Piano Hand Positions

by Bob
(New York, New York)

Question: Where do your hands go when you are beginning to play a song?

Albert's reply: You're referring primarily to hand position here, and secondarily to piano fingering.

Hand position refers a block of keys which fall underneath the fingers at any given time. It's possible to play many notes in succession without changing hand position.

Incidentally, one of the most difficult aspects of memorizing piano music is changing hand position. It's very useful to practice each hand position separately, without actually playing all the notes in succession. Instead, you can play each block of notes within a hand position, then move on to the next position and play all the notes as another group.

Beginning piano pieces invariably use just one hand position, which will be implied by the fingering. Your very first pieces will almost always involve a group of five white keys in a row in each hand. The fingering will then be designated by the numbers 1 through 5, with 1 being the thumb and 5 the pinky.