Piano fingering is one of the most crucial aspects of learning the instrument, yet it is among the most overlooked. Here are seven of the most important rules for fingering, prefaced by an instruction to…
Rule #0: Finger it out for yourself!
No two hands are alike. What’s perfectly comfortable for...
Piano exercises are something of a necessary evil in piano playing. Ideally, we wouldn’t need them; instead our fingers (and minds!) would get all the exercise they need from the pieces we play. In reality, however, practically the only players who are able to forego exercises altogether are ones wh...
Is there such a thing as a “piano hand”? Do your hands need to be a certain size or shape for them to be suitable for playing piano?
Do you need big hands?
Let’s start with the question of whether you need big hands to play the piano. It’s true that there are certain pieces that seem to require ve...
Piano technique is the ability to get the right sound at the right time out of the piano. It is the ability to realize music, how we interact with our instrument. It is the ability to say what we want to say, to speak through music. Like our instruments themselves, technique is but a means to an end...
Question: As an adult (aged 54) student of the piano, I have encountered lots of difficulty achieving stability (and/or a firm grip) on black keys and have often wondered whether this is connected with age. This difficulty first became apparent when I started learning the G-flat and the E-flat min
...
Question: When sight reading new music by professional piano players, are the fingering positions subject to interpretation or are the fingerings “set in stone”?
– Don (Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA)
Albert’s reply: Editorial fingerings are essentially always to be understood merely as suggest...
Question: Hi, I would like to have some explanation about the third measure of the Chopin Etude, Op. 10, No. 4. I already play it up to tempo, but only on this passage am I having some problems. it doesn’t sound exactly how I expect it to sound. I even rotate and don’t leap, even though this is no
...
Question: I am in urgent need of the finger settings for the following scale: A-sharp chromatic major – double note thirds for both hands. Can you please help me?
– Heleen
Albert’s reply: I assume you’re talking about chromatic minor thirds. “Chromatic major” is a contradiction in terms, since...
Question: Hello Albert,
It’s good of you to help me, thanks. Like you, I am an extremely “late starter” but I feel this is my time now to achieve my dreams. I only did 3 years of classical training when I was 7 years old, I also disliked learning and would try to forget about my lessons. Now in m
...
Question: What’s the best way of practicing to make the left hand give a lower sound than your right hand? And to make a lower sound in one finger of another in the same hand?
– Ali Kareem (Lebanon)
Albert’s reply: Dynamics in piano playing has to do with the speed with which you strike the ke...
Question: I have problems with playing the fast octaves at the end of the third movement of Schubert’s Sonata in A minor D. 784 (Op. 143).
Do you have any advice on how to practice the octaves to achieve the fast tempo (my aim is about 138 quarter notes per minute)?
Thanks for your reply in adva
...
Question: My question is, how important is “correct” fingering when playing?
I recently downloaded (THANK YOU) your scales reference, which showed all twelve scales. I’m already familiar and comfortable with the scales, but your fingering was different than I’m used to.
When I learned to play th
...
