# Why is it so difficult to drum your fingers backwards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593 "2011-02-07T23:45:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/41 "2011-02-09T04:21:22Z")
Apparently we are all very special little snowflakes indeed when it comes to finger drumming. ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/42 "2011-02-09T12:52:22Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > I would guess that if you can touch type or play a musical instrument, it should be easy. I do both, and find that while pinky-to-index is easier and more unconscious, I can do it the other way and it gets easier with practice. It is also easier if I start with the thumb rather than the index. Probably a lot of it is individual wiring. I’m with whoever said they had to work hard to raise their right eyebrow. The left came naturally, and unconsciously, but I had to train myself to raise the right and it still takes a lot of deliberate effort. Surely that must say something about me, I know not what. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/43 "2011-02-09T20:21:55Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > The ones that kill me though is wiggling my ears and raising my right eyebrow. :dubious: (Illustrate your comments) ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/44 "2011-02-09T20:26:28Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > It’s a matter of practice, of course. It’s like Asians who can spin pens around their fingers. I learned how and it would drive my American friends nuts when they would couldn’t. We used to do that on the college forensics team. It was a subtle technique to distract our opponent. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/45 "2011-02-09T20:31:06Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > No proble in either direction for me, or alternating fingers, or pretty much any random order or complex rhythm I want. I am also a gutar player, so maybe it’s a trained dexterity thing. I’d be interested in your facility with this one: tap fingers 1 & 4 on the edge of a table. Then tap fingers 2&3 on the table. Repeat quickly: 1,4 ; 2,3; 1,4; 2,3; etc. That’s difficult for most people, but can be mastered with a little practice. Then try it with both hands. Then try it with one hand starting on 1,4 while the other starts with 2,3. Then do 2 aginst 3 rhythmically, left hand against right. Again, it’s really difficult at first, and then, with some practice and a feel for it, bingo. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/46 "2011-02-09T20:41:22Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > When I read your post title I assumed that by “backwards” you meant pinky to index, as index to pinky is a little easier for me…though I have no problem with either (I’ve played fingerstyle guitar for years, though, which may be a factor in terms of my finger independence/dexterity etc). [slight hijack] Do you ever come over to the [Great Ongoing Guitar Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=550219&page=28)? The other guitarists in this thread visit, but I haven’t seen you and am delving into hybrid/fingersyle… [/slight hijack] As for the OP, as a guitarist, I can say that muscle memory is a funny thing - after investing countless hours going over specific fingerings, I think that any routine, sequenced motion can be “burned in” over time. Why do most folks adopt the pinky-to-index sequence first? No doubt some combo of nature and nurture - but it doesn’t appear to be special beyond typically being learned early… ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/47 "2011-02-10T01:36:45Z")
So there I was, sitting there reading a thread on some other part of the SDMB, and idly drumming my fingers on the tabletop. And I noticed that I was going back and forth: first index to pinky, then vice versa. And I said to myself, hey, didn’t I just see a thread title about that? So, after a little looking around, here I am, to provide some anecdotal evidence that, for me anyway, it’s easy and natural to go either direction. FWIW I spent several years of my youth taking piano lessons. You’re kinda limited in what you can play if your fingers will only go one way. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/48 "2011-02-10T02:52:26Z")
Isn’t there some sort of connection between the little finger and the ring finger? They share a tendon or something? Hence it being more difficult to move your little finger downward without your ring finger following it than it is to move the other fingers independently (though it doesn’t happen the other way). Wouldn’t that affect how easy it is to drum your fingers in whatever direction? If your ring finger naturally follows your little finger, then drumming from little to index would be easier than the other way round. Aha! [this seems to back me up](http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2005-05/1117326759.An.r.html). ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/49 "2011-02-10T03:34:45Z")
Finger drumming by The New Yorker literary critic James Wood [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVhUBMgd9jE). ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/50 "2011-02-10T03:41:04Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Do you ever come over to the [Great Ongoing Guitar Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=550219&page=28)? The other guitarists in this thread visit, but I haven’t seen you and am delving into hybrid/fingersyle… I haven’t but I’ll check it out - it’s a lot to dive into! - FWIW I’m mostly into country blues alternating bass styles, if it’s something you’re interested in feel free to PM. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/51 "2011-02-10T13:16:54Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > Finger drumming by The New Yorker literary critic James Wood [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVhUBMgd9jE). Whoa, that guy is serious! ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593/52 "2011-02-11T01:11:09Z")
Ok, I’m fess up as another gimp who finds it nigh impossible to do index-to-pinky, either hand. The other way is perfectly fine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-drum-your-fingers-backwards/570593.md?page=2)