Fingering preference for certain figures?

[1piano4joe]

Hi all,

I was just wondering if (and or what point) pianists start developing fingering preferences, whether deliberately or not.

I'm guessing that the more developed fingering preferences are, the better the sight reading ability. I'm not a good sight reader. I decided that the pitfalls of sight reading outweighed the advantages for me. I prefer to memorize my hard work of analysis and deciphering the hieroglyphics called a score.  That's why I'm guessing.

Is this fingering preference something to work towards or something to be avoided?

Firstly, I am at a point where even though I am NOT sight reading, I feel I would be able to cut down considerably on the analysis time involved and much more importantly the learning time of a piece by sticking with these preferences. It seems that the inherent muscle memory of a PREFINGERED FIGURE allows the hand to just "KNOW" the shape, reducing (eliminating?) the number of repetitions required to learn the figure as well as allowing BOTH a greater tempo overall and achieving that tempo that much sooner. Is this a shortcut, laziness, impatience or just immaturity on my part?  

Secondly, that does not necessarily mean that having a specific preference for certain figures is without drawback, does it? I want to develop skills and this seems counterproductive to that. Also, I know that having a PREFINGERED FIGURE can't possibly work in all situations all the time so I need to have other readily available (known, developed and familiar) fingerings available. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here.

I guess it's sort of like with scales or arpeggios but here it's "figures". We learn scales but how often does the fingering follow the scale or arpeggio exactly? There is an added note here, a missing note there, right?

I think what I'm trying to say is maybe a PREFINGERED FIGURE should be a GOTO to try first and if it works, great. I don't know. What do you all think?

Traditional scales and arpeggios have been modified, yet are still useful and taught. I just mean thumb over and/or under for both scales and arpeggios when required. Also, some traditional scale fingerings have been rewritten. I think BERNHARD has a post of them on this website.

Any thoughts, tips, comments, suggestions as always are greatly appreciated, Joe.

[j_menz]

What are the pitfalls of sightreading? 

[iansinclair]

The more I read these things, the more I tend to think that having moved into piano late in life (when I retired from being an organist) and having learned keyboard playing as an organist has some real points.  I'll never be very good, but I enjoy what I'm doing!

Preferred fingerings are indeed a valuable thing.  Not a a rigid you always do it this way thing, but as a starting point -- and in sight reading, they are invaluable.  You just don't think about them at all; here comes a particular figure and you give it a shot.

And, of course, as j_menz says, what are the pitfalls of sight reading?  Organists almost never actually memorize their music, and in the years I've been playing piano (about 10 now) I have only memorized perhaps half a dozen things.  In other words -- I always have the music out there to look at.  Do I look at it?  Sometimes.  The better I've learned something, the less I do -- but it's always there.  Habit, I suppose.  What does happen, though, is because one always has the music there, plopping a new score up on the music rack isn't particularly traumatic -- look it through, note the odd bits, and give it a go.  Then refine it as you learn it.

[quantum]

Two statements in your post were striking to me:

I decided that the pitfalls of sight reading outweighed the advantages for me.

I want to develop skills and this seems counterproductive to that.

Unless it is your intention to only play music that does not require a score, or to only play your own composed music, how can one rule out the importance of sight reading when at least a portion of the learning workflow requires you to read music from a score?  Even if you were to primarily work from memory, the act of data retrieval from a score is still required. 


On the topic of pre-fingered figures, IMO they are somewhat of a vocabulary rather than a set list.  The more music you play the more figures you add to your vocabulary.  From that, the larger your vocabulary, the larger your toolkit to solve any future fingering challenges. 

It brings us back to sight reading.  Refining your skill in sight reading allows you to read through more music in an efficient manner.  Doing so improves your vocabulary of figures... and so on.