Starter Studies

Lesson 7 - Section 1

So Many Fingers . . .

In order to play notes on the piano and not trip over your own fingers, there are methods shown on the staff to help you know which finger (or thumb) to use to start playing the notes you see written.

Hold your hands up in front of you (palms pointed away from you). Spread your fingers apart. Look at your left hand. Beginning with your little finger, this finger is called #5.

Now look at the thumb of your left hand. The thumb is called #1. There are five fingers and five numbers, one for each finger (or thumb). What number would you guess would be assigned to your pointer finger?

Answer: #2

How about your ring finger?

Answer: #4

And, how about your middle finger?

Answer: #3

Do the following exercise:

1- Wiggle your #5 finger.

2- Wiggle your #1 finger.

3- Wiggle your #2 finger.

4- Wiggle your #3 finger.

5- Wiggle your #4 finger.

It takes some practice for any student learning to play the piano to do this. It’s not easy to think about wiggling one finger at a time and having your brain tell the nerves for just that one finger to move (wiggle). With some practice, you will be able to do this without having to concentrate on doing it.

Now look at your right hand. It is also numbered in the same way as your left hand.

Thumb is 1

Pointer is 2

Middle is 3

Ring is 4

Little is 5

Repeat the left-hand exercise above using your right hand now.

Lesson 7 - Section 2

Wiggle Those Fingers . . .

For the final part of this lesson, we are going to practice wiggling fingers by typing.

Open an application on your computer that you can type in. Place your hands on your computer keyboard. With your left hand, place your fingers accordingly.

Put #5 finger on letter key A.

Put #4 finger on letter key S.

Put #3 finger on letter key D.

Put #2 finger on letter key F.

Put #1 finger (thumb) on the space bar.

Now add your right hand to the keyboard in the following way:

Put #5 finger on ; (semicolon).

Put #4 finger on letter key L.

Put #3 finger on letter key K.

Put #2 finger on letter key J.

Put #1 finger (thumb) on the space bar.

Type the following sets of characters and when you see the letter “X”, hit the space bar with your left hand thumb. Also, when you see the letter “O”, hit the space bar with your right hand thumb and do not type any of the spaces shown between these sets of characters.

Begin typing and continue for three minutes:

AAAA XXXX SSSS XXXX DDDD XXXX FFFF XXXX

JJJJ OOOO KKKK OOOO LLLL OOOO ;;;; OOOO

That’s it, you’re done.

Bookmark this page (add to Favorites) in your browser and practice Lesson Seven from beginning to the end for five days. Don’t skip anything. The purpose of this lesson is to train your brain to respond to moving any one finger at a time. It takes about ninety days for your brain to strengthen a nerve pathway from itself to 1 finger of your choice.

Doing this exercise for five days will help strengthen the pathways and get you a good start on finger control.

Remember, “Practice does not make perfect, but it does give you more confidence.” And, confidence is nice to have . . .

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