Are there any ways to exercise the fingers to make them a little quicker.
I mean, increase the number of miles per hour I can physically move my fingers? I could sure use it.
thanks
Take up picking pockets. It’s a sure thing for results in both dexterity and income.
Seriously, I think you just have to be patient, and practice cleanly and steadily until the speed comes naturally. At that point you’re not really thinking about it because it’s sorta like being on autopilot, although to be truthful, a certain degree of mental focus has to be there anyway.
I know of no other way; maybe someone else does.
It’ll come.
Do they make Nike’s for fingers? That might help.
This sounds like a gross suggestion but it works:
- Buy a metronome that has beat subdivision capability (Dr. Beat makes a nice cheap one as do other makers).
- Practice WAY under tempo and be methodical about it. For example: Set the metronome at quarter note = 60, practice your tune three times perfectly at that tempo, and then move the metronome to 62 beats per minute. Keep on repeating the tune three times through perfectly at EVERY setting, and backtrack when you make mistakes. But above all be methodical and consistent. This will also help to improve your own inate sense of time; if you attend sessions your fellow musicians will love you for it.
- This can be frustrating (when it becomes so stop and do something else) but can also be quite zenlike when you get into a flow. Your technique will improve very quickly-you will probably notice a difference in 30 minutes.
Hope this is helpful.
P.S. I miss your avatar, Ants! Dubya just scares me (even with the whistle).
I forgot: to increase speed, it’s very effective as an exercise to take tunes you can play well and push your speed just to the breaking point.
Keep at that, and over time, those particular tunes (and others, too) and their ornaments should be able to be played at increasing rates of speed.
That being said, keep in mind that: 1) speed doesn’t necessarily improve a tune, and: 2) you need to be able to play a tune well when doing it slowly, or you really don’t have it.
And keep your fingers relaxed. A death grip will only hamper you.
Just my $.02 USD.
Take any tune and disassemble it - isolate the parts you have problems with and make exercises from them. Play scales, pentatonic scales and arpeggios in the key the tune has them. Try to make an exercise out of every bar of the original tune. Be creative so that the exercises sound ok, too - give me twelve tunes and I write you a drill book from the melodic material in them, but you learn more when you do it yourself.
Play and practise those for speed (with a metronome as suggested in other posts, and without). Listen to yourself - do you really produce the clean, crispy sound you want? Finger (and finger-tongue) coordination is hard, it’s not only speed that counts.
Sonja
Practicing with a metronomes can cause ticker-tape typewriter rhythm, when you practice to one set it so that it’s only clicking on downbeats so you can still put some lilt into it.
This is dance music, remember to keep it swingy. 
I do it a little differently because I’m a drummer (egads!). For as long as I’ve been playing drums, I have drummed with my fingers, but only my first and second fingers (imagine laying your hand on the surface of a table with fingers curled naturally–the drumming with your fingers) . I can play a lot of cool drum parts that way. Those fingers are pretty good and coordinated, but my third finger is horrible. So now what I do is I use my second and third fingers to drum and I have noticed a big improvement. I do it in the car, on the steering wheel or on my leg or wherever. I change hands back and forth. And the beauty of it is that every song has a diferent beat and you can do different patterns etc to relieve boredom and to work on coordination.
The best players can play it straight or with swing.
The metronome will help you either way.
As a trad musician, you should be able to do both.
Yes but they usually only play it dead straight to show people how you’re not supposed to do it
Very true
Really? Why? If you can play with a lilt you can turn it off & sound like the abc2win dos player if you wanted to, but typewriter players can’t turn on the lilt without serious relearning. Nonetheless have you ever heard someone say, “play it flatter this time - without rhythm”
Brad-ever play at a session with older musicians playing straight? Start to swing and you will get the total and complete evil eye.
Maybe this has never happened to you, though. 
BTW- You don’t have to take my word on it. I just got back from Augusta. Jerry O’ Sullivan (and this is the umpteenth time I’ve heard him reiterate this) strongly recommends practicing with Dr. Beat on a regular basis.
No I’ve never had this happen to me, I’ve had the reverse happen where they say my playing was too flat.
just curious where do you live? Donegal?
There will be some straight playing where I’m going next week. I really like to swing tunes when I play but can play straight when appropriate. Which is the point. 
pulling our fingers to high up is no good if you want speed. i also agree with many thing said above like gradualy increasing speed.
if you want a big stretch, your hands represent your body. they are like one. if you’re somewhere stiff in your limbs, this will also manifest in your hands. that’s why i stretch my body daly, my hands aren’t so big, but i got a burke low C coming up!
I suspect you guys are using the words “straight” and “swing” in different ways. Methinks when Brad says “straight” he means played mechanically, with no lilt. Perhaps Janice just means the notes are of relatively equal duration, rather than the bouncy feel that approaches a dotted eight/sixteenth sort of thing. I think good players can play either way with good feel.
But maybe I’m wrong. 
There is an exercise book out there called ‘Better Stronger Faster’ that contains exercises for fifers that I’ve been using since December. Its made me far more accurate, faster, more rhythmic. Yes, I do it to a metronome also, but exercises have turned out being very important to my improvement.
drink coffee