Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Fingering - 3 Ways to Fix Your Largest Problem

This is a HUGE problem for keyboardists!

1. Context is everything - fingering should be worked out so that you always have enough fingers to do what you need to do. This means that what comes immediately before that "hard spot" and what comes after it are critical. It's truly "brain-power" in the working-out. Plus, never listen to your hand's woes! Your hand, either one, has a lifetime (even a short lifetime - like a kid's) of habits and those habits are very, very rarely all that good at playing a keyboard. Instead, use your brain to work out a fingering. Make it good for your head, NOT your hand or hands.

2. Pencil your choices into the music - I gave this lecture yesterday to a student who was relying on his memory to tell him what to do regarding fingering. Not only does this make it very hard on any instructor you might have (after all - THEY don't share your memory!) but this also makes it hard on you. I like to tell my students that it is far, far better for those just learning to pencil in their choices. Why pencil? Well, you could try pen, but be very, very certain you won't ever be changing those choices - pencil marks can be erased!

3. Don't simply "buy into" the fingering given in the book. Yeah, I know, it's in ink just as the notes and their durations are. Still, the one thing that the person who put that ink there couldn't know (they might know the song very well indeed!) is YOUR personal hand. It is similar but NOT identical to their hand. Each hand has pluses and minuses. There is NO perfect keyboard hand. I estimate that 80% of the advice regarding fingering in books is good, but that still leaves the 20% doesn't it?

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