Stretching

Does anyone have any tips or advice on the subject of hand and finger stretching or warming up before playing something pretty advanced? If you have any information, please go into detail about such exercises, how long you may do them before actually playing, or exactly what the stretch is if you think they are useful at all.

Thanks.

I improvise a lot. Or I'll play my piece once cold.

Do you mean for piano/keyboard? Exercises exist at and away from the keyboard but there's disagreement about how beneficial they are. IMO it depends how you approach them. Endurance is another, sometimes different problem, like playing streams of fast octaves. Most players can stretch an octave but the octave passages in Liszt's B minor Sonata are something else!

Anything in particular to suggest?

Endurance is another, sometimes different problem, like playing streams of fast octaves.

or the Chopin Revolutionary etude...my left arm gets pretty tired after that :).

Have you tried Hanon`s "Selected Exercises for Piano" ? There quite easy, but I find`em more interesting then playing scales...

Anything by Hanon warms the hands up very nicely, and doing the exercises every day improves dexterity. Try "The Virtuoso Pianist" exercises.

or the Chopin Revolutionary etude...my left arm gets pretty tired after that :laugh:.

Most Chopin makes good study material. In fact, for stretching and rolling chords, the first prelude is a good one. All his studies are good for technique, the point being that you have to be musical with them also.

(I can't play them all by any means but pick and choose according to what needs to be done. The Revolutionary is good for several things.)

:)