I purchased these finger weights a few weeks ago to help my finger movements and speed. I am left handed playing a right-handed set so I have difficulty playing tight triplets with my right hand. These weights have really helped my dexterity. See this site for a description and short video clip.
Looks interesting. Here’s anoth product that may be of use -
http://www.stretchnow.com.au/products/flextend.htm
Cheers,
DavidG
I’ve found this useful.
One of the more famous composers/pianists(could have been Schubert?) , tried using a contraption to strengthen his fingers in order to overcome the mechanical shortcomings of the piano of his day. Completely screwed-up his hands, and was never able to play in public again. I studied clarinet under two world-class players, had instruction at several tionols by phenominal musicians, and they all say that the only way to get better is by spending time with the instrument in your hands. If you want those crisp triplets to be at your fingertips, get out to the woodshed, and get to work (God knows I need to 
)
dave boling
(smartass on) 'twas Robert Schumann (smartass off). I myself found that pumping iron (dumbbells, barbells) helps strengthen my grip and playing control. Not too much, though. No wonder Arnie doesn not play UPs.
I used to use one of those V-shaped thingies you use to build up hand strength. I thought it would help me play the chanter better. However, everyone I spoke to told me that I should have my fingers as relaxed as possible and that having stronger fingers only encouraged me to continue the death-grip when playing the chanter.
Eddie Joyce used the cutout leather gloves for practice and when he took them off played like he on fire.
I used to use one of those V-shaped thingies
Those increase grip strength, right? I do agree with your thinking that a little extra finger conditioning is helpful, but just not grip strength. I think increasing flex strength of the fingers (put palm on table and lift finger up: that kind of strength) is actually useful. The main thing with fingers though is Do Not Overdo It. You can easily damage your hands by overdoing it.
PJ, you do have it completely right that “relaxed” is key. So, if you pursue it, focus on making your hands, fingers, biceps, etc, completely relaxed, and work on lifting fingers with complete independance of each other. It has helped my playing.
short video clip.
Just don’t do it like the clip. You want to teach your fingers relaxed independence of movement, rather than the too-tense manner the clip does it.
It’s an interesting concept but I’m not sure if stronger fingers and tendons would actually help your playing. I rock climb and have really strong fingers, this has not helped my pipe playing that I can tell. What it may help with is preventing injuring and the best way to prevent that is to warm your fingers up before you play.
A good exercise for this is to “flick” imagined water from your fingers 15 times three times. Another good one is to stretch your arm out and lightly pull your finges back and hold for a bit. Do this with different combinations of fingers and you should be able to get everything nice and relaxed for playing.
-Patrick
Flexibility is far more important than strength. You probably don’t realise it, but your fingers are considerably stronger than someone who does not play a musical instrument.
One exercise I was prompted to try by my old violin teacher was to take a sheet of newspaper between finger and thumb, then scrunch it up using the next finger to gather some more in, and then the next finger and so on, until you claw it into a ball. Then repeat the exercise reversing the order of the fingers. Surprisingly it works rather well.
Laying your hands flat on a table and then lifting all your fingers up and away from the table is another good way of training the tendons. Hold your fingers up for a few seconds and sopt if you feel any strain.
To build up strength so you can play badly set up and strongly reeded pipes, place a coconut under each armpit and try and crack them.
Mike
Just a cautionary word to those aiming to strengthen their hands and fingers, do not over do it. I am a classically trained pianist (in addition to a score of other instruments) and during high school I pumped a lot of iron. The result of my weight lifting seriously impeded my finger flexibility and agility… the really damaging repetitions were curls and bench pressing… and years of piano training were almost wiped out.
If I were to offer advice to those seeking flexibility and agility through weight lifting/training, I’d say don’t. As Mr. Hulme has pointed out, your fingers are already stronger than those who do not play this or any other instrument. It isn’t strength one needs, but agility and dexterity… and these are things that are seriously hampered by weight training. Stretching is a far better way to go.
A coconut… in Mercia!? Where did you get it?
Obviously carried in by a swallow.
… African or European?
Blue - oh! - damn! yyyeeeeaaaaaaaaaghhhhh …
djm
I’m in dire need of an editor here, but I hope a scatter effect will make my standpoint clear enough.
It isn’t strength one needs, but agility and dexterity
A “reserve” of strength and endurance leads to agility. However, I must put a fine point on this: I’m talking about the “weight” caused by 1-3 thin, stretched rubber bands during physical exercises like what Mike Hulme mentions (“Laying your hands flat on a table and then lifting all your fingers up and away from the table”-- where the rubber bands are pulling your fingers down toward the table). It is extremely beneficial to do each finger individually with utmost concentration on using solely the muscles/tendons needed to move that individual finger, and complete relaxation from your shoulder to your fingers.
But firstly, those physical exercises should be started without added weight. Over a period of time (months? over a year?), and if you do it right, you learn what relaxation and finger independence feels like. To make this stuff useful, I feel you should establish a “baseline” by developing musical exercises that you constantly revisit at each practice. Get a feel for how well you progress at these exercises over a course of time by being aware of the minutiae of how your hands/fingers/etc react to each movement of each finger. At the very least, it isn’t going to hurt your piping by becoming aware of when you needlessly tense up your hand to move certain fingers (which really are just different levels of death grip).
After seeing a decrease in my progress, and after consideration believed it due to lack of lifting power in certain fingers (people always complain about their weak hand’s ring finger), I occasionally added extra weight while doing the physical exercises. It didn’t take me too long to notice increased speed and control of upward lifting, and endurance. So, from my own experience, and applying these methods with discrimination and restraint, I feel I received direct improvement.
It appears most here are targeting grip strength. But as noted by most so far, we already have enough grip strength. So, pumping iron, or mountain climbing, or grip masters, aren’t targeted enough (both in terms of what we’re strengthening, the amount of weight, nor the focus on finger relaxation and independence) to help. And as Joseph as rightly point out, indiscriminantly adding brute-force hand strength with no regards to what we wish to accomplish with our hands is counterproductive.
low whistling is a good way to get fingers more strong/agile, because of the large space between the holes.
In fact exercices are made not only for the brain, but also for the mecanical side of the music, and they will help you, everyday, to get “stronger” fingers.
Keep in mind that you can hurt them if you are too stressed and hurried 
patience, more than strengh, is a virtue in music
courage ! 
On the topic of fingers, here’s something interesting I learnt from a friend in the know, a maker of pipes Irish and Scottish, he had a fellow maker staying from Scotland who knew Hamish Moore well and said that he (Moore) had lost the use of his top hand ring finger, not from RSI or injury, but because his finger suddenly stopped responding to the messages from his brain. So now he uses his top hand pinky instead.
Cheers,
DavidG
I appologize, I didn’t word that well. It should have read: " It isn’t strength as much as agility and dexterity that one needs". But I agree that: 'A “reserve” of strength and endurance leads to agility".
Eric has hit the nail on the head here. The fingers have to be independent; and further, they have to be inter-dependent. By that I mean that we learn certain combinations of movements - a cran for example - where each finger has to have a certain amount of strength for the ornament to be executed cleanly, yet there has to be a balance between the fingers or the effect is lost.
Eventually your fingers will learn where they must fall automatically - this is called “finger memory” - and is far more important than reading dots. The skills are transferable from one tune to another, and once your fingers learn this you are well on the way to playing both fast and accurately.
(Mercia doesn’t exist anymore, Reepicheep, it was dismantled, concreted over, and is now called the Home Counties. If you are lucky you can still see the descendants of the old Kings of Mercia in the quaint olde worlde markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays, wearing their traditional garb of doublet, hose and codpiece, with a coconut under each arm).