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Finger Organization Games for Kids
The best way to introduce fingering is to play finger organization games which teach kids to use the five fingers as a unit. Fingering is the process whereby a group of fingers are selected for a group of notes. It is one of the key organizing factors for a pianist, and is what makes playing quickly and fluidly possible. Young kids start out jabbing with the index finger, which I permit to get the process going.
Later, we need to broach the subject of grouping the fingers. Kids usually understand the idea of the fingers as a team, much like a basketball team. There are strong fingers and stronger players, and then weak fingers and weaker players. For this reason, treating the fingers as a group is difficult both physically and intellectually for kids. Many kids put up fierce resistance to grouping the fingers.
The Thumb Becomes The Leader, Not The Index
The three strongest fingers are the thumb, index and third (of the right hand). I concentrate on training those first. Thus all our energy is concentrated on getting the first three fingers to act as a group. I use comparisons such as legs walking, staircases, anything that will get them wiggling those three fingers in a row.
I always ask kids which fingers they would instinctively use to turn a doorknob, maybe asking them to go open a door. They use the first three fingers of the right hand.
Often they need guidance to start using the thumb as the first in the group. They are instinctively used to their index finger. But the thumb is strong, and all children have an easy time starting to use it as the primary finger in the hand group. The thumb is shorter than the other fingers and to a child it is rather strange and useless.
You may have to literally take their fingers and move them like a puppet to get the idea across, and I often do this, as all children respond when you gently push the fingers in the proper way so they feel the muscle from the inside. Show, rather than tell. If they don’t understand the hand position required for the thumb, move their fingers into position.
Piano Is Easy
Play Fingers In The Abstract, Off The Keyboard
I also have them play the fingers as a group outside of the piano keyboard, on a book, any flat surface. This is to defuse the complexity of the keyboard and show them that the fingers are really involved in a simple pattern. I also use the game of having them hold their fingers in the correct position and I push the fingers down in the correct order, once again giving them a physical idea of what the passage requires in terms of finger movement.
Fourth and Fifth Fingers
Look at your fingers as you grab for a doorknob or pencil and you will see that the dominant fingers are the first three, thumb index and third.
REFERENCES
Fingering
What Is Fingering?
Piano Fingering Diagram
One-Finger Johnny
Developing Children’s Piano Finger Instincts
Exploring Fingering
Kid’s Finger Olympics
When Is Fingering Necessary?
Piano Fingering for Kids
Children’s Piano Fingering Strategy
Piano Fingering for Preschool Kids
Kid’s Piano Fingering 101
Make Piano Fingering Logical
Piano Fingering for the Very Young
Piano Finger Numbers Worksheet
Fingering and Familiar Songs
