Do Professional Pianists Need Fingering Guides?

If you are a beginner pianist, you probably don’t have think too much about which fingers you use to play the notes. Either they are written into your music already or a teacher writes in the fingering for you when you are learning a piece. You may feel lost looking at a piece with no fingering guidance at all. Even if you are more advanced, you may find that coming up with your own fingering for a difficult piece is a daunting task. You may wonder then, do professional pianists need fingering guidance?

How do they know what fingering to use? This article will provide insight into whether professional pianists really need fingering written in and how to determine fingers to use in a passage.

The Importance of Proper Fingering

C. P. E. Bach, son of the renowned composer J. S. Bach, said that “the correct employment of the fingers is inseparably related to the whole art of performance.” It seems obvious that since you play the piano with your fingers, it is important to figure out which fingers to use to play each note. However, many pianists still make the mistake of diving into learning a piece without paying careful attention to fingering.

If you don’t use the same fingers to play a passage every time you play it, you are setting yourself up for mistakes in the future. When you switch between fingers instead of learning one specific pattern and sticking to it, you confuse your brain with too many options. One of the goals of practicing is to make certain ‘decisions’ over and over again so that you don’t have to think about them anymore and can do them ‘automatically.’ These tiny decisions are things like playing the right note instead of the wrong one, crossing fingers over at a specific time, playing softly at a specific time, etc.

If you play the right note with the ‘wrong’ finger, it may not sound like a mistake, but it will allow your brain to think that it is ok to sometimes use that finger. In a moment of pressure such as a performance, it is likely that you will pause (which is a mistake) to figure out which finger you are going to use or play the wrong note altogether. Therefore, it is important to learn the correct notes with the correct fingers you are going to play them with from the beginning.

In addition, using the same fingers every time solidifies your muscle memory and allows you to remember the piece for longer. Muscle memory tends to last longer than your mental memory of the notes, and you will only have muscle memory if you use the same fingers consistently.

Do All Concert Pianists Use the Exact Same Fingering For A Given Piece?

The short answer to whether all concert-level pianists use the exact same fingering for a given piece is almost certainly no. While there are guiding principles for which fingers to use in a passage, knowing which fingering will be best for a pianist’s hand is ultimately up to the pianist. Advanced pianists are equipped to make these decisions for themselves and often find different ways of playing passages.

There are certain passages of popular pieces that are almost always played with the same fingering by different pianists, so it may appear as though that fingering is the standard ‘correct’ fingering and should be used by everyone. While it may work well for many people, the truth is that fingering is subjective to whoever is playing because everyone has a different hand shape and different strengths. This is true of beginners and concert pianists alike. The difference is that the more advanced a piece is, the more important it is that optimal fingering is used in order to play the piece well. This isn’t to say that it is ok to use poor fingering when playing easier pieces, but that technical difficulty amplifies the necessity for good fingering.

For example, this passage from Haydn’s Piano Sonata in A-flat major, Hob. 46 (m. 18) has recommended editorial fingering for the left hand. It suggests starting with 3 on the E-flat, playing up and down the first five notes with standard fingering, and then using 5 on D-natural right next to the 3 to prepare the hand to expand upward and play the rest of the notes in the measure.

While this may work for the majority of pianists, it may feel constrictive to play the 5 so close to 3 especially if a pianist has larger hands. An alternative, in this case, could be putting the 3 on the F instead of 2, so that the shift happens where there is more space between the fingers (there is far more room between 1 and 3 than there is between 3 and 5).

These are both perfectly fine to use, it just depends on which one suits a pianist’s hand better. This is just one of many, many examples where multiple fingerings can be used to play a passage. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for all pianists to perform a piece with the same fingering.

Composer Recommended Fingering

Occasionally, a composer themself will indicate fingering in a piece. Depending on the reason for the recommendation, even this is not set in stone that every pianist will follow. A composer may have chosen a certain fingering for a variety of reasons. Perhaps it aided a specific articulation or highlighted a certain line. In an etude, the composer may use an intentionally challenging fingering to develop a certain skill.

Chopin held the idea that different fingers have different ‘colors,’ meaning that each one will produce a subtly different tone when playing. Therefore, in the event that Chopin recommended a certain fingering, it could be interpreted that he desired that tone for the note and the fingering should be followed. He also often employed unconventional fingering such as crossing over the 3 and 4 to achieve a certain legato sound. Beethoven also sometimes would indicate fingering for a variety of purposes, including articulation, dynamics, and rhythm. A pianist should try to determine the reasoning behind a recommendation, and then decide if it makes sense for them to use it to produce the desired effect. It is possible that a different fingering than the one recommended can be used if it maintains the composer’s musical intent.

