Triads... Which Fingers?

[rick540]

Fairly new piano player here. I'm 33 but took a one semester piano course way back in High School and am getting back into playing. I used to play guitar for several years though so I'm pretty much just new to the piano and not music entirely.

Anyway, way back when I took the course in High School and in the beginner/intermediate piano lesson books I've seen they always instruct to play 1-3-5 triads with the pinky, middle and thumb or vice versa. However, I've noticed some players use their pinky, ring, and pointer on their left hand or their thumb, pointer, and ring on the right.

Which is the "right" way?

I suppose like on guitar the correct/classical way is one finger per fret/one finger per key, but to me, although it's a tiny bit more difficult, it makes more sense to do it the other way. I say this because this leaves your thumb or pinky finger free to hit the octave or any other key for a fatter sound.

I guess at the end of the day unless you're some die hard classical player or something it all comes down to whatever is easiest and most efficient for the player, but I'm just curious. But I have a feeling that at some point teachers/books will instruct the player to start playing chords the other way. To me, it makes no sense for a book or teacher to make a student learn to play one way which may be easier at the time and then try to make them change things up down the road.

[stevebob]

I think the most important thing to consider is that any chord in all likelihood won't be played in isolation.  Instead, it will customarily have a context:  something comes before it, and something else follows it.  The efficiency of fingering choices for a note, chord or passage has to be judged by how it gets you from one point to another.

I suggest you think of a prescribed fingering (nominally 1-3-5 in the case of a triad) as a default or theoretical fingering.  In practice, it may or may not be used; it will depend on what fingers are convenient and available in the context in which the chord occurs.  It's not at all uncommon for other fingerings (such as those you mentioned and various other possibilities) to be employed instead.

You make a good point about being instructed in one manner of playing that will invariably be changed down the line.  To the extent that's true, it's probably because some one thing needs to be chosen as the default; it would be judged confusing, perhaps, and just too much information to provide to the novice to present all the possibilities at the outset.

I understand that position as well, but the most important point to impress upon a beginner is flexibility to adapt and adopt new techniques and strategies.  The "rules" originally presented should be seen (in some cases, anyway) as a reference point for how things generally or usually are—but not as a rigid prescription for how they must always be.

[lostinidlewonder]

.....I've seen they always instruct to play 1-3-5 triads with the pinky, middle and thumb or vice versa. However, I've noticed some players use their pinky, ring, and pointer on their left hand or their thumb, pointer, and ring on the right.

Which is the "right" way?

Both are correct it depends what your hand has to do after the triad. Let me elaborate on stevebobs first paragraph.  If we play a triad then move to another triad then we should question whether the initial triad fingering can be used for the next one. If you are playing 125 135 and switching between the two you can be very slightly changing the shape of your hand which is an inefficiency of technique if you can play the same passage with constant fingering and hand shape.

If for example you play a fast pattern such as:
[CEG]  D  C#
you would be encouraged to use LH:[521] 34  RH:[145] 32

So the fingering can depend on what you are required to do after the chord (You could possibly imagine situations yourself of things that could happen before a chord that would force you into using different fingerings for control of the triad).

To me, it makes no sense for a book or teacher to make a student learn to play one way which may be easier at the time and then try to make them change things up down the road.

With learning music we are constantly recreating ourselves, changing old methods and replacing or renewing them. There are certain bad habits we have to act against and there is no point listing them off without making this post go for pages, experimentation with fingering is never a bad idea, to play with bad fingering then to discover more effective is a very important learning experience. We should always be open to change our ways in given situations, perhaps at the start of your musical journey you will be in the situation where you can get away with inferior fingerings, only once you have reached a certain level will you abandon them as the difficulty of your music increases and your fingering choices become more stringent.

[butterfly79]

I am 31 and i just started lessons 6 mths ago. In the beginning of my book all the triads were 1,3,5, it got boring really quickly but it's true that it depends on what follows in the measure. the latest piece I have been playing Gavotte, it has triads from 1,3,5 and 1,2,5. After a few practices I find it easier to switch from one to another. So in essence there is a rule to start with 135 because we have to start with one thing to move on to another.