USING THE WRONG FINGERING: THE BIGGEST MISTAKE MADE WHILE LEARNING TO PLAY PIANO

A few years back, I began teaching piano to a college-aged student who was at a fairly advanced level. This student was a very smart person who was excited about playing the piano in general. He played Rachmaninoff Preludes with a lot of passion – and at very fast tempi. Unfortunately, his playing was also extremely sloppy. It is understandable that many young adults prefer Sturm und Drang (“storm and stress”) over tidiness, but the amount of wrong notes, incorrect rhythms, and bad articulation was unusually high. 

It is rare that there is a single reason for mistakes while playing the piano. The reason the student’s playing was sloppy in this case was easy to isolate: completely insane and terrible fingering that he used in almost every measure of his music.  I knew from the student that he took piano lessons for years, but it almost seemed that he was self-taught. That’s how inadequate the fingering decisions were for all his pieces. 

It took me years to fix the sloppiness and finally have the student playing comfortably. I did this, among many other things, by writing out and insisting on better fingering at every single lesson. When the student finally accepted the importance of the right fingering, it was a long awaited relief for him and for me. 

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE YOU CAN MAKE WHILE PLAYING PIANO IS USING INCORRECT FINGERINGS.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I’ve always had a question: why did the previous piano teacher not care about crippling fingering? How is it even possible to get to the level of playing Chopin’s Ballades without knowing the basic principles of how fingering works? I had my answer at random after a few years when the student told me that apparently, even before Covid, all his lessons were online. So the answer to my question was that the teacher simply could not see the wrong fingering! With online music lessons, the camera is usually positioned on the side of the student and given the quality of the camera (usually a simple laptop webcam), usually poor lighting, and the tempi of advanced piano pieces, it is in most cases impossible to notice the fingering mistakes. The hand that is further from the camera is simply out of the view for most of the time. 

A similar situation happened with another, younger student I know who’s been working with a great teacher for years, and then the teacher needed to work remotely for several months. I came to listen to him at the student recital, and all of a sudden he played his Mozart Sonata with terrible fingering that caused many avoidable glitches. 

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS SO BAD ABOUT PLAYING WITH THE WRONG FINGERING ON THE PIANO?

The main and only reason why bad fingering is bad for you is because it makes playing the piano uncomfortable. If your hands are not comfortable, then you are not going to have good technique. Poor technique causes you to make mistakes that are impossible to fix no matter how much you try. If you are playing a passage of a Beethoven sonata, for example, with wrong fingering, then you can practice it a thousand times and it will still not feel or sound right.

HOW TO AVOID BAD FINGERING?

Step number one is the most important one: understand that this issue matters and how much it matters. Accepting the need and importance of constant attention to fingering is a foundation without which we cannot build anything.

Step 2: Ask your piano teacher for help with any passages that feel uncomfortable. The teacher should be able to suggest the fingering changes to make it better. 

Step 3: Write down the fingering that you decide on. Have a sharp pencil by your side every time you practice and make it a habit to use it all the time.

Step 4: Check different editions of your piece for more options on possible fingering. Some very smart musicians of the past and present have been working on this exact aspect of playing the piano for many years – use their suggestions. You can choose what feels better for your hands.

If you live in Dallas and want to learn to play the piano comfortably, please send us a message – we will be happy to help!