pinky fingers sounds like a pickpocket pianist from the jazz age

[solarbird]

Apparently whether you can be a great violinist resides in large part in your left pinky finger. I mean, it’s the kind of thing that makes more sense once you read it, but who knew? I wonder how many serious violinists and fiddlers can’t do that. I’ve always had a large amount of “yeah? go fuck yourself” to “you can’t do that,” so I wonder whether this is one of those brick walls I’d throw myself against.

Tho’ not literally, because I have that left pinky finger property. Which clearly in and of itself does not make you a great violinist, because “Doctor, will I be able to play fiddle once the cast comes off?/Yes, yes, you’ll be fine!/That’s weird, I couldn’t play the fiddle before!” I guess you have to study and practice and stuff. But I do have the viLOLin – the $36 violin I picked up at a pawn – and I do want to learn to play sometime.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Too many pieces, too many parts, too many things to learn in not enough time. For me, it’s a bunch of music things, and languages. Now there’s a brick wall I throw myself against – I’m great at grammars, my accents are too good (in that people assume I’m fluent or even native-speaker and firehose at me), but I can’t learn vocabulary to save my life. As in, I’m so bad at it, my secondary school let me out of the language requirement, as long as I just kept trying.

Really, that’s what I need the brain enhancement for: memorisation. Particularly of language vocabulary, but not just that. If I could stick a chip in my brain and fix that? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP.

Should that be a poll? “What enhancement would get you to try it?” That might be fun. Suggestions in comments, if you got ‘em.

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come listen to our music!

Comments

[corvi]

My anecdotal experience is that I was originally unable to bend my pinky finger alone, but after was years of piano lessons, I am now able to, so I wonder if some of it is just practice?

[solarbird]

I can bend each of my fingers alone, and I don't know if that's unusual or not. I just, you know, can. Which is kind of orthogonal to the question, I guess. But regardless of that, I'm pretty sure a lot of everything is practice. Not everything, but lots.

[oh6]

I can do the pinky finger thing, but for some reason I can't flex my right thumb without also flexing my right index and middle fingers. I played cello for several years as a kid, and spent a lot of time with my right hand holding the bow, which I think may have something to do with it.

[solarbird]

I've never heard of that one. Bending my thumb on my left hand makes my left middle finger want to bend, but I can stop it.

Fingers are weird. Or, I guess, Fingers is weird. Fingers is a weird person. "Finger's Fingers Fingered in Felony" screamed the headline.

I don't even know where I'm going, much less how I got there.