Music Therapy

Fingering, the system that designates each finger to a distinct number, is crucial to pianists. It serves as a basis to the pianists' learning a musical work, so pianists must use a fingering that is comfortable if they wish to master a work. Playing piano is the only musical instrument (other than organ) that requires complete dependence on the fingers (even the foot pedals are optional in many piano musical works). No other musical instrument relies on use of fingers as much as the piano.

The first lessons in learning how to play piano are usually on understanding how to use the fingers efficiently. Beginning students are quickly introduced to the concept of fingering. On the left hand, the pinky is represented by the number "5", the fourth finger by "4", the middle finger by "3", and the second finger by "2", and the thumb by "1". Fingerings on the right hand fingerings are an exact mirror image to that on the left hand. The pinky is represented by the number "5", the fourth finger by "4", the middle finger by "3", the second finger by "2", and the thumb by "1".

Piano instruction in learning new pieces typically takes on two extremes with regard to attention to fingering. In the first, fingering plays a very small role, and in this paper is dubbed Ð''ad-libbed fingering'. The second extreme is when teachers emphasize fingering on every note of a musical score, dubbed Ð''set fingering', by writing out the fingering of every note on the musical score. Whichever method the teacher chooses, it is important that they prepare their students for mastery of a work by first Ð''getting the music in the fingers'.

Through the first pedagogical form, students learn to apply their fingers to the notes of the musical score in an Ð''ad libbed' way. Whatever fingering is most comfortable to them, they figure out as they learn the music. Fingering is non-structured in this case, and the students have limitless freedom in choosing their own fingering. For beginning students, ad-libbed fingering is helpful by encouraging independent thinking of solutions to challenges. The keyboard, consisting of eighty-eight keys, almost half of which are black notes, and the other half, white notes; offers several possibilities for fingering. Some fingerings are more difficult to create than others. The hand position makes some fingerings more natural than others. For example, it would be silly to finger a musical passage in such a way that the Ð''2' follows Ð''3' when the actual physical distance between the two different notes is too far of a stretch; and much easier to follow the second fingering with the fourth or fifth fingering.

The other extreme in piano pedagogy, in which a fingering marks every note on the musical score, has both positive and negative sides. It gives the beginning piano student a head start by already taking care of fingering needs. It may, however, impede the student's ability to create his or her own fingering by having already revealed answers. Another negative outcome of set fingering is that the fingering already marked on the musical score may not suit the needs of the student perfectly. Where as in ad libbed fingering, the student