Ten-Finger Exercise

Great violinists or pianists, as the saying goes, often seem to have more talent in their little fingers than amateurs have in their entire bodies. Now a German physiology researcher says that is precisely where they do have their talent--in their little fingers, as well as their other fingers and wrists. Dr. Christoph Wagner, 41, a member of the Max Planck Institute of Work Physiology in Dortmund, has conducted tests on 160 violinists and as many pianists over a three-year period. His conclusion: instrumental virtuosity comes foremost from dexterity and pliancy in the joints of the lower arms and fingers.

"Psychological characteristics such as talent, musicality, love or affinity for the world of sound, diligence, patience and perseverance are all undeniably important, maybe even indispensable," says Wagner, "yet not a substitute for these physical characteristics, which simply must be present."

For his tests, Wagner used not only such household devices as tape measures but also four viselike instruments of his own invention that vaguely resemble medieval torture machines. Each was designed to measure the flexibility of some part of the hand or lower arm while preventing any movement in the other parts. Though he has not yet completed his studies, Wagner is convinced that the greater dexterity of professional musicians is hereditary and does not come from their years of practice. If it came from practice, he argues, then musicians with the same training would not have such differing degrees of dexterity. Not even the size and shape of the hand seem to count. The first-prize winner in a recent Munich piano competition, Taiwanese Pianist Pi-hsien Chen, had the smallest hands Wagner measured.

Wagner's research is backed up by personal experience. After finishing medical school, he spent five years studying piano and conducting at the Detmold Music Academy. There he became frustrated at his inability to make his hands do what he wanted them to do at the keyboard. Despite six hours of daily practice, a couple of trips to a finger stretcher and various remedial exercises, he could not overcome what he took to be his natural limitations, so he abandoned his studies.

Wagner believes that his tests could be used by music academies to weed out unpromising applicants, as well as by music teachers to "locate the exact physical shortcoming of a student and work out compensatory techniques." A pianist with a "stiff" finger, for example, could make more use of an adjacent note. Another result of his research, he maintains, is confirmation that the recurrent inflammations of the hand and arm suffered by musicians are the result of overtaxing their native skills--a musical variation on tennis elbow, football knee and surfer's knob.

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