Fergie's 'coin' excersise is interesting and useful, but his explaination of 'tight tendons' wanting to straighten the ring finger doesn't make sense to me. If it's as he says, a mechanical problem, why can I lay my index, middle, and ring fingers flat on a table, and use my other hand to curl the pinkie into a ball, with no stress whatsoever? Its a brain problem, not a muscle/ tendon problem. IMO.
Everything in terms of movement Is in fact "brain" instigated, by virtue of what we think instigates the movement.
But the body had varies types of muscle that work in different ways. The tasks are shared but in life we tend not to use the full functions we have, so they become part of other functions.
What we have to do is dis-associate those functions, and in the case of the fingers re- learn those movements.
So stop blinking for ten minutes.....can't do it, but now you are aware of it and if you practice you can increase the time you take before you blink.....if you want.
The same as holding your breath, you can learn to ignore the bodies reaction to breathe in with practice, especially in say, swimming or underwater diving. Fact is we can use or brains to control certain muscle function if we are aware of them, that 's why training works, it conditions a controlled response or reaction to a situation rather than just a reaction.
Sorry to say I don't get your point about the fingers flat on the table and use the other hand to curl the little finger into a ball.
For me I just curl the little finger into a ball without having to use the other hand.
Part of the problems with techniques is identifying what the real problem is.
Yes we are all designed the same features, two arms, hands, legs,eyes, ears etc and then we get into the variations. Now the variations can be size, colour, amount,etc and of course ability.
So part of the problem is having the ability to do something and then being able to use that ability.
Swimming for example, we all have the ability to do it, but it is amazing how many people can't swim.
So it is with music, we all have the ability to do it, but for some reason some are more adept to it than others.
Ten players starting from scratch following the same teaching and playing schedule will get different results, that's why when we leave school we all have different levels of ability and qualifications in the subjects we studied.
So regardless of what the brain wants, if a process is tied in to or has developed a co-dependency to another through time or because pf limited usem then we gently, and that is gently remind it, it does not have to.
Remember it is your brain that decides I will move your fingers to play bass.
That movement is just that to the fingers...it is movement.
It needs all the same in energy, blood supply, chemical and nerve impulses, muscles co-ordination etc as playing the piano, typing on a keyboard, using a remote control, or a games control etc........it is just your own personal experience, that the brain controls, that tells you what the task is when using the exact same physical and biological triggers.
One of the main reason hypnotism works, the brain gets fooled or the action of certain tasks is re-associated or replaced with another.
So yes I agree It could be a brain problem, but maybe later on once the physical ability to do it well has been learned and allows the brain to fully control the movement.
But for now, with the limited info on the user, I will go with the glaringly obvious one that applies to us all....it is this co-dependence of the fingers and the physical fact they share a muscle/tendon use, the fact they are designed to work together rather than separate, the fact is in life we never really use them separately so they are not toned.
Example being, on the fretting hand, our non-dominant weaker one, it takes longer and it is harder to develop because the dominant hand gets a lot of our use. That is by the way the same for any of those two arms, legs, eyes, etc I mentioned earlier, each set will have a dominant and non- dominant side.
And it is a fact if you lose or damage a dominant side function, the other one takes over to be the dominate one, so the brain re-wires in a sense.
So again, the relationship between brain and body is a complicated one and I look at it in two ways. Is the brain getting in the way of the function or is the function getting in the way of the brain, because that is the basic level that does not need to equate personal experience or physical characteristic, which we all have some many variations of, that we can cut to the point in fact.
And again it is shown in the length of some of my posts and the way I write them. A few lines ago I said "cut to the point in fact". Reason for not saying "cut to the chase" is that is an expression, so if you are familier with it then it makes sense, but the TB form is International and such an expression make confuse anyone who's first language is nor English.
So because I am aware of this I....personally .......take the long way round in explaining things to try and avoid any confusion, something that someone else not aware, or does not care about, would not do.
These things take longer to write about than they do to demonstrate or talk about, I mean this post only takes a minute or so to demo at a clinic, not the book it can become when writing. LOL
