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I am begginer piano player. I am using Piano Marvel internet course to grasp basics, I want to find teacher when I feel more confident with the instrument.

What I am wondering about is fingerings on sheet music, see the image below: C major arpeggio fingering

The arpeggio in the lower octave is fingered 5-4-2-1 which is doable, but I would rather do it with 5-3-2-1 fingering, I feel much more comfortable with that.

Also, when playing faster chord progressions I sometimes finger some chords in different way than suggested by my course.

The question is: should I force myself to always finger like suggested? (because maybe otherwise I will learn bad habits, have problems later when playing harder pieces...??)

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    "I want to find teacher when I feel more confident with the instrument.": I'd advise to find a teacher that you're comfortable with, early on, for precisely these kind of questions. Don't wait until you're "comfortable" with the instrument.
    – user18490
    May 24, 2017 at 2:59
  • Practically, I'd use 5-3-2-1 for the left hand here: it avoids strain, making the arpeggio easier, thus more natural, thus sounding better. Don't force yourself into a given fingering, but do consider the suggested fingering strongly. (For example, this may be some etude that practices the 4-5 separation, but then only do it as long as you don't notice significant strain.)
    – user18490
    May 24, 2017 at 3:00
  • I'd also recommend finding a teacher that you're comfortable with. There are plenty that work with beginners your age. The reason is that bad habits are easy to form and difficult to correct - not specifically with this finger placement, but with any aspect of your playing. Learning how to do something correctly from the outset will save you a lot of time in the future.
    – fdomn-m
    May 24, 2017 at 10:29
  • My piano teachers always told me that the LH arpeggio fingering in places like that was 5-3-2-1.
    – Dekkadeci
    Dec 7, 2017 at 16:13

4 Answers 4

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Fingering is entirely crucial, yes, and the benefits flower over a long period of time. It is often difficult for a beginner piano player to understand why on an intuitive level, but here are a few reasons:

  1. Good fingerings make sure that there are always fingers available for the notes that you need next. This makes you more dexterous in the long run.
  2. Good fingerings promote hand health and help avoid repetitive motion injuries.
  3. Good fingerings make you a more reliable player. Sure, you may be able to get through your right-hand C-Major scale by playing 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2, 1, but you'll find yourself messing up that 5 to 1 transition about 20% of the time, and no amount of practice will seem to permanently fix it. This is where students will start to notice a problem, but often be unable to connect it back to their fingering.
  4. Good fingering promotes good tone. For instance, you may find that the marked fingerings help you avoid using the heavy thumb for light notes in the middle of a run. Or, using our odd fingering example from number 3, good fingering will prevent the break in sound that our funny finger jump would create.
  5. Good fingering already takes into account many likely patterns of where music will go next, leaving your hand flexibly able to get to the next place it needs to go.

Because of 1, 3, and 5, students with poor fingering habits find sight-reading, already staggeringly hard to master at the best of times, to become an almost insurmountable obstacle to progress at an advanced level.

Sometimes fingering needs to be modified based on your actual hand, but at the beginning, that is where your teacher comes in. My students have traditionally come in with terrible instincts about when modifications are needed (and what they should be).

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Fingering is important, but there is usually more than one "good" fingering for any passage, and what is "good" for you depends on the size of your hands.

If you prefer 5 3 2 1 for the left hand fingering, that's fine when playing pieces, but you should practise 5 4 2 1 until both fingerings feel equally comfortable. Possibly the reason you prefer 5 3 2 1 is because your 4th finger is weaker and not so independent as the others (especially on your left hand if you are right-handed) and you need to work on those basic technical things right from the start, rather than just avoiding them.

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Fingering is crucial when learning piano - and lots of other instruments. However, it's more productive to know why certain fingerings are important. Sometimes they are just the product of a helpful printer, sometimes they are the only fingerings that work in that situation.

Working out what is the best fingering for you is the most important, as you're the one using your fingers. You may well find a better fingering for something than the one suggested - better for you. And the process of discovering that is the important part. Analysing the piece means looking at the phrasing, timing, notes, and how that all fits together. Your way, giving due consideration to what fingering, will help you understand and learn.

Use the suggested fingering as a start point, but by experimentation, change it, if needed, to one that suits you better. So, look at options, try them out, and plump for the best ones for you.

And, yes, 5 3 2 1 is a better fingering for most people, l.h. of C.

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Unlike the other answers, I do not think that the fingering is crucial. You should keep your fingerings dynamic. What fingering you use should be what you feel is most comfortable. For the 5-2-4-1 in the left hand, I too would play that as 5-3-2-1. It just feels more natural. However, lets say we raised the G after by an octave (leaving the E where it is). Here I would not maintain the fingering of 5-3-2-1, because how do you reach the G? 5-3-2-1-1-5 is really awkward, with the thumb jumping a 5th and the pinky jumping to the E. 5-3-2-1-2-5 is better, but you're contorting your hand strangely for the second-last note. Here I would go with 5-4-3-2-1-5, because the first five notes come in fluid motions, and the sixth, only a short jump with the pinky not already playing a key

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