Stretched hand in a strange shape!!

[peterb20]

Hi All!!

The attached measure is from "Got Those Blues" from Alfreds All-In-One Book no1.



Ive tried playing it, struggled, looked it up on Youtube, and cant do what 3 or 4 different people on there manage to do!!

Looking specifically at the right hand, its the eighths that I have trouble with; reaching up for the flat with my thumb and to the right with my pinkie for the first set of notes means my hand is almost bent at right angles to my body to try to get my middle fingers lined up to play the eighths. Various people on youtube play these with their fingers high up the keys, actually inbetween the black keys. My sausage fingers dont fit between the black keys to play the whites!!

My only option at the moment is to play the stacatto notes, and then change hand position so my fingers arent on those keys, play the eights, move back to the original position, etc.... But this results in a very choppy, non-flowing sound. Any ideas???

[adodd81802]

Hello Peter,

Am I right in thinking you're quite new to the piano?

Firstly, Play the G/A/G with 2/3/2

And secondly, make sure your right hand is well in the black key area so that you don't have to turn your hand awkwardly. I'll show you the position of my hand - see attachment.

Despite what you think, your fingers should be able to get between that area, regardless of size. I have fat-ish fingers and I find that turning my hand slighly, slots the fingers in, I wouldn't approach direcly aligned with the piano but turned so that the right side-tip of the fingers are pressing the notes. One benefit from the score you can see is the Eb's to start with are staccato so you can play that in the black key area, and worst case scenario play all 3 staccato and come out quickly to do the G/As

As you see from the attachment, my hand is resting easy, thumb on Eb, Pinky on the C, and my 2/3 fingers are resting naturally on the G/A

[peterb20]

Fantastic reply, and exactly what I wanted to hear! The side of the tip of the finger fits much better - its still quite a delicate touch to not catch the flats but definitely easier! I presume the technique of moving your fingers up the keys is used in other similar situations rather than all the time as you have more control over the keys using the ends of them?? As you guessed im very VERY much a beginner!

[adodd81802]

Fantastic reply, and exactly what I wanted to hear! The side of the tip of the finger fits much better - its still quite a delicate touch to not catch the flats but definitely easier! I presume the technique of moving your fingers up the keys is used in other similar situations rather than all the time as you have more control over the keys using the ends of them?? As you guessed im very VERY much a beginner!

I would say as a general rule, the Thumb and little finger being the smallest,  you will no doubt have to move your hand up into the black key area if you you need to press the black keys with either of them two 'fingers'

Most of the time, you can re-arrange the fingering so that the longer 2-3-4 fingers can play the black notes, as you rightly said it can be often awkward and easy to catch the black notes, especially at speed.

Obviously with chords you have little choice but to move up but just be aware, just because the fingering might be noted on the score, it's often a guide and can be changed.

Lastly moving forward and backward out of the black key area isn't a one note movement, so what you should do is check the score and group the notes as you practice into what requires you to be strictly in either area (based on a requirement of thumb / little finger pressing black keys) and then as you need to change from one area to another, gradually come out each note or go in each note, don't limit yourself on pressing one specific area of the keys.