Understanding piano fingering for musical gain and for better piano performance

Understanding how to use correct Piano Fingering is an important aspect of piano technique. It is important that you learn to use the correct fingers right from the beginning.

What Do You Mean By Piano Fingering?

Piano fingering basically means the correct use of your fingers while playing the piano!

Using the correct fingering is an important aspect of learning the piano. It is more of technique so it is important that you do it the correct way right from the beginning.

Why is Fingering Important?

If you take any simple song, once you know the notes of the song, you can play it even without knowing the correct fingering.

You can use any fingers you like and as long as you maintain the correct time/tempo you will think that you have done a good job. But it will work only for very simple songs!

The moment you pick up something which needs more than beginner level skills, you will struggle to play the notes if you do not follow the correct piano fingering.

To be able to play smoothly and at the correct tempo, you will have to use your fingers in the correct sequence. Without correct fingering, your fingers just cannot fly on the keys!

“Today, much more than in the past, no one can hope to play well who does not use his fingers correctly,” C. P. E. Bach. No wonder, C. P. E. Bach devoted 37 pages to proper scale fingerings of all stripes and colors for good execution in chapter 1 of Versuch, and Türk devotes 60 pages to the same in Klavierstücke.

Basics of Piano Fingering

If you pick up any instruction book for Piano, you will notice numbers (1 to 5) placed around the notes. The numbers basically indicate the fingers that you are supposed to use to play those notes.

Irrespective of whether it is the right or the left hand, the thumb is numbered as 1, then comes your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers and finally your little finger, which is numbered as 5.

So the next time you see those numbers around the notes, I hope you will remember and use the correct fingers.

How to Improve Piano Fingering

The only way you can improve is by following it in the first place!

Whenever you are playing any song from a book, make sure you follow the fingering which is given there. The more songs you play from any book, the more you will come across different fingering sequences.

Besides this, you can also practice major/minor scales using the correct fingering. All this will give you confidence and you will be able to use the correct fingering when you play any song from ear/memory.

You will be able to play difficult passages/sequences with ease and once you have the confidence you can even tweak the piano fingering to suit your playing.

“To produce the best effect, by the easiest means, is the great basis of the art of fingering,” Clementi.

How to Place Your Fingers Properly on Piano Keys

Learning to play the piano all by yourself, but can’t quite figure out how to properly place your fingers on the piano keys? Here you’ll learn about the proper finger placement on the keyboard.

Steps

1. Memorize the piano finger numbering system. Fingers are numbered to make it easier to write down finger placement on sheet music. It also helps explaining proper piano finger placement. The numbering of fingers is the same for both left and right hands. The numbering system is as follows:

The thumb finger is number 1.
The index finger is number 2.
The middle finger is number 3.
The ring finger is number 4.
The pinky finger is number 5.

Method 1 of 3: Right-hand fingers placement

1. Start at Middle C.
2. Put finger 1 on the middle C note key.
3. Put finger 2 on D, 3 on E, 4 on F, 5 on G. This is known as the Going up pattern.
4. Play the notes C-D-E-F-G using the current finger placement.
5. Move finger 1 to the right, and below the other fingers just when your finger 5 starts to go down to hit the G note key.
6. Pass finger 1 under finger 5 to play the next A note.
7. Repeat the five finger order outlined before so that finger 2 presses B, 3 on C5, 4 on D5, and 5 on E5.
8. Repeat the previous pattern until you reach the end of the keyboard.

Method 2 of 3: Left-hand fingers placement

1. Start at Middle C.
2. Put finger 1 on the middle C note key.
3. Put finger 2 on B3, 3 on A3, 4 on G3, 5 on F3. This is known as the Going down pattern.
4. Play the notes C4-B3-A3-G3-F3 using the current finger placement.
5. Move finger 1 to the left, and below the other fingers just when your finger 5 starts to go down to hit the F note key.
6. Pass finger 1 under finger 5 to play the next E3 note.
7. Repeat the five finger order outlined before so that finger 2 presses D3, 3 on C3, 4 on B2, and 5 on A2.
8. Repeat the previous pattern until you reach the end of the keyboard.

Method 3 of 3: Playing Scales

1. Your 5th finger should generally only be used for starting or ending a scale, not passing tones. In other words, you should cross your 1st finger under your 3rd or 4th finger, not the 5th.
2. For a C scale, right hand example, you will play C, D, and E with fingers 1, 2, and 3, then pass finger 1 under the 3rd to play F, G, A, B, and C with 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Reverse this coming back down. (Note that ending on your 5th finger here is fine.)
3. If you are continuing up more than one octave, you will cross your 1st finger under the 4th, changing from B to C ready to start over with the same pattern on the next octave.
4. For the left hand going up, you want to cross your 3rd finger over your first going from G to A. Continuing another octave, you’ll cross your 4th over the 1st from C to D. It makes more sense to think of the mirrored fingerings, but playing up with your right and down with your left is not the norm. (Note that beginning on your 5th finger here is perfectly acceptable.)
5. This crossing under fingers 3 and 4 (or over with fingers 3 and 4) may not seem important on the all-white-keys C scale, but when you start working on other keys, its importance becomes clear, so starting these good habits while learning this easy scale will pay off in the long run. (In most keys, you will always begin with your left hand on your 5th finger and end with your right hand on your 5th finger.)

