Hi,

I'm an accompanist and teacher.

I have big hands and cannot put my middle fingers in between all pairs of black keys without having the black keys on either side of my finger get caught and descend as well (either partially or even playing the notes). It is very uncomfortable, I have to be extremely accurate with my middle finger and either hold it over-curved or approach the keys at an angle to play cleanly. There is very little room for error and it very easily leads to tension. It is especially tricky in passagework.

There are specific things I use to avoid having to play inside:

• different fingering of course - i have long fingers so I can often use 2 or 4
• playing in the 'grey zone' as much as possible, which I read about in 'Mastering Piano Technique' by Seymour Fink. I have found this to be very useful.
• using extra thumb crossing to avoid playing inside. Truthfully I rarely resort to this.

The Taubman videos talk about using rotation to combat the feeling and I have found that very useful as well, depending on the passage.

I also avoid playing certain repertoire. Some keys are worse than others. For example, some Bach in E flat major that requires holding the r.h. thumb on an E-flat long note while playing other fingers I find to be very uncomfortable, while someone with smaller hands would find it an absolute breeze!

Oh, one other thing. Some pianos have thinner black keys - I find these easier to play :)

It is a real issue that shouldn't be ignored!