Moving Your Hands to the Notes as Needed

So far in this book we’ve seen a lot of music examples with fingerings notated. We started out using basic five-finger positions, then we extended these positions, and then we started to use thumb turns and position changes to get to the larger melodic ranges needed. This has all been preparation for a kind of “free hand-motion,” where your hands will often be moving to the notes as needed, no longer remaining (for too long) in one five-finger position. The more you practice this, the more it will become second nature to you. You’ve already done this a bit, but here we go for some more! Here are some pointers to bear in mind along the way:

• Always look ahead in the music. That way you can anticipate register changes (the music going higher or lower), among other things.
• During ascending or descending passages, thumb turns may be needed.
• Most music is organized in phrases or sections. Each phrase might require a new hand position to access all of the notes needed in the phrase. Again, try to see these ahead of time.
• Try to be aware of the melodic range (lowest and highest notes) needed in a phrase or section. This will help you position your hands and fingers correctly.

When I’m playing music, it’s rare for me to consciously think about each individual finger. At first, you’ll probably need to be conscious of this. But soon it will gradually become more automatic, and your hands will just go where they are needed. The more you play and apply these principles, the faster this will occur! One of the most important things needed to achieve this is to really know the notes on the staff and keyboard.

In this chapter, most of the fingerings are still shown in the music examples. However, pretty soon we’ll be working on pieces with no fingerings marked, so if you are still fuzzy on your note recognition, keep working at it, using some of the methods discussed earlier.