The Pianist’s Guide to Fingering

Because Playing Piano Shouldn’t Be Painful

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For a limited time,

(Regularly $247)

When you imagine yourself as a pianist, it’s a sensational dream.

You might imagine yourself playing quick and illustrious flourishes across the entire length of the piano, impressing your friends and family, connecting deeply with the people listening, and changing the world with your music.

But reality is different.

You may not think of the many hours it takes sitting in the practice room just doing repetitive exercises and wondering if you’re even doing it the right way.

On top of that, you might be in physical pain because of that repetitive motion or doing things the wrong way.

After a few minutes of playing, your wrists may feel stuck or even swollen. Maybe your forearms tingle painfully.

You know something’s not right, but when you ask your teacher at your next lesson, her answer is, “Just take a break from playing when you feel pain.”

You feel pain the moment you start playing.

Or even when you’re not playing.

It’s one thing to work hard for hours when you know you’re doing it the right way for the outcome you want. But when you have inexplicable pain, and you’re afraid of developing an irreversible injury, and your teacher can’t offer suggestions that actually help, it seems more reasonable to just give up.

That vision of you—fingers flying across the keys, heart free, and a huge smile on your face—is out of your reach.

I’ve never had a teacher who cared about piano fingerings.

As long as I was playing the right notes at the right time and was learning the right amount of material, I was fine. This was even through my BA in Piano Performance. This was all well and good, but because of the lack of attention paid to fingerings (and technique by extension), I developed tendonitis in both wrists (thumb and pinky side!).

I thought I might have to give up piano entirely.

Like many new music graduates, I searched for a career outside of piano. But my search was for a different reason.

I couldn’t play any more.

The one activity that made me feel connected, less alone, the one thing that kept me going when I felt I couldn’t, was something I couldn’t do anymore.

Like any normal human, I sulked and cried for a bit. It was tough, but I kept moving forward.

Instead of giving up hope, I searched for a solution.

Months later I learned that good technique and good fingering could actually help my tendonitis heal faster than if I just rested completely. Therefore, I began the journey to better understand what good fingering has to do with hand health.

Turns out, technique relies on fingering, and fingering relies on technique.

You can’t have one without the other.

I researched great pedagogues and pianists like Chopin and developed my own framework for ensuring my fingerings were solid, so my technique could be comfortable and strong.

When I implemented this framework, I jumped up 3 levels almost immediately.

According to IMSLP I jumped from an intermediate to advanced pianist, my tendonitis healed completely, I could play for longer, and playing the piano felt physically good (like getting a massage or stretching after a hard work out). It was so relaxing, and I started progressing more efficiently.

The vision of my future at the piano came back into focus.

I could keep playing. And I could play better than I ever thought I’d be able to.

And I was excited to practice. I couldn’t keep a smile off my face.

There were more tears, but they were tears of joy.

Adjusting my understanding of piano fingerings saved my hands and changed my life.

I didn’t have to give up piano.

I got to live the life I wanted.

And I get to share these skills with all pianists, regardless of level.

You can change your life too.

The Pianist’s Guide to Fingering boils the connection between fingering, technique, and artistry down to a set of goals that are supported by strategies, so that any pianist of any level can enhance their time at the piano.

You have a chance to make playing feel easier, more deliberate, and create true joy.

If you could pay a little money to do this in any other area of your life, wouldn’t you?

If fingering is such an important concept, why don’t most students learn this process in their lessons?

1. It’s a lot for beginners to take in!
   
   Going through this process means understanding nuanced information on top of basic technique and learning to read sheet music. Most teachers and method books for hundreds of years have opted for focusing on one thing at a time: basic five-finger patterns, then reading music, and then maybe learning to move your hand around the piano.
   
   The issue with this is that many students stop lessons after those beginning years, and these students later become teachers.
   
   
2. It takes more effort on the teacher’s side of lessons to teach the art of fingering on top of all of the other material beginners need to learn to get anywhere in piano.
   
   It’s a delicate balancing act of helping students feel progress in areas of successfully playing actual music they enjoy, having solid technique, and learning how to read sheet music, so the art of fingering often gets left out.
   
   
3. Curriculum, method books, and instructors don’t show the connection between fingering and artistry.
   
   Instead, they just give you the “right answer” and show that artistry is something separate: dynamics, rubato, tempo, etc.
   
   In actuality, the fingerings you choose are fundamental to cultivating musicality, but that connection isn’t as clear as many musicians imagine.

What if I told you there isn’t just one correct fingering?

Does that surprise you?

What if I told you that there are multiple good options for fingering a passage of music, and it’s up to each individual pianist to choose what fingering best suits their own hand anatomy and serves their personal interpretation of the music?

Isn’t that a lot to think about?

Good fingering achieves 3 goals.

It is comfortable, consistent, and musically expressive.

It ties together with solid technique,

It’s important because it:

• Prevents slips
• Is more economical, meaning you can play more quickly
• Helps with memory
• Plays a role in phrasing, articulation, dynamic, and other aspects of musical expression
• Makes playing feel good
• Prevents injury

Professional pianists consider all of these aspects when they choose fingerings for themselves.

That makes it sound complicated, but all of these aspects actually allows your music-making to be simpler, more enjoyable, and unique to you. When you have a solid set of fingering strategies to fall back on that led you to choose one fingering over another, no one can tell you that you picked the “wrong” fingering. And because of that you’ll have more confidence in your identity as a musician.

You’ll learn more efficiently, feel healthier, and know that you’re practicing the “right way.”

You’ll progress much quicker in your piano journey.

You’ll avoid injury and find freedom at the piano.

The easiest way to succeed is to use a solid framework.

The Pianist’s Guide to Fingering provides that framework.

This course codifies the instincts for fingering that professional pianists eventually pick up over time. It saves you time in the long run by teaching fingering alongside basic technique and artistry in an organic way.

Instead of relying just on instinct, this course teaches you how professional pianists, with decades of experience, make informed decisions based upon the list above and more.

These 3 goals are easy to remember, and for each one, I provide strategies to support those goals.

I also show how these categories help you memorize quickly and solidly, practice more efficiently (and less tediuosly!), and truly enjoy your time at the piano. The Pianist’s Guide to Fingerings helps you get closer to that vision of you dazzling your friends and family in a way that makes sense.

It’s systematic.

You don’t have to just trust that your teacher knows best. You get a clear path from foundational techniques through advanced expressive approaches.

Limited time
Regularly $247

Course Content and Sample Lessons

Beginning on August 6, new lessons will be posted weekly. Once each is posted, it’s available to you for life!

Pricing

The cost of one-on-one lessons with an experienced piano instructor who might teach you the fundamental skills found in this course will run you at minimum, $50 for 30 minutes of their time.

That means, you’ll get a total of 1 hour of instruction for the same price as The Pianist’s Guide to Fingering, which includes over 30 videos that you can return to any time, downloadable sheet music and exercises of everything discussed, access to a helpful community of pianists who are growing with you, and access to personal help from me.

I’ll let you be the judge. Is this a good deal?

Limited-Time Offer

Plus, if you purchase within 3 days, you’ll get all of this for just $47! That’s 80% off!

Once the timer runs out, you’ll miss out on this deal.

Included Course Extras

Before time runs out!

Frequently Asked Questions