Traditional piano fingering
When playing piano, a vital part of being able to move up and down the keyboard is the ability to pass our thumb under our other fingers or conversely our other fingers over our thumb. This is what I’d call ‘traditional’ piano fingering. This is how we’re taught scales and arpeggios and as a result it forms the basic backbone of our playing. The idea of crossing other fingers over each other is something I really don’t remember ever being taught. Why on earth for example would you ever pass your 3rd finger over your 4th when playing?
Over the previous months, I have watched many expert pianists play. I started to notice that in fact they do use a variety of fingerings that I would have thought unworkable.
Five under four
One example I’ve seen is letting finger 5 (pinkie) cross under finger 4 (ring) in the Right Hand whilst descending. If your hand isn’t actually at the piano, it doesn’t appear that it would work. However, when I started to learn Chopin’s Minute Waltz, I found this to be a useful solution for the descending D Flat Major scale which starts on the last note of bar 24. The second finger is used here in the traditional scale fingering. However, given where the scale starts in the music, two isn’t a viable option. Equally, if you started the D-flat with your pinkie, you’d end up with your thumb on the G Flat which would be equally problematic.
The solution I opted for was to play the D-flat with 4 and then tuck 5 under onto the C natural so that 4 then naturally falls on B-flat. You’re then back to the standard scale fingering. This particular combination does seem possible at speed.
Three over four
Even stranger is 3 over 4 – this time in the Right Hand ascending. I’ve played the Chopin Farewell Waltz for years. However, the one thing that I never actually mastered was that fioritura in bar 27. This is where you have lots of notes in the right hand over two in the left hand. I decided that rather than just fluffing through it as I’d done for years, I should probably take the time to actually learn how to play it ….
When I bought my Clavinova years ago, Yamaha provides a ’50 Greats for Piano’ book and this waltz is in there. One day, I decided to see what fingering if any was suggested. I was almost staggered to see that at the top of the run which goes from F-natural to G-flat, the fingering proposed is 4 on the F-natural followed by 3 on the G-flat. Surely, this would be impossible? After a little time spent trying this out and found I found that in fact it’s remarkably comfortable – if counterintuitive. It has the added advantage that getting that accent onto the G-flat as written is easier with 3 rather than the 5 that would have seemed a more natural choice to me.
Four over five and even more
I spotted an example of 4 over 5 in the Right Hand ascending when watching a video by Graham Fitch. This was in the slow movement Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique. Again, nothing like as awkward as I would have thought.
I found that when I was learning the right hand of the repeated note section of Fur Elise as part of my Play It Again Piano journey, trying to maintain legato without pedal (as recommended by Melanie Spanswick) using a 5 under 4 and even 4 under 3 became workable fingerings.
If you’ve always used more traditional fingerings, I hope this has given you some examples of how in fact our hands are actually much more flexible than we might initially expect. Have a look at how these types of ‘odd’ fingerings might help you out in problem spots in your own pieces. Let me know in the comments any novel solutions you find.
These examples are just things that I’ve noticed myself. If you want to explore piano fingering in lots of detail, then I can recommend this book. It takes you from the very basics of the 5 finger position to a really advanced level. I’m enjoying working my way through it at the moment.
