Hiya,

I have just started teaching myself piano, and I was wondering, when you play pieces, do you have to put your fingers in a certain place or can you just hit any of the keys with any finger?

You you get what i mean? I can't really explain what I want to know!

Yes you do need to put your fingers on certain keys. Your fingers are numbered starting from the thumbs 1 to 5. When you look at piano music you will sometimes see the numbers written above the notes. It is not always easy to work out which fingers go where, that is something that comes with experience. Having a teacher helps I don't think I could have taught myself. Good luck.

Damn.

I have noticed that numbers are written above some notes, but only above a few notes and in some pieces not at all. and because i'm just a beginner, I don't have a clue which fingers go where if there are no numbers!

Can't afford to have a piano teacher at the moment- I've already got my mum paying for violin and flute lessons!

Well it sounds ok even though i am playing with the wrong fingers. I'll just have to learn that as well.

Thanks for replying Lucia!

It's not as dramatic as it sounds: the best fingering is what feels comfortable to you and will enable you to play the passage quickly if necessary: for some pieces different people could use different fingering and still both be correct; there is no unique 'correct' fingering. Just try to think sensibly about which fingers make the nicest possible joins and you'll get it correct most of the time; often if fingering is missing on beginner pieces it's just that your hand will stay in the same place with your fingers over the same notes, and then when your hand has to move there'll be fingering explaining how.

Ok thanks. Does anyone know of any good beginners book which explain the fingering and have nice, simple tunes that you use both hands to play?

QUOTE

Ok thanks. Does anyone know of any good beginners book which explain the fingering and have nice, simple tunes that you use both hands to play?

You could try the Classic Piano Course by Carol Barrett

or The Joy of First Year Piano by Denes Agay

remember thumb is always 1 so LH finger numbers go in the opposite direction. But I expect you knew that!

Maggie

i used erm 'Alfreds beginner book for adults'..something like that and its quite good.

but for right hand:

C D E F G = 1 2 3 4 5

left hand

C D E F G = 5 4 3 2 1

1 being the thumb

do u have a friend who plays piano? they could teach u the basics:) especially if ur really stuck

Only one of my friends plays the piano, but I don't see her a lot and she's really busy doing grade 8 flute and singing too!

Hi Jade

I taught myself up to grade 5 and then started lessons - and everything was fine - like you I already played flute and also clarinet. I used and really liked the Piano Time by Pauline Hall - she's really keen on telling you all about fingering and there are a lot of good technique hints as well. There are three books and all sorts of supplementary material up to about grade 5.

Good luck!

Cat

Thanks for all your replies!

Also, what do the pedals do?

QUOTE

Also, what do the pedals do?

Nothing yet!

What I mean is you don't use them at the beginner stage.

No harm in trying them out; the right one sustains and the left one reduces the amount of tone.

The sustaining pedal gives a nice effect, but it blurs what you are playing, at for the moment it's more useful for you to hear clearly what you 're doing!

Maggie

Oh right. Thanks Maggiemay!

I didn't start using pedals to ecleast grade 1.
also i suppose you could try in local music shop and ask for local piano teachers.
thats how i found my piano teacher through a ad in a local music shop book.

Davé

p.s
i think i'm doing ok on piano now because i'm up to grade four.
is that half way yet??

I didn't start using pedal until grade 4 when I played "Study in Bb" (by Heller, 2001-02 syllabus) where the pedalling was actually marked, and only at grade 5 did I start to use it where it wasn't specifically marked.
There was a piece on the 1999-2000 syllabus, "Cloudy Day" (C2, if I remember correctly) for grade 2 which used the sustaining pedal, but I did read that the Board don't expect pedalling as a matter of course until grade 5 and above.

QUOTE (cecilia @ Jul 31 2004, 09:33 AM)

There was a piece on the 1999-2000 syllabus, "Cloudy Day" (C2, if I remember correctly) for grade 2 which used the sustaining pedal

i remember that! i didnt play it though, i played Cakes and Ale!

yeh I played Cakes and Ale too!!!! It used to drive my parents crazy because I played it really, really, really fast over and over again!!!

ye its great, i played it the other day as a break from my grade 5 pieces!