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I am in the process of teaching myself piano, and I would like to learn how to play Speechless from Aladdin. The problem is fingering is not provided and I am not sure what the correct/most efficient fingering would be for the left hand. Any suggestions? enter image description here

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  • How big are your hands? Depending on your hand size, you can either play the E and F in the lower staff of Bar 6 with your left hand or your right hand, for example.
    – Dekkadeci
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 7:00
  • Self teaching is fine, and you'll also have to teach yourself how to use fingers. Whatever you can reach comfortably is the answer. If there are very long notes that can't be held on to, use the damper pedal.
    – Tim
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 8:18
  • Yeah, that really long note in the beginning seems to be a good candidate for some pedaling.
    – user45266
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 3:38

2 Answers 2

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A standard fingering for the left hand beginning at the beginning of your example in meas. 5 would be 5,2,1, then hold the 5 for m.6 and move the thumb (1) up for the E4 and F#4. Same fingering, 5,2,1 for each of the succeeding measures. (If you don't know, fingering for the piano starts with your thumbs as 1, outward to pinkies as 5.)

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Keep in mind that your thumb (1 in piano fingering terms) is the most versatile. It does not have as strong downward force as 2 and 3 (index and middle), but it can quickly and easily traverse laterally across 4 or 5 notes without repositioning your hand, while the other fingers can only do 2, 3 if you're flexible. This is why the thumb is the finger that is crossed over in scales and arpeggios (although some of Chopin's works will have you crossing 4 over 5 and 5 under 3 and all kinds of other fun stuff...but I digress). A good rule of thumb (pun definitely intended) when deciding on fingering is to never play adjacent notes with the same finger, but the thumb, due to its extra flexibility, can be an exception if needed, especially in slower passages.

So, as for your piece, in the order they appear: 5, 2, 1 | 1, 1 | 5, 2, 1, 5, 1 | 2/5, 1 | 5, 2, 1 | 1, 1 | 5, 2, 1, 1 | 5

Hope it helps!

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