Emergency Fingering

[loco]

This is my first post on this site.  I am anxious to explore all of this - it seems like I could learn from it. 

Here is my problem:  I just took on a new student.  She is quite good but lacks fingering discipline and various technical skills.  Anyway - she wants to play Bumble Booge -  I have never played this.  The music she has (and I have it too) has no fingering and I am stumped as to the opening for the RH.  Any help?

Is this the appropriate place (thread) to ask this question? 

[faulty_damper]

Do you know what Chopin and Liszt had in common?  No teacher.

Let her figure it out.  If she wants to make music, she'll figure out a better way.  In other words, let her discover her own body in relation to the piano. 

How old is she?

[faulty_damper]

I have no idea what Bumble Boogie is.  Do you have a PDF?

[loco]

The student is 14.  Bumble Boogie was one of the first pop. tunes for serious pianists back in my day.  It was considered to be a "standard" part of classical pianists repertoire but somehow, I managed to miss this piece of music when it was very popular.  It is actually very challenging and this student needs help.  I need help -  if anyone really knows this piece, I would be grateful. 

[faulty_damper]

Do you have this music on a pdf file to upload so that we may look at it?

[faulty_damper]

Videos abound on the internet.  It's just Rimsky-korsakovs Flight of the bumble bee with a boogie-woogie accompaniment.

Since this piece is to be played fast with the right hand, I would let the student figure out how to play it.  At the required speed, she will be limited to what works and what doesn't.  This is what I would do in this situation.

[loco]

Thanks F_D.  While I can appreciate your suggestion of letting my student figure this out, she is so limited in this area AND the passage is very chromatic, I thought I would try this forum to find anyone who had played this piece.

I do not have a PDF.  I will consult the interTubes . . .

[faulty_damper]

Chromatic passages are the easiest to figure out how to play.  It's easier than C major (the hardest.)

[sborovic]

...Bumble Boogie was one of the first pop. tunes for serious pianists back in my day.  It was considered to be a "standard" part of classical pianists repertoire...

Pop, tune, serious pianists, "standard" part and classical repertoire ALL IN ONE SENTENCE ?!?!?!

[loco]

Yeah - ALL in one sentence.  No apologies.  Just need help. 

[loco]

Chromatic, alone - yes, very simple.  (As is C major) However, I am looking for someone who has actually played this piece -

[faulty_damper]

Chromatic, alone - yes, very simple.  (As is C major) However, I am looking for someone who has actually played this piece -

I doubt you'll find many (or few).  You'd probably find more who've played a more direct transcription of the opera.

I've never played it but I would ganger it's not difficult to figure out the fingering.  (You could probably just go to the keyboard without looking at the music to figure out how to finger it.)

C major is the hardest scale to learn - not simple at all.  Chromatics is the easiest - fingers are right there under the hand.  From a intellectual point of view, C major seems to the be easiest because we already have order, straight lines, one-at-a-time, and color ideas already ingrained in the mind.  But none of that translates to the tactile sense.

[pianoplayer88]

LOL...I am working on this piece too, and I am also 14! Anyway, good fingering would be as follows (or this is what I am doing with it):

4,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3, and so on. Starting on A on measure 8: 4,2 and same as beginning.  Starting at measure 12: 1,2,3,125(for chord), 1,2,3,4,5,1245(for chords), back to chord 125, and so on.

Starting on measure 25: 4,3,2,1,2,4,1,3,4,3,2,1,3,1,2,3,4,3,2,1,4,3,2,1,2,1,2,3,1,3,1,2,1,3,1,3,4,3,2,1,4,3,2,1,3,1,3,2,1,4,3,2,3,4,3,2,3,4,3,2,3,4,3,2...


Starting on measure 93: 15,2,15,4,15,2,1,2,15,4,5,4,2,1,245,1,2,1-2(change fingering while holding down),15,4,2,15,1,2,1-2,15,4,2,15,4,2,15,4,2.......

Well, hopefully you can follow that. If you need anything else, send me a message, or just post again.

[jlh]

Bumble Boogie is (if I'm correct) a boogie-woogie arrangement of the Flight of the Bumblebee, so since the passages are the same (in small segments for the Bumble Boogie) the fingering would be the same for those segments. I don't have the music to Bumble Boogie, but I think the following image will work.  I found this image on another posting by Dazzer and the fingering looks good.



Another option would be 32121-432-3212-1212-3 but it may not be as fast.  Also, there's always the option of 13131-432-1313-1313-1 if you wish to teach chromatic scale fingering... 

Hope this helps!  Welcome to the site!

Best,
Josh

[loco]

MANY THANKS!  to PianoPlayer and JLH!  You have saved the day.  I will sit down with both of these tomorrow and find what works!  I appreciate this very much.

[slobone]

Do you know what Chopin and Liszt had in common?  No teacher.

Where did you get that idea? Chopin studied with a guy named Zywny. Liszt studied with Czerny (yes, that Czerny) who was himself a student of Beethoven.

[faulty_damper]

Where did you get that idea? Chopin studied with a guy named Zywny. Liszt studied with Czerny (yes, that Czerny) who was himself a student of Beethoven.

Both learned how to play the piano on their own before any formal "instruction".  Both were very accomplished.  Both learned how to use their bodies in unique ways which horrified supposed masters of the art of piano playing.  To say that Chopin had a piano teacher is wrong because no teacher would allow a student to play the piano is such a horrific manner.  To say that Liszt benefited from Czerny's instruction... Liszt, too, played in a horrific manner.

[oscarr111111]

Tatum, another example.

[slobone]

Another option would be 32121-432-3212-1212-3 but it may not be as fast.  Also, there's always the option of 13131-432-1313-1313-1 if you wish to teach chromatic scale fingering... 

  Why wouldn't you just do that 54321 etc.?

[jlh]

Why wouldn't you just do that 54321 etc.?

Well you're certainly welcome to try that fingering out, however I suspect you will find it constricts the hand, creates a specific problem between the 8th and 9th notes, and is especially impractical for those of us with relatively large hands. 

[slobone]

Yeah, that might be a problem with all those chromatics. I tried out 54321 and it was OK, but of course I wasn't doing it up to tempo.

In general I try to keep fingering simple. I find it takes me twice as long to learn a piece if the fingering is hard to remember...

[keyofc]

Faulty damper -
so we should assume all our students our genuises and tell them to figure things out for themselves? you've got to be kidding.