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Play tunes!

Close fingering



The drawing above shows which fingers of the right hand play which notes with close fingering. The thumb is number one and it plays note G. The fourth finger plays note C. C is the white key just before two black keys on the keyboard. The little finger is five and it plays note D. That is one of two close fingering positions, the G position. The other is the D position. In the D position, the thumb, finger one, plays D; the pointer plays E; the middle finger plays F; the fourth finger plays note G; and the little finger plays A.

The two close fingering positions overlap each other. That gives each finger a choice of two or more notes to play.

Find your place on a keyboard by looking at the black keys and how they are grouped. The black keys are in groups of two and three. Note C is a white key just before and beside any group of two black keys. Note F is a white key just before and beside any group of three black keys.


On the piano or other keyboard instrument, put the thumb of the right hand over but not touching note middle C. Put the pointer finger over note E, the middle finger over F, the next finger over G and the little finger over A. Hold the fingers like that, fairly close together and over the white keys.

In the second close position, practise playing notes D, E, F, G and A one after the other.

Practise playing notes D and C with the thumb, over and over.

Practise playing notes A and B with the little finger.

Play A and Bflat over and over.

When you are reading and playng a piece of music with closed fingering, anchor the thumb over note D and the little finger over A. When you play note C with the thumb, quickly move back to D. After you play B or Bb with the little finger, quickly move back to A. Otherwise you may forget whether you are on C or D, or on A or B. If you look down at the keyboard, you may lose your place of the sheet music.

Play notes D to B over and over while keeping the thumb anchord over D. With close playing, keep the thumb anchored over note D.

Melodies or tunes flow into higher and lower notes than those of that middle octave. To shift to higher notes, cross the thumb under the pointer finger and put it over note G. Put the other fingers on A, B, C and D. To cross over to even higher notes, cross the thumb under the pointer to note D.

Practise playing those same notes again from D in the higher octave.

Move back down to the G position again by crossing the little finger under from note A to D.

Then move from the middle C octave to lower notes by crossing the little finger over from A to D again.

Practise crossing over, up and down the keyboard, from one octave to another. The thumb goes over notes D and G. There is only one pattern for the fingers. That pattern is chord pattern one but with the fingers close together.

Play chord F7, that is Fmajor7, with pattern four. Fingers go on the first, third, fifth and seventh intervals. Now change F7 to close-position G by moving the thumb from note F to note G and the little finger from E to D.

When the fingers of the right are in D position, they play one set of notes but when they are in G position, they play another set. Learn which fingers play which notes in each position.

Thumb - D C G F
Pointer – E A
Middle – F B
Fourth – G C
Little – A B D E

Learn to move quickly and smoothly from position D to position G and back. Move up the keyboard by crossing the thumb over to note D or G. Move back down the keyboard by crossing the fourth finger over to note C or G. Finger four plays notes C and G. Practise.

As you read through this book, stop and practise each exercise with your hands on the keyboard. Otherwise it may be hard to understand.

This drawing shows which fingers play which notes in both close fingering postions.

With practice, the brain learns which position the fingers are in, D or G, and which notes each finger plays in that position. The brain recognises each note seen on the sheet music and plays it with the right finger. Close fingering like that lets the player keep his eyes on the sheet music without glancing down and losing his place on the staff.

G position starts with the thumb on G and the little finger on D. D position starts with the thumb on D and the little finger on A. Practise playing notes G and D in G position and D and A in D position.

This is how the two crossover fingering positions overlap on the keyboard.

This is how the notes overlap.

Draw a big right hand on a sheet of paper. Write the letters D and G on the thumb. Write the letters for all the other notes on the fingers in the drawing. Or save the drawing above and print it on paper.

Practise music reading and close fingering by playing the notes in these drawings.

A keyboard player marks the sheet music with a few tiny crosses here and there to show where to cross over between positions D and G. Marking up the music is explained later in this book.

Find some sheet music for a simple tune which you like and know well. Practise sight-reading and playing that tune.

Slowly you learn what each note on the staff sounds like and which finger to play it with. Whether you use one finger or the other to play a note depends on the other notes around that note. If you are in D position, for example, and playing notes D, F and A then back to D again, stay in D position and do nor cross over to G position. If you are in D position and playing notes D, A, C up to higher D and F, cross over to G position.

Mark the staff with a tiny cross to show where to crossover from one position D to position G or from G to D.

As the right hand is playing melody with either close or open fingering, the left is usually playing block chords, that is chords of three or four notes played at the same time.

While learning, do not combine or switch between close and open fingering. There is no need to do that. Practise the two methods separately. After you have learned both fingering techniques, you will see how they overlap and can be combined.



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