This is the second blog post in a series that I'm writing to help YOU to play the piano. I am writing imagining that you are a complete beginner, or maybe learned as a child and want to take it up again. Read my first post to give you a flavour of what's to come here.
In this post, I'm going to share the first foundation tool that you'll need before jumping in and playing your first piece. That is: fingers, fingers, fingers!
To be able to play a piece, you need to know that each finger on the hand is given a number from 1-5. The right and left hands are the same: the thumb is number 1. The index finger, number 2. The middle finger, 3. The ring finger 4 and the little finger is number 5.
Let’s just practise this and let it sink in. Hold your hands, palms up, in front of you. In your head, say each of the numbers, 1-5, slowly. So… 1. Now wiggle your thumbs. 2. Wiggle your index fingers. 3. Wiggle your middle fingers. 4. Wiggle your ring fingers. And 5. Wiggle your little fingers.
Don’t rush on.
This takes a little time, not least because you have to get used to calling your thumb a finger! That’s right. We’ll often say first finger when we mean the thumb! You're going to be learning to play Jingle Bells very soon. When you see the music, you'll see numbers on top of the notes and you need to be confident with the numbers so that you're not sat there for 30 seconds each time you have to change a finger!
So, keep practicing. Keep saying a number between 1-5 to yourself and wiggle those fingers! It will become natural soon enough!
Then when you are ready, place your hands on a table, palms up, imagine you have a ball beneath your fingers - have a look at this for example to see what your hands should look like and enjoy the piece! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uffjii1hXzU - take note from about 42 seconds where you see a lovely shot of Einaudi's hands. His arms and elbows are straight and his fingers curled. Make sure you're comfortable and shoulders are down)
Now for some 'air piano' (or 'table piano'!) Follow the numbers and press the correct right hand finger as you read them. If you can imagine the song in your head, all the better! If you can do this, there is only a small step to move to actually playing this on a piano!
I'd recommend playing a small segment at a time (more on this in a later post). But if you play a line a few times before moving on, you'll get into it.
Right Hand - 3 3 3 | 3 3 3 | 3 5 1 2 | 3 |
Jin-gle bells jin-gle bells. Jin-gle all the way.
4 4 4 4 | 4 3 3 3 3 | 3 2 2 3 | 2 5 |
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse op-en sleigh.
3 3 3 | 3 3 3 | 3 5 1 2 | 3 |
Jin-gle bells jin-gle bells. Jin-gle all the way.
4 4 4 4 | 4 3 3 3 3 | 5 5 4 2 | 1 |
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse op-en sleigh.
Well done! You've just gone a long way to being able to play the famous Jingle Bells tune on piano! Keep remembering my tip in the first post: don't give up. Don't doubt! Keep at it. You'll get there!
Next time you'll learn a few more important musical tools and then you'll be ready to put it all together and PLAY on the piano!
Until next time,
Julia