Five Finger Feuds

The third and fourth fingers, and 'weak fingers' in general are talked about a lot in piano-nerd world. Especially with regard to strengthening those specific fingers, and trying to ensure they are strong as the rest of the hand. The problem is, it's less about strength, and more about the fact that they just don't really get on. They are the piano equivalent of quarrelling siblings. The Taylor Swift and Kanye West of the tendon world, the Noel Gallagher and Lewis Capaldi of finger independence.

So what is the solution?

I think instead of trying to strengthen them all the time in combination, we could look at ways simply to avoid using them in combination in actual pieces. In this case, prevention is better than cure. So if you need to do a trill with fingers 3 and 4, maybe consider 2 and 4 instead. Or instead of 4 and 5, how about 3 and 5? This all of course depends on context, but often it is possible to find a way to avoid using weaker fingers in combination, even if you have to do some nifty redistribution. If you have to hold down a note whilst playing a trill with the other fingers in the same hand, don't forget you can always hold that note with the pedal (OMG!) and then jump to the trill with the strongest fingering possible, rather than trying to do Hugh Jackman-style strength training for your fifth finger.