Hand position

[lukeevassallo]

Hi, my name is Luke and I am new here.

I just started playing piano a few weeks ago and so far I have done some major and minor scales and some basic chords.

I started sight reading too and today I encountered a problem. I only played 5 notes with my right hand without moving it up or down. These are C (Middle C) D E F and G. Today I was practising and there was a B note and I using my thumb (the no 1 finger) on the middle C. In this piece I need to play a C and right afterwards a B note (it's neighbour). How can I do this effectively and in a good smooth way?

Other tips are welcome

Below is an image of the piece that I am playing.



 The notes that I was referring to above are the third and the forth notes from the third bar.

Many Thanks

[brogers70]

In the third measure play the E with the fourth finger. Then you will have shifted your hand so that all the rest of the notes fit easily.

[keypeg]

Quite often beginner books make the mistake of introducing music through "positions".  Thus you may learn to place your hand in "C position" where (RH - Right Hand) thumb 1 plays C, index 2 plays D etc.  In "G position" the same thing would turn into G = 1, A = 2 etc.  And so on.  This teaches you a wrong thing.  You end up:
a) associating a finger with a key and note (not good)
b) thinking your hand has to be in fixed positions (also not true)
and that becomes a reflex.

Instead, any piano key can be played with any finger.  You could play C with your middle finger or ring finger, and you would still hear the same note, right?

But there are some principles at work.  In piano, fingering is very important.  The idea is to set your hand up so that you can play the notes as conveniently as possible.  As you advance, you'll learn to see notes fall into groups that your fingers can dance around, and then another group that are easily grasped in the hand.  People experiment with what works best and then "work out their fingering".  In beginner books, that's often done for you.   Figure out why they chose this or that fingering.

The piece you posted seems designed to make you think about your fingering.  Brogers suggested a good solution.  At some point you need to move your hand down one key size.  That is done most easily as you get to the end of m. 2 and your flexible index finger is resting on D for two whole beats.  While you're still there, you can slip your ring finger on the ready for the E, and then you have covered all the notes.  Your final C will be played with 2 because you have effectively slid your whole hand over one key space.

[hardy_practice]

In the third measure play the E with the fourth finger. Then you will have shifted your hand so that all the rest of the notes fit easily.

Alternatively, you can start each bar with finger 4 or 5.

[nystul]

One of the factors here, which is not explicitly written on this particular musical exercise, is phrasing.  If you were to sing this example, it might be good to take a little breath at the end of the first measure and the end of the second measure.  You would not want to take a breath in the middle of any measure or at the end of the third measure, because it would break up the flow of the music.  So it is the same with your hand position.  If you needed to lift your hand and move it after the first or second measure it would be OK, because the music is supposed to have a breath at those points (or at least that is my interpretation).  But when you get to measure 3, you want to have your hand in a position where you can play everything for the next two measures, because that whole bit is one phrase.  There are several ways to move the hand in the middle of a phrase, which you will learn eventually, but they aren't necessary in this case.  Just start measure 3 with the ring finger as suggested and it all fits nicely from there.

Sometimes phrases are indicated in music by a curving line underneath a group of notes.  The notes within that group are to be played as a single musical idea.  When the music doesn't explicitly have markings like these, you kind of have to figure out what makes sense.

[lukeevassallo]

Many thanks guys! This solved my problem immediately. I'm sorry if this was a silly question

-Luke

[keypeg]

Many thanks guys! This solved my problem immediately. I'm sorry if this was a silly question

It was an excellent question.

[timothy42b]

If you have the choice, it can be useful to shift your hand on a strong beat. 

brogers solution does this. 

[vansh]

Many thanks guys! This solved my problem immediately. I'm sorry if this was a silly question

-Luke

Actually, hand position questions are almost always good questions; in fact there are various schools of thought (and disagreement!) about what is the "correct" hand position for certain types of playing. They are never marked in the score but can be crucial to your playing success, making the difference between awkward or flowy, and pain or ease. For example, recently when trying to play scales faster I learned that it's better to yaw or turn the hand somewhat, such as yawing the right hand left (so the wrist is to the right of the notes being played) for ascending scales. This makes it easier to do the middle finger to thumb or ring finger to thumb transitions.

[pytheamateur]

Find yourself a teacher.  There is no substitute for that.