Mindfulness Practice with Piano Finger Exercise

Abstract

Mindfulness practice can be done on being mindful with daily activities like walking, sitting, eating, or exercising, etc.  Some people with their special interests and abilities may practice mindfulness differently, such as those who do exercises may have mindful running or mindful cycling.  For those who play music, especially the piano, they can have more finger dexterity and strength than others who do not usually use each finger separately.  These benefits allow pianists - whether professional, amateur, or students - to be able to control the use of each finger separately with ease as they play a lot of music pieces or practice the exercises.

This paper aims to discuss the practice of piano finger exercises as another activity to practice mindfulness.   There are many piano finger exercises varying from the initial to the advanced stage.  One of them is a series called Hanon exercises, which are among the all-time famous series of piano finger exercises. Usually, when pianists are familiar with the pattern of each exercise, they will play faster in order to gain finger strength and flexibility.  However, if we add up the goal of practicing the Hanon exercises from getting finger dexterity into cultivating mindfulness with slower playing, we can practice to be more focused and more mindful in a new, different, and optional activity apart from our daily routines.  Thus, the Hanon exercises are used in this paper as an example tool to facilitate the basic practice of mindfulness.