Jackson's Gymnastics for the Fingers and Wrist being a system of gymnastics, based on anatomical principles, for developing and strengthening the muscles of the hand for musical, mechanical and medical purposes: with thirty-seven diagrams

The skeleton of the hand, consisting of 27 bones and moved by 40 muscles, most ingeniously combines firmness with pliant flexibility, is equally fit for rough work and the most...

Leaving aside the vessels and nerves unconnected with our subject, we may describe the hand as being composed of three classes of organs, 1. bones with joints, 2. ligaments, 3....

Lumbricales, or Flexores primi Internodii Digitorum, are situated in the hollow of the hand, and pass to their tendinous implantations with the interossei at the first joint of...

After the explanations just given, it may readily be conceived what effects the cylinders placed between the fingers and the gymnastic staff must produce on the joints and ligam...

Many books have been written on gymnastics, but I am not acquainted with one which treats of the gymnastical exercise of the _fingers_. Why these important members of the human...

To become a skilful musician is no small matter. There is no art which demands more labour, patience, and especially more _time_, than, for instance, piano or violin playing; an...

In the opinion of many, the chief difficulty to be overcome in studying music consists in learning to _read it_. But this is by no means the case. The reading of music is learne...

These exercises for persons engaged in musical pursuits can, least of all, be dispensed with, because music is the art which makes the highest demands on the muscles of the fing...

If any one should say that he has diligently studied the piano and violin after the method used at present, and in course of time has learned and taught it with the greatest suc...

Stretch the fingers as much as possible one from the other, let them fall on the large muscle of the thumb (thumb-ball), and press them firmly on it; _remain for a moment in thi...

Stretch the fingers as far as possible away from one another, then press the hand firmly together, the thumb being held fast in the cavity of the hand; continue for a moment in...

Move the wrist, _without moving the arm or elbow_, vigorously up and down in a perpendicular direction, from 20 to 40 times, first slowly, then more quickly; finally, as quick a...

Take for each hand three cylinders, three quarters of an inch long, and from half to one inch in diameter, according to the size of the fingers; place them between the upper end...

It is not sufficient to play the ordinary finger-exercises and scales. As has been shown in the opening chapters, and in the anatomical representations of the hand, all the fing...

Moreover, beautiful works of art, like pianofortes, violins, and other musical instruments, ought not to be used as gymnastic implements. They are destined for _play_, not for _...

Take a board, about 22 inches long, four to five inches wide, and three quarters of an inch thick, and mark out on it four or five grooves, about half an inch deep. To fix this...

The following mechanical gymnastic exercises refer to the _wrist of the right hand_, and are intended for players on stringed instruments. Their chief purpose is to render the w...

There is another very effective gymnastic exercise for strengthening and rendering flexible the wrist of the right hand. A movement resembling it has already been described abov...

A famous German chamber violinist once remarked to me, “I find that staccato playing is the best exercise for bowing, but I can’t say why.” The reason, however, lies in the fact...

I will only add in conclusion, that it would be well not to continue too long with the same gymnastic exercise, but to allow the muscles and joints some change, which will be fo...