Thank you sooo much for speaking about fingering that makes sense to the musician. Often musicians play many instruments and naturally use various fingers. Some of your tips here can be generally applied. I play piano style kalimba.
I am a hobbist. I think I would be violating YTube policies by posting a link to my channel on your channel. You can hit my profile pic which should take you to my channel. There are old vlogs. Thankfully, I continue to advance my skills. Watching your challenges, I have almost finished playing 20 measures. I apply music theory from vlog sources and can play while reading sheet music. Yahoo..🥳 An exclusive chromatic 36 key piano style Kalimba may be launched onto the market, soon. It will eliminate constant tuning to change key signatures. I am preparing for it.🤩🤩 Thanks for making our musical journey Outstanding!💝
Merci. I'm making progress in sightreading, and am reading Bach Chorales in 2 voices. That's my level. My teacher wants me to practice the 3 and 4 voice chorales since he thinks I could progress, even though they are above my skill level. But I spend a little time each practice session trying it. And I've come to realize how important fingering is. This is a timely video, And probably one I'll come back to as a reminder.
Susan, I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to have run across your RU-vid videos as well as your Faber Adult follow along course. Your knowledge, skill and presentation are perhaps the best instructional videos I've ever seen. As long as you keep putting these kind of videos out, I'll keep watching. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and skill with us!
This set of tips has really helped me a lot. It’s one of the things I’ve been struggling with when playing repertoire. Loving your Faber based course BTW. I’m about 45% or so through it. Maybe I missed something but I could have done with these excellent ideas early in that course but please don’t take that as criticism as I appreciate how much effort you put into all your videos, many of which are completely free. Wonder if you could retrospectively add links from the course to some of your other excellent videos where it makes sense to, like this one for example? Please keep up the great work, I personally think you are one of the best piano teachers currently online.
I'm so glad these are helpful, and thank you for your kind words! Great idea about adding links within the piano course to free content that might be applicable. I will add this to my todo-revision list when I'm able to fully complete the course.
Yes I am discovering the enormity of it all. Fingering changes occur going up and down the keyboard, encountering sharps and flats on the black keys, where you are going to next, playing a chord and it's inversions etc., etc. I am trying to expose myself to good piano fingering with reputable lesson books, playing scales, arpeggios and of course videos like yours. Thanks again.
While practicing Chopin prelude 28.7 I found that some comfortable fingerings aren't so good because you cannot play legato on the important spots where the pedal can't cover it all. So sometimes fingerings can influence the sound. Also for trills, I need strong fingers, as a beginner I might chose a different fingering than a professional. And sometimes there are notes where I want good control over the tone, so if I can chose between 2, 3, 5 I'd prefer 2 or 3 there. I also sometimes split big chords differently on both hands, ignoring how they are split on the staffs, if it's more comfortable for my small hands. Fingerings can be sooo tricky sometimes. I also found that some editions have fingering choices that just feel totally awkward. My old Bach invention edition is suggesting weird stuff, sometimes I practise it for hours and it wont work, and then I change the fingering and have it nailed in 15 minutes 🧐 Obviously those editor's editions do not always offer the best option.
100% agree! Hand size, finger length, palm width...all of those elements factor in. I'm not a big fan of super old editions. They always seem to have wonky finger suggestions, like a man with enormous hands chose them all (this is, sadly, probably the case). Be a little wary of scores you download from IMSLP for this very reason. But it sounds like you're on the right path to finding what works for you.
Hi, I just discovered your channel (via RU-vid shorts, "Finding Purpose in Scales and Arpeggios.") This is exactly the kind of video I was looking for. Can you recommend any books or videos about fingering and other arm, wrist, etc., techniques? I'd be very happy if you could share any that you know & like. There's plenty out there but I don't have a clue which book to get plus the info on RU-vid is a bit scattered. PS Thank you for the upload!
@@PianoRoadmap I consider myself a beginner ~ although not entirely. An analogy would be like if a person used to go dancing at the clubs but is now re-learning how to walk. That's me. I'm opening a rusty-hinged door and peering through the cobwebs into old but familiar place. I took lessons for 2 1/2 years between elementary/jr. high and then stopped when I was 14/15... 30 years ago. (Why is a long story. It wasn't because I didn't like piano.) I had several transient instructors. In the very beginning, with the first instructor, I worked through the John Thompson's Modern Course series up to number 4. And I'd say, I got fairly decent at sight-reading, I think. Shortly before I stopped, I started playing on stage/ in public. During that time, after about 1 1/2 years, I was good enough to get into Laguardia HS in Manhattan (although I'm sure it's a far cry from Juilliard pre-college - if that even existed back then.) However, my father said, "NO." I moved into my mother's small thin-walled upstairs apartment on the other side of the country. And then my hands went silent. Beyond this gets into TMI (too much info) for a RU-vid comment for brevity's sake... I've always enjoyed piano music. And so fast-forward to 2023, I got re-inspired to take up the piano and to personally play the instrument again. I got a Roland FP-90X digital piano a couple weeks ago. (It's so awesome IMO. My next dream, when/if I improve, is to get a better computer and then connect the DP to some Synchron VST libraries - with the PHA-50 keys = oh yeah ;-) Now, as far as my level, today, I've forgotten all the pieces that I played (like some of the "easier" Mozart & Chopin.) But, interestingly, the good news is that I never forgot the notes on the keyboard or on the paper although I'm starting over again as far as playing while sight-reading. Since setting up the DP, I've practiced a little bit in the evening every other day or so. Along with some experimentation with alternate fingering, it took me about a week to re-learn all the major/minor scales (for flats & sharps.) While I was at it, I also discovered some interesting things about the Circle of Fifths and key signatures that I didn't know before. This week, I even made my own staff paper and coloring book style keyboard diagrams in MS Word! Currently, I can play the scales fairly smoothly at a rate of about 16th notes for 72 - 80 BPM if I concentrate. For now, I'll keep working on my scales & modes. Next are the intervals (144 of them.) I have a plan. Maybe, sometime, I might share some of it in the comment section of your other more recent video, "Learning Piano on Your Own: A Road Map." Your videos are great. You have an excellent channel. Thank you.
@@doublevision5465 To me, it doesn't sound like you are a beginner. All the knowledge and experience that you had growing up will come back sooner than you think, especially since you remember how to read music. You might find simply diving into repertoire might be enough, but if you're looking for additional technique books, I have two to recommend. The first might be a little tricky to find but it's "Freedom Technique" by Joan Last. You might be interested to begin in book 2 or 3. The other is "Dozen a Day" books. You might begin in Book 2 or 3 as well. When coming back to exercises like this, I always like to focus on ease, relaxation, and fluid movements rather than speed or agility. Those can come later! I also recommend Josh Wright's piano channel and Denis Zhdanov's channel. I think they offer some great advice, although it might be more useful as a reference since it's not very structured. Good luck, and I hope this was helpful! I would love to know how it goes, so keep me updated.
Have you ever come across pianos with narrower keys, like the DS5.5 and others? I'd really appreciate it if you could consider doing a review on them. While they may be on the expensive side, it would be incredible if more people discussed them, as this could potentially lead to increased production and accessibility for these unique instruments. Your insights would be greatly valued!
I'd love to try one out, and as soon as I can get my hands on one, I'll definitely make a review. I used to live in Texas and from the little research I've done, it sounds like one of the first DS5.5 instruments was tried out in one of their universities. Wish I knew that before!
