finger strengthening and finger stretching exercises

[Mark]

A few years ago I found I was having a hard time switching between 2-3 and 2-4 valve combinations quickly enough for a piece I was working on. A friend suggested these exercises and after a few weeks they solved the problem.

[Matt Good]

I tried this and it hurts like hell.

[pjv]

In general the only time my hand hurts is when I playing a lot on one of my tubas where by, in order to manipulate the valves, my hand has to make about a 90 degree angle. The only way to avoid this is to raise my elbow, but this isn't really great either. It's one of the reasons I've never even tried a Cervany style helicon.
Honestly I've never really understood why so many tubas are made this way. I guess most players prefer to play like this.

[Rick Denney]

I tried this and it hurts like hell.

Me, too.

Rick "now typing left-handed" Denney