played completely by the fingers. However, the instruction lacked depth and did not build deep control or refinement. 

I had a minor introduction to rotation when I was 17, but it was not until I worked with Dr. Hilary Demske that I got more thorough instruction on rotation. Personally and currently, I believe that there is a middle ground, and it depends on what sound you want for that moment. 

But now, let’s discuss a few technical exercises or methods that can help either you or your student improve their technique to unlock the capability of the fingers by using both finger action and rotation. 

Foundational Exercises

Rotation and Weight- If you are unfamiliar 

Free fall with no correction: Drop the hand from about six inches above the keys to play a note or chord without any micro-corrections. You’d be surprised how many students struggle with this! Let gravity do the work.

Flexible Vertical Wrist: Play the 3rd finger (always start hands separate) and use just the wrist to sink as low as you can and pull just the wrist to as high as comfortable. Again, only moving the wrist.

Flexible Horizontal Wrist: Rotate the hands side to side as if to open a twisting door handle. It is better if they can do it without overextending their elbow and do so while pressing the 3rd finger down on any key. 

Two-note slurs: Practice on any two notes, dropping the wrist on the first and pulling it up on the second. Do it in all combinations of the fingers, but especially 2-3 or 3-2, as it is one of the most frequently used combinations and adds shaping with minimal effort.

Finger Independence

Hanon or Czerny: You can play these with rotation, but for beginning students who don’t have the most refined muscle control, they will need to practice these loudly and to the bottom of the keys. Speed is not necessary in the beginning until they are comfortable. The variety of exercises and the lovely, easy-to-read, even for beginners. Additionally, it’s in the public domain, so you can find free PDFs on IMSLP!

Scales: Not surprising, but there are tricks. I particularly suggest studying them the “Russian” way- 

• Parallel, two octaves

• Contrary, two octaves

• Contrary return to the middle

• Parallel ascending, two octaves

• Parallel descending, two octaves

• Contrary again

• Contrary return to the middle

• Parallel back to the starting octave

A lot of work for scales, right? Well, studying them this way affirms that you understand the fingering when your fingers do not mirror each other. You have extra repetitions to practice micro crescendos and decrescendos. It trains your ears to hear better evenness. Along with better preparing students for repertoire, where scales are not typical

Scales are always easier to memorize if you simply focus on where the thumb goes.

For example, all left-hand white major keys- aside from F and B major- place the thumb on the tonic and dominant. All right-hand major keys-aside from F and B major, place the  thumb on the tonic and predominant

Arpeggios: You can practice these while crossing the thumb underneath, or you can practice hopping between groups while keeping the same hand shape. Both can create a legato-sounding arpeggio. I was trained to cross under, but now I primarily implement the hopping technique as it suits my hands better. 

Conus Method Exercise Book: Contains over 40 exercises that Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, and Claudio Arrau endorsed. Free PDFs are available, or you can purchase a copy. The Conus method explores exercises to train the following,

• The thumb, the annoying and clunky finger that isn’t as agile, but extremely important

• Extension exercises, if you have smaller hands, it is even more important to make sure you implement exercises (never into the zone of discomfort) that stretch your hands to avoid injury

• Wrist exercises are also included to train flexibility

• Trill exercises, because the trill is the only that truly equally demands independence from all fingers. If you have a student struggling with fingers 2-4, for example, just have them play a 2-4 trill for 2 minutes a day extremely slowly, and they will see results

I completely understand that it’s overwhelming to look at a list like this. But you don’t have to practice or teach all of it at once. You can assign specific exercises to prepare a student for a piece.

Scales and arpeggios should be practiced every day—but for certain students, it’s perfectly acceptable to focus on just a few keys to start. A week—or even two months—is fine for foundational development (though let’s be honest: if it takes two months, they probably aren’t practicing!).

Remember, technique is simply the ability to play the way you want—and playing should never feel uncomfortable. Prioritize relaxation and physical ease at the instrument, and you’ll see more growth than you ever thought possible.