From the live class

The finger exercise you can do in bed

One of the fifteen coordination exercises, taught live — and the small rule that makes it work: never move your fingers in order.

There are fifteen coordination exercises in the Ridley method. Stephen teaches one of them live, and the first thing he says about it is the part worth repeating: you do not need a piano. You can do this in bed, or in the car.

Lift your left arm up in front of your face. Take your right hand and rest it on top of your forearm — gently. That word is doing real work: it should be light enough that the hand still moves freely. Do not clamp it down.

Lift one finger at a time — but not in order

Now lift a single finger off the arm, and put it back. Then another. The rule that makes this an exercise rather than a fidget is that you never go in order. Pinky. Middle. Ring — he warns you in advance that the ring finger is where most people stall, and that it is completely normal. Pointer. Middle again. Thumb.

“This is tricky for a lot of people when they first start. Totally normal.”

Slowly at first. Then swap and do the other arm, without him, to check that you can. Both arms, always — the hand you never think about is usually the one that needs it.

The reason for the shuffled order is the whole point. Playing the piano is not fingers running down the hand in sequence; it is bouncing between them in whatever order the music asks for. Practising them in order trains something you will never use. This trains the thing you actually do.