First and foremost, from a medical point of view, I seriously doubt that you are strengthening your finger muscles by using weighted keys, synth of piano makes absolutely no difference. The movements while playing do not flex those muscles very much at all.

However, the impact and repetitive motion can cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is caused by repetitive pressure on the median nerve that runs from your hands, through the wrist and the entire length of the arm. The sheath that this nerve runs through is called the Carpal Tunnel. The nerve controls the movements of your thumb and all fingers except the little finger. Repetitive motions, such as typing, key punch, running a jack hammer, etc..., high impact motions cause inflammation of the tunnel, which then fuses the nerve to the tunnel wall, thereby compressing the nerve, resulting in numbness and pain. When I was young and working in medicine, the syndrome was known as Jackhammer Disease and Carpenters Disease, which were the two occupational hazards that often resulted in this problem.

The reason concert pianist do not develop this problem very often (some do) is because their wrist rarely flexes and the wrist is not in a stationary position when playing. Instead, the wrist tends to be locked in a straight out position and not flexing, while most of the flexing is at the elbow instead.

This is not usually the case with arranger keyboard and synth players, both of which tend to flex their fingers more than their elbows or wrists. Not a lot of Jerry Lee style players performing with synths or arranger keyboards.

Me, personally, I love those soft arranger keys. I once had a keyboard with semi-weighted keys and by the end of a 4 hour performance I thought my wrists were on fire - it was horrible. That night, I had to soak my hands in hot water, then switch to ice water in order to be able to sleep sleep. The next day, they still hurt, but by the end of the week I had a new PSR-500 and was loving life.

All the best,

Gary

We're not talking about an actual muscle in that sense. We're not saying a pianist fingers have BIGGER muscles in a sense that they can punch harder or have more horse power to lift heavier things or any thing like that at all. That would be a very odd thing to say!

And, your point is?

Gary

My point is, the reason you don't have the stamina and strength to cope with even a semi weighted keybed is that your fingers are not conditioned to deal with the stress and weight of heavier keys on a synth...let alone on a real acoustic Piano. It's just a mechanical thing. You could be a VERY strong man with real strong hands and yet not have the finger strength to deal with heavier keybed. This has nothing to do with one's musicianship, other than the fact that when your finger don't do what you want them to do, you can't be as expressive and musical. Your fingers can't be flowy and all that.

Sam, from my perspective, and having played both instruments, playing a piano and playing a synth require two, totally different techniques and has absolutely nothing to do with finger strength. An arranger keyboard is played using finger movement, while a piano is played using primarily forearm movement.

All the best,

Gary

I'm no expert and don't claim to be, as I'm not classically trained, but (from my own personal experience) I certainly DON'T agree with the above statement.

chas

I don't care!

Gary

A favorite expression in our household: "A bored person is a boring person."

Seeing as how most don't use but about 20% of an arrangers features, try expanding to 30 or 40%. That should unbore you for a while.

I'm trying to remember the last time I saw someone playing piano with their forearms. They must have been playing a lot of 'block chords' . I agree with you on this statement though, ("An arranger keyboard is played using finger movement") as it takes a lot of finger dexterity to manipulate all those buttons, knobs, switches, and sliders all while trying to read the lyrics (except for Donny, who has them all memorized ) on that tiny screen. Anyway, according to your theory, Popeye must have been a helluva piano player .

chas