accordion finger exercises while driving

[Gatorcheesehead]

Over the past few days of doing a lot of driving, I found myself (when safe to do so) practicing different finger exercises and different short melodies and tues on the steering wheel.

Is this a thing?

Besides being fun and a nice pass of time along the straight calm roads, I wonder if it is actually beneficial at all...

It did get me realizing how little I have expected of my right pinky finger throughout my life and how much faster there my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers were with picking up new tunes and melodies and exercises that I came up with.

 

[Siegmund]

I've not yet done this with accordion music but I certainly did something similar with my left hand and violin fingering for many years. Not too often on steering wheels -- I wanted to have my wrist turned toward myself the way it would be when playing -- but I practiced on any number of rulers, or even pencils ("1-string-wide fingerboards") at various times when sitting in a quiet office. Occasionally with music on headphones at the same time.

Driving, I expect it mostly serves as a check on how well memorized a piece of music is, not a way to actually work out a new fingering; that takes more concentration.

 

[Walker]

I don't have the time for these silly steeringwheel games. I'm far too busy practising double bass scales on the standard lamp, followed by 45 minutes of frying pan guitar.

A good day to you both.

 

[dan]

Yes I often do this too! Tapping the steering wheel in the car, tapping my leg or the arm of my chair while waiting in the lobby for an appointment or in an auditorium for a concert to start… even if the distance and orientation isn’t right I can at least visualize the layout of keys/buttons and the sequence of fingers for some pattern.

I wonder if it is actually beneficial at all...

Can’t hurt unless you practice the wrong sequence. Unlike an accordion, the steering wheel won’t give you any feedback if you hit a wrong note!

 

[JerryPH]

We've pretty much discerned that playing a piano has no benefit playing an accordion... how much less would tapping on a steering wheel offer?

 

[AndyM]

My accordion teacher showed me some finger exercises that were taught to her, when she was studying piano, in the UK. The point of the exercise is to develop independence of fingers.

Holding the 1st finger down, move the other fingers up and down, in non-adjacent pairs. Then hold the second finger down, and repeat the exercise, etc. Can be done one hand at a time, or both hands together.

I've found this to be very beneficial - when playing I feel I have greater control over finger movement.

 

[losthobos]

Syncopation, syncopation, syncopation.....
I'm often driving and tapping left/right hand rhythms out in the bid to develop better grooves.... possibly an addiction or therapy...
I can't remember if it was Duke Ellington or Oscar Peterson who said " we play music because it allows us to satisfy our innate need to count .."
One, two and ah three four and..

 

[Gatorcheesehead]

My accordion teacher showed me some finger exercises that were taught to her, when she was studying piano, in the UK. The point of the exercise is to develop independence of fingers.

Holding the 1st finger down, move the other fingers up and down, in non-adjacent pairs. Then hold the second finger down, and repeat the exercise, etc. Can be done one hand at a time, or both hands together.

I've found this to be very beneficial - when playing I feel I have greater control over finger movement.

Thank you. Wonderful. This strikes me as something that would be quite beneficial for me.

 

[Ffingers]

My accordion teacher showed me some finger exercises that were taught to her, when she was studying piano, in the UK. The point of the exercise is to develop independence of fingers.

Holding the 1st finger down, move the other fingers up and down, in non-adjacent pairs. Then hold the second finger down, and repeat the exercise, etc. Can be done one hand at a time, or both hands together.

I've found this to be very beneficial - when playing I feel I have greater control over finger movement.

I've just got new hearing aids to boost the higher frequencies lost over the ears, so now when doing exercises similar to those which you describe, the clickings of the knuckle joints sound similar to castinets being played.
There's a silver lining to everything

 

[henry d]

I regularly finger C and B griff CBA scales with my fingers as I walk the dog every morning. I still stink- but it surely helps.- maybe just mediocre now as opposed to outright terrible.

I had a six foot hose running into 10 feet worth of pvc tubes ranging from 2" through 6" in 36 inch lengths with U joints so that the whole mess would fit on the floor in the back of the car. I had a tuba mouthpiece in the end of the hose which snaked up between the front seats enabling me to practice arpeggios as I trundled about on long car trips. Intonation was iffy at best, passengers were a wee bit bemused.

The mouthpiece was plastic- on the theory that I'd lose all my front teeth if I ever had to stop abruptly with a metal one. The silver-plated brass of a tuba mouthiece is a decent chunk of metal...