Keyboard Layout: Dvorak vs Colemak: is it Worthwhile to Improve the Dvorak Layout?

[Xah Lee]

On Jun 15, 5:43 am, rusi <rustompm... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jun 15, 5:32 pm, Dotan Cohen <dotanco... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Thanks. From testing small movements with my fingers I see that the
> > fourth finger is in fact a bit weaker than the last finger, but more
> > importantly, it is much less dexterous. Good to know!
>
> Most of the piano technique-icians emphasis, especially those of the
> last century like Hanon, was to cultivate 'independence' of the
> fingers.  The main target of these attacks being the 4th finger.
>
> The number of potential-pianists who ruined their hands and lives
> chasing this holy grail is unknown

Hi rusi, am afaid going to contradict what u say here.

i pretty much mastered Hanon 60. All of it, but it was now 8 years
ago. The idea that pinky is stronger than 4th is silly. I can't fathom
any logic or science to support that. Perhaps what u meant is that in
many situations the use of pinky can be worked around because it in at
the edge of your hand so you can apply chopping motion or similar.
(which, is BAD if you want to develope piano finger skill) However,
that's entirely different than saying pinky being stronger than 4th.

there's many ways we can cookup tests right away to see. e.g. try to
squeeze a rubber ball with 4th and thumb. Repeat with pink + thumb.
Or, reverse exercise by stretching a rubber band wrapped on the 2
fingers of interest. You can easy see that pinky isn't stronger.

 Xah