How should I finger bars 11 and 12? I have the Henle book and they recommend 5 4 for the first two notes of both bars. This makes sense when considering bars 10 and 13, but I find it very difficult, and it is much easier to play 5 3 then 4 3, though this makes the transition from 10 to 11 and 12 to 13 very awkward. I was wondering if my 4th and 5th fingers might strengthen? What should I do?
2 Answers
I assume that you are speaking of the one in the first book, not the second. I also assume that you are speaking of the right hand. Given those assumptions, this is what I would try first.
Starting at the beginning of bar 12: 4323 1323 4323 1434 and now for bar 13: 5323 1 and so on. Changing to 434 there makes it easier to set up for the drop of a 4th, even though it's a bit more awkward (taking the first note in 13 with 5, you have to be careful not to get jammed up) than using 323. You'll need to take most of the white notes up towards the fallboard, in between the black notes, so you're not going through hand contortions to get your fingers on the right notes.
Give that a try. The suggestion in your music probably assumes that you'll be taking the Eb with 2 instead of 1. Personally, I'm fine with using 1 on the black key there.
(Full disclosure, I mostly play harpsichord, not piano. Thus, I tend to think about fingerings as a harpsichordist would. Obviously Bach wrote this for harpsichord, but if you're playing it on piano there might be different considerations.)
I would do 5-3 and then 4-3 in the 11th and 12th measures respectively. Using 5-3 and 4-3 allows me to keep a consistent hand position for each measure. I would encourage you to think of each measure as its own harmonic world. At the start of each measure you "reset" your hand a tiny bit, moving your fingers to a hand position convenient for the next chord. Try not to focus too much on the speed of the sixteenth notes.
