Originally Posted by
davewerden
[snip]Also as mentioned in the article, the 4th finger is quite a bit weaker that the first 3 and is somewhat "tied" to the 3rd finger, so facility won't be as great once you get used to two-hand operation.[snip]
I'll chime in here as a pianist. Dave is quite right. The arrangement of tendons in the fingers causes the 4th and 5th fingers to have dependent motion (numbering fingers as a pianist, the thumb is 1 and the pinky is 5). For example, many pianists will not finger a trill as 4545 but instead will use 3535.
It is possible to achieve facility on four in-line valves - tuba players do it all the time - but the construction of the hand makes the 3 + 1 arrangement much easier.
Dean L. Surkin
Mack Brass MACK-EU1150S, BB1 mouthpiece
Bach 36B trombone; Bach 6.5AL and Faxx 7C mouthpieces (pBone on loan to granddaughter)
Steinway 1902 Model A, restored by AC Pianocraft in 1988; Kawai MP8, Yamaha KX-76
See my avatar: Jazz (the black cockapoo; RIP) and Delilah (the cavapoo) keep me company while practicing