For example, in this excerpt from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in F-sharp major, Op. 78, Allegro Vivace (mm. 116-117), Beethoven indicates specific fingering in the right hand that creates clear rhythmic groupings of eighth-notes that would be less evident if you used a standard arpeggio fingering.

How Do Pianists Know What Fingers to Use?

Knowing how to determine proper fingering is an extensive topic. Entire books have been written on the subject, but we will cover a few of the basic principles pianists follow when determining which fingers to use. Keep in mind these are only general guidelines, and there are exceptions to every rule depending on context.

1. Play consecutive notes with consecutive fingers unless it is the beginning of a new phrase and a ‘break’ is appropriate.
2. Use shorter fingers (1 and 5) to play white notes and use longer fingers (2, 3, and 4) to play black notes. Avoid using 1 and 5 on black notes if possible.
3. The thumb is used as a pivot point for the hand to change positions.
4. Play repeated notes with different fingers (3, 2, 1, 3, 2, etc.)
5. Use the same fingering for similar/symmetrical passages if possible.
6. Use standard fingering for chords, scales, and arpeggios.
7. 1 and 3 are the strongest fingers and often used on accented notes

There are many different conventions and standard practices that are based on these concepts. They all are aimed at reducing tension, avoiding awkward positions, increasing ease of movement, and effectively using the strengths of each finger while reducing their respective weaknesses. The best fingering will be one that feels comfortable in your hand while enabling you to bring out the best interpretation of a passage. Every unmarked passage is like a puzzle for your fingers, presenting problems of playability, ease, and musicality, that you need to solve.

Let’s look at a potential fingering for an excerpt from Bach’s Simfonia No. 7 in E Minor. Bach’ music is a multitude of ‘fingering puzzles,’ as he provides almost no fingering in his original manuscripts (any provided is usually editorial, added by someone else) and his music often uses many voices, presenting challenging fingering situations.

We see that here some fingering clearly follows principle and some seem odd. However, they all serve a purpose. The left hand is fairly straightforward, but the right hand is less so. In the second measure, 1 is used on E instead of 2 because it needs to act as a pivot point to shift downward for the next section. In the next section, the right-hand needs to handle a second voice repeating the motif played at the beginning of the piece. To do this, it continues the first line with the fingers 4-3-2-3-4-5-4 and plays the motif with 1-2-3-2 under the first voice. Because these are two separate voices, it is important to have each one separately sound continuous. This is achieved with consecutive fingering in each line. The 3 and 2 on E and C-sharp may seem strange but it allows the following fingering to be consecutive. The 4 crossing over 5 may look and even feel a bit odd, but it is manageable due to the slow tempo, and it is the best option for keeping the line connected.

The next measure has a series of thirds that need to sound connected because they are two separate voices playing together. The rule for having legato thirds is at least one note in each third needs to be played with consecutive fingers. In the first two thirds, the fingering for the top note is 3-5 and the bottom note is 2-3. Since the 3 repeats on the E, the 2 connects to the 5 and facilitates a ‘connected’ sound. The next pair of thirds has 5-4 for the top notes and 3-2 for the bottom notes. Both of these are separate and consecutive so a connected sound is easily achieved. The third pair has 4-4 for the top notes and 2-1 for the bottom notes. This may seem odd to repeat the 4, but the 2-1 on the bottom notes connects the thirds. The last pair has 4-3 at the top and 1-1 at the bottom, again repeating the bottom finger but the top fingering is consecutive and enables a connected sound.

Should Pianists Write Their Own Fingering into Pieces?

Due to the importance of fingering, pianists should definitely write in the fingering they will be using for a given piece if there are sections where the fingering is not immediately apparent. However, it is also important to recognize your own limitations if you are a beginner or intermediate player. Sometimes the fingering that you gravitate to initially isn’t necessarily the best option, for various reasons you may not see. If you have access to a teacher, ask them for suggestions. Sometimes the best fingering isn’t one that is immediately obvious but finding the best one will substantially improve the playability of a passage in the long run. A huge part of figuring out which fingers to use is being acutely aware of your hands and what will work best for them. If the piece already has fingering written in from the publisher or editor, go ahead and try it out and see how it feels. It may take some experimenting to find one that works well, but once you do, it’s like solving a puzzle, and you can feel confident learning solid fingering pattern.

Also, if you do write in your own fingering, make sure to do it in PENCIL, not pen, as you will likely go through some revision before finding the best one.

Final Thoughts

Finding a fingering that works for you is a skill that takes time and practice. It involves understanding what the music is doing, where it is going, and how you can best do that with your fingers. At first, you may need a teacher to show you the best ways to do certain things, but as you are exposed to more music and become familiar with a variety of musical situations you will get better at recognizing good fingering patterns. Figuring out the best fingering to use is a puzzle that must be solved by all pianists, from beginners to advanced, to concert pianists.