Checkout images on wikihow.com

Which Finger Goes Where & Why

Which finger goes where & why, while playing the piano.

Most beginner piano students are perplexed (and understandably so) when it comes to understanding which fingers to use for playing which notes while playing the piano (also known as ‘fingering’).

“What fingers should I use on such and such a note, or such and such a chord?”, is a common question asked by students.

What piano teachers probably don’t tell you is that there’s no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to using your piano fingers on the keys. Most of it is common sense and what can be done comfortably using your fingers.

Does this come as a shock to you, because you have heard your piano teacher yell so many times not to use a particular finger?

You don’t have to. But then you cannot actually use any finger anywhere, because that will not allow you tp play smoothly.

For example:

• the thumb plays well on the white keys, and not so much on the black keys.
• The thumb always goes smoothly beneath the other fingers, and so on. All of this is more of common sense.
• To reach notes that are higher on the staff, use a low numbered finger
• The black keys are better reached with your long (middle) fingers instead of your thumb.

So while there are no rules when it comes to fingering, there are certainly general principles that pianists have discovered down through the years. So whenever possible, don’t re-invent the wheel.

How to Cross Fingers While Playing Piano

Piano music is often very fluid, requiring you to shift hand positions. The best way to do this is to use a little maneuver called finger crossing. Finger crossing is one of those techniques that can be awkward at first, but it has a whopping payoff once you get the hang of it.

Don’t try to make your hand, wrist, fingers, or arm do something impossible. When you cross over or pass under, let your hand and arm follow your fingers with easy, fluid movements. Try to keep your forearm and hand more-or-less perpendicular to the keyboard without any excess twisting.

Crossing over your thumb

Why cross over fingers when you can just move your hand? In C position, the thumb can sometimes extend to play B, but not always. For example, you may need to play B followed immediately by middle C. If you extend and contract your thumb back and forth between these two keys, it sounds clunky. Instead, you cross the index finger of your right hand over your thumb to play B.

You can watch your hand on the keys when you cross over or under, but with practice you should easily feel where the keys are without looking. Whether you look or not, it’s important to keep a relaxed arch in the hand and avoid twisting your hand as you cross a finger over your thumb.

Passing your thumb under
You can pass your thumb under RH 2 to move to a new position. The song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” gives you a chance to try out this little switch-o-rama between positions:

You start with your right hand in C position, but in measure 3 you pass your thumb under RH 3 to play F, and then you play the G at the beginning of measure 5 with RH 2. You’ve shifted your hand position with a pass under! You then continue with your hand in this new position. Your hand position will naturally shift downward from the high C in measure 5 as you follow the tune back to C position by measure 6, where you stay to finish the song.

Source: dummies.com

General Principles of Piano fingering

Here are the general principles of Piano fingering, developed over the years, based on the inputs of experienced pianists.

1. If you see a passage in your sheet music move higher on the staff, use a low finger (fingers are numbered from the thumb outward, so your thumb is #1, your index finger is #2, your middle finger is #3, your ring finger is #4, and your little finger is #5) so you’ll have fingers available for higher notes. And of course, exactly the opposite if you see a passage move lower on the staff.

2. Hold your hand up in front of you. The longest fingers are in the middle — right? Your thumb is far and away the shortest because it starts at a lower point on your hand. Now look at a piano keyboard. The black keys are the furthest away from you — correct? So which fingers can reach the black keys best? You got it — your middle fingers. Therefore, whenever possible play the black keys with your long fingers instead of your thumb. It’s just common sense.

3. The corollary to that is obvious: use your thumb and little finger on white keys whenever possible. (And it’s NOT always possible.)

4. A scale contains 8 keys. You have 5 fingers. So it’s logical to assume you will have to use some fingers more than once. On right hand scale passages ascending beginning on white keys, start on your thumb and then cross your thumb under your 3rd finger except when the 4th note of the scale is a black key. In that case, to avoid playing the black key with your thumb, cross your thumb under your 4th finger. (And just the reverse with your left hand, of course. On scale passages beginning on black keys, start on a long finger — preferably your index finger (also called your “pointer finger”) and then cross your thumb under whenever the next white key occurs.

5. On chromatic passages, the best way I have found is to use just fingers #1 and #3 except where two white keys in a row occur — then use fingers #1 and #2.

6. Fingering on chords is largely dictated by the size of the chord; obviously if you are playing a 5-note chord, you will use all 5 fingers. Otherwise just follow the intrinsic logic in the general principles listed above.

You still don’t believe that fingering is not written in stone? The best example is that of ‘Art Tatum’, the jazz pianist who stunned classical musicians with his blazing speed, using extremely unorthodox fingering. Checkout his playing on YouTube.

playpiano.com

Best Learning Resources

Here are some good resources to improve your piano playing:

• Piano Keys Finder / Keyboard Stickers for Beginners
• Top piano books for all ages & skills
• Top piano learning software reviewed