A Quick (I hope) Piano Question [Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος]

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A quick question for pianist friends: How does one finger this run on the right hand, assuming that the tempo is fairly brisk? X: 1 K: C M: C L: 1/8 ||(ABcd efe2)|| I keep running out of fingers. I've got this notion that the answer should be obvious to anyone who has ever had lessons, but so far I'm not working out the trick on my own.

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There are 24 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

It'll be one of those "thumb under" things - I just tried it and if you play the first three notes with thumb, next finger, next finger, and then slide your thumb under the others to get the D with your thumb, your hand has moved over and you then have your fingers in place for the next ones.
Thumb under is the single most important thing Jo has ever taught me.

What he said---counting thumb as finger 1 and little finger as finger 5, that'd be a 1-2-3-1-2-3-2.

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Assuming no accidentals. If there are accidentals, the fingering might shift depending on what'll end up being most comfy---you'd always slide the tumb under the third or fourth finger, though. Under second finger is hard to do at speed; under fifth finger has no point.

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Ah -- now I'm going to have to go run some scales with sharps in 'em just to get a feel for what to expect. Thanks.

Someday I should have you correct my wrist position and see whether that makes the thumb crossing easier. But I can see I've got a lot of practice ahead of me in any case.

Now if I can do this while simultaneously managing the left-hand stuff I want to hear against it (the whole reason for trying this tune on piano in the first place) ...

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Thirded. (A nice example of why pianist obsessively practice their scales. Doing that smoothly can take a while to get.)

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*nod* I can certainly see that it's going to take me a while to get smooth at it at speed. While I don't have any plans to actually become a pianist, I can see that it's going to take a lot of practice just to manage what I do want to do on the keyboard.

So far, in addition to the thumb not always getting far enough over if I go to fast, the problem I'm having is that a couple of notes come out slightly weaker than the others. That's just a practice practice practice thing too?

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Yep, sure is.
˙

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yay, I'm glad everyone is agreeing with me, my piano skills are still pretty basic as yet!

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Thanks, everyone. My thumb still doesn't want to go in the right place, but I'm working on it, and I can see how/why this is the answer. (It does work if I slow it down a notch.)

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My instinct was 1-2-3-4-1-2-3, but when actually doing it I kept coming up with 1-2-3-4-1-*3-4*. I have no idea why. Piano lessons were a long time ago; I assume this would be considered an error. (Not my instinct -- what I actually did.)

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I think 1 2 3 4 etc is probably more accurate but 1 2 3 certainly works easier for those not too familiar with fingerings - Jo often corrects my weird choices so I've no clue what is accurate yet!

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Tsk. What are you doing up? Isn't it about 5:30AM there? Get some sleep! :-)

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Yes ma'am :)

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Yup.

Smartass. :-P

Hmm. I don't think any HMO will cover grafting on a sixth finger...

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C'mon, we've been over this before! Get a second *thumb*, remember? Sheesh.

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:-P A "sixth finger" could very well be the second thumb we'd discussed because it implies I'm already counting my existing thumb as a finger.

But suddenly I'm picturing a world where such grafts are feasible, and having visions of an "arms race" between musicians ...

Refresh my memory -- did we ever come up with an improved design for the knee? I remember several ideas getting shot down because they'd introduce new vulnerabilities.

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No messy and costly grafts needed, just move the fingers that you aren't using to the position of the next set of notes. Course, a few extra fingers *would* be convenient. :-)

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It's not obvious from the timestamps shown, what with different time zones and someone's clock being apparently set wrong, but I can see it on the headers of the notification email: I'm impressed by how quickly the answers rolled in. The first was a mere few minutes after I posted the question; the last real answer so far was less than an hour.

Looks like I picked a good time to ask!

Unlike others, I'd probably finger it 2-1-2-3-4-5-4

i agree...

as marked, it should be played smooth...

and despite years of piano, 2-1-2-3-4-5-4 is easier to do smoothly (less hand motion) to get the hand into the final position of the right most 5 notes, as opposed to the other choices...

also, since scale training at playing a c-major or a-minor scale would typically be 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5, we'll note that last 5 notes are 1-2-3-4-5...

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I agree with whipartist and perspicuity: 2-1-2-3-4-5-4.
And if I did need to start with 1 (depending on what might have come before), I'd go with 1-2-1-2-3-4-3 -- can't imagine why no one suggested this.

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Without reading the comments, I first came up with 2-1-2-3-4-5-4, then decided that I really liked 1-2-3-1-2-3-2 much better. My reasoning is that while doing a thumb-under with the second finger is probably the easiest crossover to do smoothly, thumb-undering the third is not really that much worse, and for me, the added bonus of not having to use my fourth and fifth fingers more than makes up for it.

The last two fingers are are by far the weakest ones of the five, and while this shouldn't prove any problem for an accomplished keyboardist, they are still more difficult to do a trill smoothly with, and not something I would trust to my out-of-practice fingers.

wouldn't 1231232 work?

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