Introduction and a request for fingering advice.

[captainwafflos]

Hi!

My name is Jimmy. I've been playing the piano for nearly five months now. I've actually been reading these forums for a few weeks now. Thus far, I've read about 3000 of Bernhard's posts (skipping over the redundant ones and a few others that aren't relevant to pieces I'm learning), along with a few by C.C. and Robert Henry (whose original university I am currently attending). I'm pretty much the epitome of a forum lurker, so it's doubtful that you'll see me reaching an absurd number of posts anytime soon, but I'll try to do my best if I have anything useful to say.

My favorite composers are currently Ravel, Chopin, Shostakovich, Beethoven, and Satie, though this changes rather frequently. I haven't delved extremely deeply into the genre of classical music, as is evidenced by my affection of only rather mainstream composers, though this is a bit of an ongoing goal for me. My tastes are in no way limited to classical music: I have interests in progressive rock, extreme metal, and the occasional modern jazz. A few bands: Anglagard, Opeth, The Bad Plus, Pain of Salvation, and so on.

I am mostly "self-learned," although I did receive lessons for two months during the summer. Most of the practice methods I've acquired have been learned from Chuan Chang's book on practice methods and Bernhard's various postings. I've actually compiled a list of their posts in word documents for future reference.

Given that I've only been playing piano for a few months, my repertory is somewhat limited. For my first two and a half months, I was learning out of method books. They were all relatively simple (grade 1-4) and short (no more than three pages). The hardest piece I learned with her was Clementi's Op. 36, Sonatina #1, which is grade 5, I guess? Most of the pieces in the method books were simplified and rather musically unappealing musically, and thus, I've already forgotten most of them. I use them for sightreading material mostly.

More recently, I've been learning Satie's Gymnopedies, and Gnoissiennes, along with several pieces from the Final Fantasy Piano Collections, which I know some of you are familiar with. This is actually where my fingering question lies. Many of the Final Fantasy Piano Collections pieces require rather awkward fingering and require somewhat large hands, which I fortunately have. I've been focusing on the Final Fantasy pieces mostly because they are somewhat advanced, though not terribly so, and the sheet music is readily available for download. Also, I only have a five-octave-range keyboard at the moment, and most of the pieces tend to stay towards the center of the keyboard. I'm currently working on the main theme from FF7, and have come to a part in the piece which is difficult for me to finger, perhaps simply because I've never executed this type of fingering before.

Hmm. The more I play this passage, the more I believe that no other fingering is even feasible. It's just going to be awkward for me regardless, I think. At any rate, I'll continue just to see if you guys have any unexpected advice:

The bars in question:



Some background: the piece is played at a tempo of about 80ish, I would guess. The passage in question is played piano.

I'm having trouble with the right hand of this passage, specifically the first bar. I'm currently playing the first chord with 1-2-5 and the following three notes also with 5. It's rather awkward to play this passage this way, but I can't figure a more economical. Repeating the passage in practice using this fingering is actually causing some discomfort to my pinky, so I'm seriously wondering if this is the fingering I should be using.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading. I look forward to posting more on this forum. Sorry for the long-winded post!

[nicco]

Wich key is this? If there are no sharps or flats i could suggest:

5 3 4 5 5
2          2
1          1

i dont think its absolutely necessery to hold that C and E while playing those top notes.

welcome to the forum btw

[captainwafflos]

Whoops! Forgot all about the key. I meant to add it and thought I already had.

The piece is in E major.

[hyrst]

Hi Jimmy,
Welcome.

I agree with Nicco's suggestion, but  I would at least try to hold the C#, being an important note in that chord.  By starting on 5, moving to 3, you faciltitate the stretch needed in you palm.

[captainwafflos]

Well, I think I've discovered the root of my problem and why you're fingerings are causing me a bit of trouble.

Unlike a regular piano, when a white key is depressed on my keyboard, the key is depressed more deeply on the edge of the keyboard than on the inner region. This makes it rather difficult to play closer to the inner region, where the fingering that you two are suggesting seems to be ideal. Indeed, I see how much easier the fingering is with my right hand up against the inner region of the keyboard, but my keyboard's limitations seem to be causing me difficulty. White keys, when pressed in the area I'm describing, tend to allow for less control than when they are played on the edge. The keys depress more quickly, which makes it more difficult to play this passage piano using the described fingering.

I think I'll probably fork out more than $250 for my next instrument, heh heh.

Thanks for the suggestions.