Well, it’s been a while since my last blog post. Since December! Over a month and a half. Not sure where January went, but I’m back…

On Fingering

A great read, geared for kids and their parents, but every single tip useful for adult students too, is Not Until You’ve Done Your Practice! by Philip Johnston, with great illustrations by David Sutton. He’s a piano instructor in Australia, so you may see a reference to a demi-semiquaver or two (that’s a thirty-second note for us). Great, short chapters for kids (and us!) to read.

A lot of you ask me, “Why do I have to do this fingering? Why is fingering so important? Why can’t I use any old fingers I want?” Here’s an excerpt from the book with a couple of good answers:

Fingering in the music has been worked out by some very clever piano professors who were playing this piece before you were born … they have spent years working out the easiest possible combinations of fingers to play the piece with … If you a play a piece with “who-cares-which” fingers every time, it’s like playing a different piece every time … if you use any old fingers, you end up poking at the piano, not playing it … if you don’t believe me, try playing C major scale with the right hand and using these “who-cares-which” fingers:

C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C
4  3   2   5   1  4   3   2

Your hand will probably look like the one in the picture!

Free Concert Tomorrow Night @ Shalin Liu (if not cancelled by snow coming in…)

Multimedia concert features compositions by my fellow classmate and alum from NEC, Howard Frazin, and also compositions by RHS students, and two short films (more all about it by clicking this link):
Classical Jam, Wed, Feb 5, 7 pm, Shalin Liu in Rockport, Free