I ran across a link to a posting HERE about a book that Vasily Safonov printed (he was the teacher of Scriabin, Medtner, Josef and Rosina Lhévinne, amongst many others). It’s an interesting take on the standard 5 finger position. The German edition is posted online HERE .
There are a number of exercises that I’m finding useful for warming up [especially since, as I type this, we have just gotten our first taste of cold weather down here in the South!]. Below is a link to a PDF I’ve put together pulling just the exercises from the book. I don’t read much German at all, but the little I understand tells me that the purpose is to develop the fingers and hands in all sorts of ways.
- Treat these an an idea, a procedure, an algorithm.
- Take the basic idea and run with it – come up with your own versions.
- These would be good for “quick practicing” – where you only have a few minutes to practice in between homework assignment or basic life stuff.
safonov_edited version – click to download the pdf