Fingering Notations

[kingmc]

Hi I'm new to learning to play piano, and I'm catching on pretty fast. I just need help on finger positions. like when I first started the sheet music I used had the fingering notation on it to let me know what finger to start on but as I get more advance the less of finger notation is presented. So I was wondering is fingering a big issue or it really dont matter and just play the notes

[molto-marcato]

Fingering is a big issue. This will never change during your advance, but it will get more intuitive. Try to think about fingering for yourself. When i start learning a new piece this is usually one of the first steps: find a good fingering that fits to or allows the technique required.

[counterpoint]

In easy pieces you don't have to think much about fingering.
But when there is more than one voice in a hand and there is much legato playing, fingering can become very tricky. You can also get problems with scales that have much black keys. Or weird, fast figurations. You need the best possible fingering, otherwise you will not be able to play the piece well (or in some cases you can't play it at all).

But don't rely on the fingerings that are printed on the sheet, because they are often very bad!

[a-sharp]

Hi ... I would ditto molto-marcato - the one thing I would add, is to try not to get into the habit of writing in ALL the fingering on every piece, for every single note. I think that as you play more and over a longer period of time, much of the fingering *should* be relatively natural or straightforward, but totally OK to write in fingering that helps you through a tricky part. Assuming you have a private teacher, I would stick with his/her recommendations, until you gain enough experience to fiddle with it yourself. I hope that makes sense. [I will writing in fingering for myself, but sometimes, I still ask if a particular 'configuration,' if you will, is OK ... mostly it's fine, but sometimes, there is a reason behind doing it a different way I hadn't thought of - just my thoughts - after 12-13 yrs of private lessons...]

[variations]

Well,In my view,the best fingering is the one you feel most confortable in playing the piece.Of course it may not be so easy to remeber the whole process of movement,I alwats write down some of the most important ones as hints.Sometimes I changed the printed way because I would never torture my fingers when I don't have to.  But as a beginner,I think you need to stick to the printed fingering,which are most likely to be the best way you can ever think of at present~ I remember there were always plenty of hints on the scores when I first started...anyway,just do everything to make yourself comfortable ~

[stephen.hazel]

I'm a beginner, too.
Fingering is definitely gonna be your biggest issue.
It's the first step of learning any song.
You need to find ONE fingering for the song and stick with it.
And there's NO good docs about the precise way to do it.
Well, there are some docs, but pretty lame from what I've seen.
Mostly because there is no one precise way to do it.
You want the music to flow,
you don't want your hands to jump much,
you don't want your thumb or pinky on black keys much,
you have to cover ALL the notes, and you only got 10 fingers...

Get a piano teacher.  That's what i did.
They'll explain it somewhat, but mostly SHOW you how to do it.

Although it sure would be nice if somebody DOCUMENTED it...

...Steve

[danny elfboy]

Hi I'm new to learning to play piano, and I'm catching on pretty fast. I just need help on finger positions. like when I first started the sheet music I used had the fingering notation on it to let me know what finger to start on but as I get more advance the less of finger notation is presented. So I was wondering is fingering a big issue or it really dont matter and just play the notes

Easier pieces (i.e. requires easier slower movements) can get away with whatever fingering, so what seems more logically is carefully written

As the pieces become more demanding and movements needs to be shorter, smaller, more accurate and faster the "uniqueness of your hand" starts making a big difference

So less and less finger is written so that you can choose the best fingering suiting your hand shape, size, span and so on. Certain things are still universal (like the small independency of the fourth finger) so still certain fingering is written to make sure that a certain finger wouldn't be playing a certain note

So one of the first things you must do is figuring our the fingering that works for you and write it down on the sheet. (of course certain fingering is implied expecially once you write down the fingering for a certain note ... what fingers will go next is often implied by the pattern and the progression. That's just to say that you don't need to write the fingering for every note ... but you definitely need to write the fingering for those passages that could be played with different fingerings and you want to play with a certain fingering)

This is very important because whatever passage that can be played with very different fingering could be practiced by you each time in different ways. This is very confusing
It's confusing to learn nothing when it's always changing but worse yet is very hard to change something once it has been internalized and has become second nature

You should choose the fingering that allow

- smaller motions
- when possible not playing of FF note with weak fingers
- ease playing FOR YOU
- best accuracy
- better consistency and consecutivity according to your hand size, span and shape

[nightingale11]

before learning the piece I suggest you to write down each finger for each note and stick with it. The reason is simply as Danny said that it gets confusing if you keep changing the fingeeing. If you dont write down the fingering you will not be able to have direct acces to it in the future when you relearn the piece.