BMIIWM | Keyboard Fingering Techniqes | Keyboard Lessons Online

Fingering plays a major role while handling any musical instrument, like how vocal cord is important for singing. Keyboard is the simplest of all musical instruments. If we have some basic musical talent, we can easily try and play some tunes even without learning fingering properly. But for playing higher tempos fluently without a fumble, we should learn and apply proper fingering techniques.

We normally use the right hand only for playing melody in any form of music. Left hand is used for playing chords. Hence we have to manage the entire song or tune with just 5 fingers on the right hand only. That is why we should learn the logic of fingering. Every finger we place on the keyboard should be done with a reason.

Finger numbers :
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thumb : 1
Index finger : 2
Middle finger : 3
Ring finger : 4
Little finger : 5

Fingering for simple phrases:

S R G M - 1 2 3 4
S R G M P - 1 2 3 4 5 for all white keys (1 2 3 4 1 if M is a black key)
S R G R S - 1 2 3 2 1
S R G M | P D - 1 2 3 4 | 1 2
S R G M | P D N - 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3
P D N S' - 1 2 3 4
P D N S' R' - 1 2 3 4 5 if R' is white (1 2 3 1 2 if R' is black)
S' N D P - 4 3 2 1 (or 1 3 2 1 while coming down from upper octave)

When there are 5 keys in a row, we use all the fingers to play it.
Eg., 1 2 3 4 | 5 for S R G M | P. But an important criteria is, 4th key and 5th key should not be black.
When there are 6 notes in a row, we use 1 2 3 4 for the first 4 notes, and 1 2 for the last 2 notes. We shift the Thumb from S to P in order to manage the 5th and 6th notes.
Eg., S R G M | P D - 1 2 3 4 | 1 2
Similarly, for playing 7 notes, we shift the thumb after 4 notes.
Eg., S R G M | P D N - 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3

We use the first 4 fingers initially, and if the melody goes further on the right side, we shift the thumb to the right side and shift the entire finger set to the right. While moving from the left side of the keyboard to the right side, thumb (finger no.1) should cross the other fingers from below, and while moving from the right side to left side, we bring the other fingers above the thumb and shift the entire hand set to the left side. Thumb should always move below the other fingers during any shifting. In otherwords, thumb is used as an 'axis' for shifting the finger set.

We often come across musical phrases moving in some pattern. Example., S R G M | R G M P | G M P D |..... and so on. To play such phrases effectively and faster, we should use a diffrent fingering. The normal fingering for this phrase is 1 2 3 4 | 2 3 4 5 | 3 4 1 2. Instead, we can use the fingering 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4. By making a small change in the fingering, we can play such phrases farter and with high accuracy.

In carnatic music, in jandai varisai, dhattu varisai, and alankarams, we can see such phrases.

Now we will discuss about the fingering for different ragas. Ragas are nothing but different permutation and combination of the different swaras. To handle the different ragas effectively, we make small changes in fingering from the regular usage.

We have given below fingering for a few phrases for some ragas.

Mohanam : S R G P D S' - S' D P G R S (all white keys)

S R G - P D S' : 1 2 3 - 1 2 4
S R G P : 1 2 3 5
S R G - P D : 1 2 3 - 1 2
S R G - P G R S : 1 2 3 - 5 3 2 1
P D - S' R' G' : 1 2 - 1 2 3
S R - G D P : 1 2 - 1 4 3
S R - G D P D : 1 2 - 1 2 1 2
P D - R' S' : 1 2 - 5 4
P D - G' R' S' : 1 2 - 4 3 1
G R S - d p : 3 2 1 - 2 1
R P - G R S ; 2 5 - 3 2 1

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