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Piano Board => Student's Corner => Topic started by: musicioso on July 07, 2012, 03:08:27 PM

Title: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 07, 2012, 03:08:27 PM
Hallo guys,

Being an amature pianist, i do a lot of improvisations on all kind of scales. But i have a problem, i never learnt a proper fingering.

To improve my fingering, for my kind of improviations, i made up some exercises. These are pretty simple.

I would be grateful if you guys take a look at my music sheet and help me out somehow. If you know some similar exercises, i would love to know them. Or maybe you you know a method i can use to figure out the fingering myself.

Please, take a look t the file i included.

Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 07, 2012, 07:25:39 PM
Nobody? :(
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: j_menz on July 09, 2012, 12:28:55 AM
Hallo guys,

Being an amature pianist, i do a lot of improvisations on all kind of scales. But i have a problem, i never learnt a proper fingering.

To improve my fingering, for my kind of improviations, i made up some exercises. These are pretty simple.

I would be grateful if you guys take a look at my music sheet and help me out somehow. If you know some similar exercises, i would love to know them. Or maybe you you know a method i can use to figure out the fingering myself.

Why would you come up with a set of exercises to improve your fingering if you can't work out what fingering to use on them??????

Get a scales and arpeggios book and learn your basic fingerings from there.
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 09, 2012, 01:08:57 AM
Why would you come up with a set of exercises to improve your fingering if you can't work out what fingering to use on them??????

Get a scales and arpeggios book and learn your basic fingerings from there.

Hi,

Its not just a random set of exercises. I also use them in my improvisations.

I do have some scales and arpeggios exercises. But those are not what i need. I have no difficulties with going up and down a scale. But these things i wrote myself are quit hard for me. Sometimes i need to go with the thumb on black keys and stuff.

Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 09, 2012, 01:18:40 AM
This is one of them. Take a look. If you know something similar i can use, i would love to know.



(https://s8.postimage.org/ir9ypqvhv/sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.png)
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: ichky on July 09, 2012, 11:34:08 PM
Hi musicioso,

May I ask what grade are you at?

Most Grade 2 - 3 pieces have some good finger exercise pieces you can practice on.

I always teach my students a particular grade 2 piece which is perfect for finger practice on both hands. I can't remember what the name of it is, but if you are interested, I can post a video showing you that piece?

Let me know - contact me at www.ichkymusic.com or through my youtube channel at: wwwyoutube.com/Ichky

Best of Luck  :)

Ichky
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 10, 2012, 07:41:54 PM
Hallo

Thank you for your reply. But i kinda need the fingering for this kind of exercises. Otherwise i could use Hanon and that kind of stuff. But for my improvisations i need this kind of things. How many pieces should i learn to play acoording to you to be able to play fast and smooth this things i wrote down?

Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: outin on July 11, 2012, 07:04:02 AM
The best fingering depends also on the size and shape of your hands, possible weaknesses in your fingers (my right thumb is not quite right) and the technique you use to play. I don't see how beneficial it would be for someone to suggest a fingering according to how they would play it. I always try to use the suggested fingering first, but very often simply have to change it because I am unable to play fast and fluently with it.

If there's no fingering in the score, how I do it is try out different combinations, figure out the critical spots and adjust the passages before and after accordingly to find a good combination. Sometimes I need to compromise on playing everything true legato because my hand is too small or there just isn't enough fingers in my hand... (I only have 5 on each, damn!)

I am not an experienced player at all, but I have done this from the beginning. My teacher often finds better solutions, but I still don't see why you couldn't do this yourself if you just take the time and experiment. There are few "rules" that cannot be broken. I think the most important thing is to be able to play comfortably, not twist your wrist and be able to make an acceptable sound with the fingering.
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 11, 2012, 04:15:05 PM
The best fingering depends also on the size and shape of your hands, possible weaknesses in your fingers (my right thumb is not quite right) and the technique you use to play. I don't see how beneficial it would be for someone to suggest a fingering according to how they would play it. I always try to use the suggested fingering first, but very often simply have to change it because I am unable to play fast and fluently with it.

If there's no fingering in the score, how I do it is try out different combinations, figure out the critical spots and adjust the passages before and after accordingly to find a good combination. Sometimes I need to compromise on playing everything true legato because my hand is too small or there just isn't enough fingers in my hand... (I only have 5 on each, damn!)

I am not an experienced player at all, but I have done this from the beginning. My teacher often finds better solutions, but I still don't see why you couldn't do this yourself if you just take the time and experiment. There are few "rules" that cannot be broken. I think the most important thing is to be able to play comfortably, not twist your wrist and be able to make an acceptable sound with the fingering.


Yes, you are right. But first i need a suggested fingering, then i can change it a little bit. But right now i have no idea what fingering to use. If you saw my fingering you would laugh at me
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: outin on July 11, 2012, 06:04:03 PM
Yes, you are right. But first i need a suggested fingering, then i can change it a little bit. But right now i have no idea what fingering to use. If you saw my fingering you would laugh at me

I am quite certain that I would not :)

You probably already have noticed some basic things that make playing easier: Long fingers on black keys, short fingers on white keys, thumb under 3rd (or 2nd) in runs. The leaps you either strech with the thumb/5th or move your whole hand and start with the best finger for what comes next.

There are individual preferences: Repeated notes are often supposed to be played with changing the finger, but I sometimes don't because it tends to confuse me. I also don't like to start with the thumb because of it's problems. I'd rather do 2-1-3-4. But this I need to work on obviously...And with scales I keep the traditional fingerings.

When I look at your sheet, it is not easy for me to figure out how to play this. If I played it it would probably sound nothing like you meant :)

Usually the desired touch, phrasing and the time values of the notes effect the fingering chosen, there's no indication in the score for these so I'd be quite lost...

I would group the notes into sections that I can play comfortably with 5 fingers on one hand position. Then move the hand and find the next section and so on. On scales you can move your hand smoothly continuously but normally moving the hand around all the time is very confusing and restless.

But again, as I said, I'm hardly no expert. There are other people on this forum who are.
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 11, 2012, 10:36:51 PM
Thank you for your reply. Yes, i know some of the rules, but still its hard to come op with a good fingering. Its meant to be played at the same volume and same speed. Just like Hanon exercises
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: outin on July 12, 2012, 03:52:38 AM
Thank you for your reply. Yes, i know some of the rules, but still its hard to come op with a good fingering. Its meant to be played at the same volume and same speed. Just like Hanon exercises

I have never played this kind of exercises, I don't really see the point. Music is not supposed to be mechanical, but musical, so why should I need to be able to play like that? Maybe some virtuoso repertoire requires one to be able to play fast runs like a robot, but for us normal people it's ok to sound like it's played by a human :)

I do not even see how I could play the second bar of your example without some notes sounding different unless you play the whole thing with staccato touch (since you need to repeat some notes). So maybe the problem is not your fingering at all but you are trying to achieve something that is not even possible.
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: j_menz on July 12, 2012, 04:13:27 AM
Given the rather odd "key" it is in, the thing that will guide you isa the need to get your thumb on the white notes wherever they occur in the missdle of a run. So, to get you started:

2 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 3 4 2 3 1 4 2 3 1 4 2 3 1 3 2 1
Title: Re: Help me out with these fingerings.
Post by: musicioso on July 13, 2012, 07:39:46 PM
Hallo guys,

I gave my sheets to a piano teacher. he will write down the fingering for me. When i get it back, i will post it here, because i want a second opinion.

PS: thank you very much for you replies, for your time. I really appreciate your help