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Comment by tsm | Hacker News Reader

Interesting that he teaches putting fingers on the top row, not the home row.

I'd also never heard that the ring finger, "anatomically considered, is different from the others" and that pianists had elective surgery ("double tenotomy") "to free the finger from the impediment to action". Anyone know more about that?

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Hold your hand up in front of your face, and try to stick each finger up, in turn, starting with the index finger. You'll find that you can easily extend or stick up each finger except for the ring finger, which will experience a lot of tension. The ring finger can only be moved up fully and easily if the middle finger is moved up with it.

I am a classically trained pianist, but I've never heard of anyone having surgery to free up their ring finger. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened, though.

There is a rumor that Schumman ruined his hand by getting surgery to free up his tendons but there doesn't seem to be any proof of that.

From the NY Times of 1885, October 24: There is no saying to what extent martyrdom in the cause of art will go. It has just been discovered that nature, when designing the human hand, forgot to make allowances for the invention of the pianoforte, and that, consequently, all who are anxious to excel on that instrument must undergo an operation known as digital tenor-my, or the severance of the tendons which prevent the fingers from being stretched very far apart from one another. Doctors have, naturally enough, expressed their approval of this proceeding, considerately adding that there is certainly some chance of the wound thus inflicted not healing by first intention, and therefore patients should be warned of the risk they undergo previous to the operation. This is, perhaps, not quite so bad as putting out a horse's eyes in order that he may pump up water properly, but it is a step in the same direction. and it is scarely to be expected that in these days of infant prodigies such a royal road to success will be confined to those who are old enough to fully understand the steps they are taking.

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